Windows 10 I would like to take back control of my OneDrive

Lighthouse

Senior Member
The worst mistake I ever made was to turn on OneDrive files On-Demand. Not only am I a bit skittish about everything being saved to the cloud, but I don't need to free up space on my PC.

So what I would like to do is simply turn off the auto-sync feature. I want to be able to create a file and store it on my local PC and then if I want to copy it to my OneDrive, I will do so manually. In other words, I want to use my OneDrive like I use Dropbox. The little cloud and green checkmark icons next to folders don't really help.

Yes, I read this article. I still don't get it.
 
Thanks for your reply. Would it simply be a matter of unlinking my PC in the settings?

OneDrive unlink.png
 
I still have OneDrive in my File Explorer list.

onedrive1.JPG


But when I click on it I am prompted to re-sync OneDrive to my PC, which I don't want.

I would like to get back to a simple file structure like I have on my work computer.

Onedrive2.jpg



But this is an improvement and I can live with not having OneDrive automatically back up everything to the cloud. In fact at work we use Dropbox but all Dropbox files are shown separately from local PC files. It just seems more logical that way. But I guess OneDrive files are both in the cloud and saved on my PC, at least the files I select with a green checkmark.

Thanks again.
 
In the "Settings" tab, you can Uncheck “Start OneDrive automatically when I sign in to Windows” if you do not wish to start OneDrive. Next, you want to unlink OneDrive from the PC. For that, go to the "Account" tab and select “Unlink this PC”. This action will stop OneDrive syncing.
 
OK, thanks. I obviously want to keep files in OneDrive, just use the web interface like Neemobeer says. I'll follow the above instructions and that should take care of it. To make sure, my files will stay in the cloud, correct? Like I mentioned before, I don't want to delete OneDrive, just get it off my PC.
 
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