Onedrive issues on Windows 11

Copper Contributor

I have updated my windows to 11 (build 22000.132) and I am experiencing an issue on OneDrive. When I open the file explorer and click on the OneDrive folders, it takes long time to open my folders and sometimes it even freezes. Every time I click on the folder, it appears to be loading (as the mouse cursor would become a little small blue circle). Even tough I keep my folders and files on my local drive, the issue still persists. The folder loading behavior is normal on other non-OneDrive related folders in my local drives. 

 

I experienced similar issues on my NAS-related folders and I suspect this issues would exist in network drives. 

99 Replies

I am facing same issue - I have performed clean install for onedrive but no luck.

@Matthew888 

 

Hello, I had a similar issue in Windows 11 File Explorer, with a "blue circle" mouse cursor appearing when trying to access to any file located in OneDrive, blocking a correct file access. In my case it was due to an issue (conflict?) with the desktop Apple iCloud Drive application. It could be fixed using the indications mentioned in the post below, although originally the post concerned Windows 10:

 

'As long as I was trying to access files, if I had iCloud Drive downloaded and signed in but not running on my computer, the glitch would happen.

Either opening iCloud Drive or uninstalling it makes OneDrive work great!'

Window freezes on opening cloud files - Super User

@Johnc22 Its nothing to do with iCloud. I don't have iCloud on mine (just Google Drive additionally to OneDrive) and got this issue. 

 

As I looked, Microsoft is aware of it and the fix has been published to Insiders. Shame that they do not prioritise it and push it to the public ASAP.

For sure they need community to test First, they need to be sure that others problem won't appear together with this solution...

I have solved the problem on my problematic PC by falling back to W10 however the problem still persists in W10 then I reset my W10 completely then reinstall back my applications (including onedrive) before doing another W11 upgrade. This time the W11 folder browser worked normally.

Sorry, but thats not a solution.
It won't work as a solution for me,
I can't do a clean install, I have so many setup to do that I spend a week doing that.

This is still an issue for me on 22000.282 after doing an in place upgrade for corporate testing.  If this isn't resolved I am going to have a few hundred really grumpy people (and techs) as this rolls out further.

Exactly. Same situation here. Hope Thursday/Friday will great us with another Cumulative Update to fix at least this issue.

@HoneyPercent 

Nice workaround, it seems more responsive in fullscreen. Before this I tried nearly everything (reinstalling onedrive, windows 11 reset) but nothing seems to be a real solution to that. Moreover my OneDrive clients (personal and business) are both using a lot of CPU without reason.

 

Definitely the worst Windows Upgrade in my life (and I expirenced the ones for WinME and Vista...)

@HoneyPercent This works for me. I'm on Windows 11 Version 21H2, OS Build 22000.258. Anyway, if you pause the sync function, file explorer will just operate as smooth as usual.

 

This issue also perhaps have something to do with option "Save space and download files as you use them" in OneDrive Settings. I have two drives, one of them running with that enabled and the other disabled. If I pause the drive with that option disabled, file explorer will operate normally, while on the other hand, the drive with that option enabled doesn't seem to affect file explorer's performance at all, whether it is paused or not.

This is an issue for me as well. I upgraded from Win10 to Win11 at the weekend. Noticed the slow Windows Explorer issue and eventually tracked it down to OneDrive being the culprit. I am running both a personal OneDrive and business OneDrive.

The only work around I've found to get Explorer back working is to:
* Clean reboot and login
* Wait for all startup process to settle down
* Wait for both my OneDrive icons to finish syncing
* Right-click and Close OneDrive on both icons in the notification tray
* Start a Windows Explorer session and ensure speed is back to normal
* Start the OneDrive App manually

Explorer seems to behave now until the next reboot.

Hoping there is a fix coming soon for this... I use Explorer extensively.

Rgds
Chris

Hey Chris,
Very interesting observation. I just shut down OneDrive and re-open after like 1 minute and see improvement. I will double-check through that day if that permanent (until reboot).

Is there any ETA for rolling out this issue fix from Microsoft?

Hope Microsoft will sort this out quickly, but don't hold your breath for that.

 

I just dropped small .bat file into Start-up folder

"%USERPROFILE%\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs\Startup"

folder that will shutdown and turn back on OneDrive just after logging in into system.

 

Call it as you want, for example onedrive-temp-fix.bat with following content:

@echo off
"%USERPROFILE%\AppData\Local\Microsoft\OneDrive\OneDrive.exe" /shutdown
start "" "%USERPROFILE%\AppData\Local\Microsoft\OneDrive\OneDrive.exe"

@Matthew888  just yesterday was released Windows 11 for my laptop (Lenovo E580), I have de same problem navegation and manipulating the files in onedrive syncronizated folders. Since Windows 10 I used the new app OneDrive and this work ok on Windows 11, but is necesary the same experience in th File Explorer. 

Can confirm, that this solution works well. I worked through the day without noticing any issues and automatic start-up will deal for me until an official update is done.
I have exactly the same problem which started as soon as I upgraded to Win 11. None of the suggested fixes or workarounds have solved the issue for me. This is an appalling situation. Accessing work folders and files is so slow, my work productivity is grinding to a halt. Please get it fixed Microsoft ASAP. this is really hurting.

The solution described here: https://techcommunity.microsoft.com/t5/windows-11/onedrive-issues-on-windows-11/m-p/2914024/highligh...) worked for me (turning off OneDrive and turning back on the first run), however, there are other factors that may take to consideration. For example hard drive. If you don't have SSD drive, then time to upgrade.

Also worth restoring the old view of File Explorer known from Windows 10 (1) and the old layout of the context menu (2) which will improve speed altogether.

The method (1) and (2) I described on my blog (in Polish):
https://dariusz.wieckiewicz.org/windows-11-dzien-po-dniu/

You can translate the page or just download two registry files that need to be run to add changes. Then reboot the computer and see if that help.
- https://dariusz.wieckiewicz.org/pobierz/file_explorer_old_behaviour.reg.7z
- https://dariusz.wieckiewicz.org/pobierz/file_explorer_right_click.reg.7z

Assume that you add Automation to shutdown OneDrive on start into Startu-up folder?

Yes I installed the .bat file and no difference. I'm not fond of installing registry settings that are not documented. The only temporary workaround is to use File Explorer full-screen. That works as fast as it should normally do, but it is far from ideal because I usually move files around between 2 or more instances of File Explorer, so even this workaround is slow from a productivity point of view.