Removing an account from OneDrive for Android

Brass Contributor

Hi All,

 

I'm expecting that this should be relatively straightforward but unfortunately my google-fu hasn't located an answer and I don't have an Android device.

 

End users OneDrive for Android app is retaining his old work/organisation account (in addition to his new work account).. is there an easy way for him to remove his old work account?

 

PLease advise.

36 Replies

Hi @Counie,

 

Quickest way to do this is click on the OneDrive app, on the bottom right you will see a tab called 'Me'. From here you will see sign-out at the bottom of the list.

 

You'll need to ensure that the account you want to move is selected first (you can confirm this by clicking in the top left as soon as you open the app, if this is a work account it will be a briefcase icon).

 

Thanks,

James

@James Parle 

 

Been trying to eliminate a OneDrive account w/o success. And I can't sign out of account in OneDrive as that option is grayed out. The other OneDrive account the Sign Out option is active. Here's the whole story:

 

On my Android device (Samsung Galaxy Note10+) I have two one drive accounts I've been using: one a school account and the other a personal account and have been doing so for a long time now without issue.

 

For some reason, another personal account I have with Microsoft now keeps showing up in OneDrive and, therefore, OneDrive won't allow me to sign in to the account I want to use.

 

I've tried deleting account in phone's settings but it keeps coming back. So, I've gone into Apps Settings and Forced Stop on OneDrive, Disabled, Cleared Cache and Data, deleted all OneDrive accounts but, after restarting OneDrive, the unwanted account pops back up again.

 

Hi @James Parle 

 

I'm having the problem @Counie described (the post to which you replied). But in my case, I'm the end-user.

 

When I click the profile icon in the upper left-hand corner of the File Explorer window of the Android OneDrive app, it lists three accounts. The last is the one I want to fully remove.

 

Two Accounts in a Signed-In State

  1. My personal Microsoft Account
  2. My enterprise Office 365 Account

One Account in a Signed-Out State

  • An OnMicrosoft.Com Account I've used in the past

 

What happens as I follow your instructions

  • Before letting me select the OnMicrosoft.Com account in the upper left-hand corner, Android OneDrive makes me sign in to it.
  • After doing so, I sign out of it (as you instruct) in the lower right-hand corner of the Android OneDrive app window.
  • At that point, on checking the account drop-down list accessible via tapping on the profile icon in the upper left-hand corner of the app window, I find I'm back where I started.
    • ---> The same three accounts are shown as described above, with the same signed-in/signed-out statuses! :suprised:
    • The situation fails to improve when I follow @Angstromm's procedure.

Thank you in advance for your help!

 

Kind regards,

 

Paul

I have the same problem. Looking forward to an answer!

@Counie 

 

I had the same problem removing an account from OneDrive -- here's what worked for me:

 

  1. Open the new Office app (I had installed it a while back and removed the old Word, Excel, PowerPoint apps)
    1. Tap your profile icon (top-left corner)
    2. Tap "Settings" (under "More")
    3. The problem OneDrive account shows with a warning triangle and a red X on the right
    4. Tap the red X to remove the service
  2. Open the OneDrive app
    1. Tap "Me" bottom right corner
    2. Tap "Settings"
    3. Tap the account name that you want to remove
    4. Tap "SIGN OUT" (top right corner) and confirm
    5. The account is now removed from OneDrive
    6. Celebrate!

That's what worked for me after much faffing around -- I hope it works for you all too!

 

And I'll take this opportunity to mention a site that I run: the 365 Training Portal -- it's an attempt at organizing the many Microsoft 365 resources that are out there -- I got tired of trying to use bookmarks/favorites. Maybe you'll find it useful too?

 

Good luck with the OneDrive thing -- let us know if it worked for you!

 

Graham

Well, I'm sorry to report that the "removed account" came back -- so back to the old drawing board it is!

@Graham McHugh 

unfortunately, tried it as well but didn't work. Let's see who comes up with a solution first. 

 

Thanks anyway.

@Graham McHugh 

 

I had success by following your instructions, and then:

  1. Uninstalling OneDrive
  2. Resetting Office data one more time (for good measure)
  3. Reinstalling OneDrive

@Deleted 

 

You just inspired me to have another go at it, come to find that the account that I had tried to remove from OneDrive actually is gone now. I guess there was a back-end issue that we'll never understand. :)

 

Regardless, I'm glad that worked for you!

 

Cheers,

 

Graham

I recently closed my yahoo account which was also my Onedrive account. I'm trying to sign out of Onedrive on my samsung galaxy a51 phone. The account email shows I'm logged into the yahoo account that I have closed. It will not permit me to sign out. It's grayed out. All I want to do is use Onedrive on my phone with my new account. It won't allow me to add it saying I am m logged into that account already. This is frustrating. I've went into the system apps and force stop and cleared all data, but it comes back. I can't even log into my yahoo account...it's closed! Yet, Onedrive still keeps it open. I'm so confused. Someone please help me.
I'm having the exact same issue. The email account for my onedrive is an account that is closed. I can't even login to it, yet onedrive still shows it . This is aggravating to say the least! If you or anyone has a solution, please let me know.

@jimmyfreno1000 

 

Hi,

 

Thanks for responding!

 

While your post is very much appreciated, as stated in the initial post, attempts were made to delete the unwanted account and it kept returning. So while I know that your post was intended to be helpful it's unfortunately not a solution that works in this instance.

 

Here again are the options that work for this particular issue (a known conflict btwn OneDrive accounts and Samsung account):

 

There are several solutions posted above, all amounting to the same thing: Sign out of your Samsung account. Here are the solutions posted so far:

 

Solution for Samsung Phones:

So, this is on a Samsung phone (Note10+). Samsung said i had to sign out of, or delete my Samsung account. It's linked, somehow, with OneDrive and messes things up. As soon as i got rid of that account, OneDrive started behaving correctly.

Or:

 

What I did to fix it THIS time is logged into my Samsung account online and then went to "Services" and "Unlinked" my microsoft account.  Then I was able to go back to my OneDrive app and viola, I could log out.

 

Or:

 

went to Accounts and backups in Settings and selected Accounts then found my Samsung account to selected it.  Then selected Apps and services and there's Connected Apps in there you select and Disconnect from Microsoft Account.  Once disconnected went back to OneDrive app and able to Sign Out without it being grayed out anymore and able to sign in under new Microsoft account. 

 

Disclaimer i found this soultion on another post and just posted for you guys as this works

@nitesh28  My Samsung account is important to me, as I have 4 Samsung Devices, so my question is would I able to add my Samsung account back after having deleted to make OneDrive work correctly?

Yes you can link your Samsung account again, but it will be locked again, so everytime you want to change your onedrive you have to unlink your Samsung account and relink it after.

Hope that solves your problem.

@nitesh28 Although this was not quite the right fix for me, it did point me in the right direction.  I had not realised that my Microsoft account being linked to my Samsung account was preventing the update to OneDrive.  Once I removed the link, I was able to sign out of OneDrive and sign into the correct account.  Wow - I am so relieved to get it sorted.  So thank you!

@Graham McHugh this solved it. by removing the Microsoft service.. then clear cache & storage of the OneDrive app. then relaunch app then reconnect / relink the Microsoft OneDrive service on the mobile settings.

i solved it bois
jus go into settings, accounts and backup, accounts look for one drive , and remove account
you can thank me later :)
If you are a samsung user and stuck in removing the Microsoft account being added automatically, then you should do this trick which worked for me.

1. Go to Settings
2. Click on your Account pic (samsung linked account pic)
3. Scroll to the bottom ( in the latest update )
4. Linked accounts
5. Unlink the Microsoft account

You are done!
Hello microsoft!! Please resolve this? Why cant u all leave it the way it is instead of annoying millions of customers? It is so annoying, im having trauma if my phone asked to update.