Solved Can't move Folders out from under onedrive

Trying to move Desktop, Documents and Downloads from under account\OneDrive to just account\ as follows:

Clicked on Properties for Documents

Shows it's in C:\Users\ztruk\OneDrive\Documents. Click on the Location tab.

Click on Move. Navigate to new location, select that folder. I selected my account folder under Users.

Then I added Documents as the target folder after account name then clicked on Apply.



Click on Yes
Click on Yes
I get this error message every time. How do I fix this?

Edit: Same thing happens when I try to move Pictures

OneDrive folders cannot be moved
Open up OneDrive and each of the folders Documents, Pictures etc separately. Select all the files and Copy them and open the named folder in your User files (ie) Documents or whatever and Paste the files into there.
If you don't use it, you can Unlink OneDrive from syncing your files
Or you can Uninstall it.

How do I get the damned folders out from under Onedrive? I've turned off sync, removed the folders from being synced by Onedrive but I still can get the ones under c:\Users\ztruk to be my Desktop, Documents, Downloads, Pictures folders.
I can't even delete them.

See if this video helps....

Hello Rich,

Just to confirm, did you turn off backing up these folders to OneDrive like below?


If so, then you could try option three below to restore the default folder location.

• Move or Restore Default Location of Desktop Folder in Windows 11
• Move or Restore Default Location of Documents Folder in Windows 11 Tutorial
• Move or Restore Default Location of Downloads Folder in Windows 11
• Move or Restore Default Location of Music Folder in Windows 11
• Move or Restore Default Location of OneDrive Folder in Windows 11
• Move or Restore Default Location of Pictures Folder in Windows 11
• Move or Restore Default Location of Saved Games Folder in Windows 11
• Move or Restore Default Location of Searches Folder in Windows 11
• Move or Restore Default Location of Videos Folder in Windows 11

garyb0125 said:

See if this video helps....

Click to expand...

What video???

Brink said:

Hello Rich,

Just to confirm, did you turn off backing up these folders to OneDrive like below?

Turn On or Off OneDrive Folder Backup Syncing Across Windows 11 Devices

This tutorial will show you how to turn on or off OneDrive folder backup and sync for your Microsoft account across all your Windows 10 and Windows 11 devices you sign in with the same Microsoft account. You can use OneDrive to sync files and folders between your computer and the cloud, so you...

www.elevenforum.com

If so, then you could try option three below to restore the default folder location.

• Move or Restore Default Location of Desktop Folder in Windows 11
• Move or Restore Default Location of Documents Folder in Windows 11 Tutorial
• Move or Restore Default Location of Downloads Folder in Windows 11
• Move or Restore Default Location of Music Folder in Windows 11
• Move or Restore Default Location of OneDrive Folder in Windows 11
• Move or Restore Default Location of Pictures Folder in Windows 11
• Move or Restore Default Location of Saved Games Folder in Windows 11
• Move or Restore Default Location of Searches Folder in Windows 11
• Move or Restore Default Location of Videos Folder in Windows 11

Click to expand...

Thanks Shawn. Yes, I did turn off backup of all folders. I also disabled Onedrive integration via \Disable_OneDrive_Integration.reg.
I'll give some of the above a try, but every time I've tried moving Desktop, Documents, Downloads or Pictures I get

I don't know if this will help but after I stopped OneDrive syncing and removed it with revo. I had the OneDrive folders still pinned to 'Home'
I unpinned them all and went to C:/ users/ myname and pinned the 'proper' folders to 'Home' aka quick access. Ended up with these with 'Stored Locally' label. They work ok. Didn't move any folders.

Brink said:

Hello Rich,

Just to confirm, did you turn off backing up these folders to OneDrive like below?

Turn On or Off OneDrive Folder Backup Syncing Across Windows 11 Devices

This tutorial will show you how to turn on or off OneDrive folder backup and sync for your Microsoft account across all your Windows 10 and Windows 11 devices you sign in with the same Microsoft account. You can use OneDrive to sync files and folders between your computer and the cloud, so you...

www.elevenforum.com

If so, then you could try option three below to restore the default folder location.

• Move or Restore Default Location of Desktop Folder in Windows 11
• Move or Restore Default Location of Documents Folder in Windows 11 Tutorial
• Move or Restore Default Location of Downloads Folder in Windows 11
• Move or Restore Default Location of Music Folder in Windows 11
• Move or Restore Default Location of OneDrive Folder in Windows 11
• Move or Restore Default Location of Pictures Folder in Windows 11
• Move or Restore Default Location of Saved Games Folder in Windows 11
• Move or Restore Default Location of Searches Folder in Windows 11
• Move or Restore Default Location of Videos Folder in Windows 11

Click to expand...

I was able to take care of Desktop but when I tried Documents I got



Same thing with Pictures.

Ztruker said:

I was able to take care of Desktop but when I tried Documents I got

View attachment 74775

Click to expand...

Just to confirm, did you try option 3?

Just did now and that fixed it where doing it from Properties failed. Thanks Shawn. All folders in Quick Access are under C:\Users\Ztruk not ztruk\Onedrive.


Many thanks.

Ztruker said:

Just did now and that fixed it where doing it from Properties failed. Thanks Shawn. All folders in Quick Access are under C:\Users\Ztruk not ztruk\Onedrive.


Many thanks.

Click to expand...

Great news. You're most welcome.

Brink said:

Hello Rich,

Just to confirm, did you turn off backing up these folders to OneDrive like below?

Turn On or Off OneDrive Folder Backup Syncing Across Windows 11 Devices

This tutorial will show you how to turn on or off OneDrive folder backup and sync for your Microsoft account across all your Windows 10 and Windows 11 devices you sign in with the same Microsoft account. You can use OneDrive to sync files and folders between your computer and the cloud, so you...

www.elevenforum.com

If so, then you could try option three below to restore the default folder location.

• Move or Restore Default Location of Desktop Folder in Windows 11
• Move or Restore Default Location of Documents Folder in Windows 11 Tutorial
• Move or Restore Default Location of Downloads Folder in Windows 11
• Move or Restore Default Location of Music Folder in Windows 11
• Move or Restore Default Location of OneDrive Folder in Windows 11
• Move or Restore Default Location of Pictures Folder in Windows 11
• Move or Restore Default Location of Saved Games Folder in Windows 11
• Move or Restore Default Location of Searches Folder in Windows 11
• Move or Restore Default Location of Videos Folder in Windows 11

Click to expand...

Hey all,

I was trying to change the user profile folder name after recently installing Windows 11 on a new laptop. I followed the instructions at How to Change the User Profile Folder Name in Windows 11 which seems similar to the process described in the tutorial/thread here: Change Name of User Profile Folder in Windows 11 Tutorial

The problem is, while it basically worked, I also had my Desktop, Documents, and Pictures folder stuck under %userprofile%\OneDrive\Desktop (and similar for Documents, Pictures). When I tried following the instructions linked above, "option one" and "option two" were both unavailable as there is no "Location" tab showing in the properties window - I guess Microsoft has updated something since those instructions were written. I was able to run all the commands in "option three" but that caused some serious breakages in the UI (all taskbar icons disappeared, not able to pin anything to the taskbar, Desktop folder and the actual explorer.exe desktop out of sync, unable to add files to the explorer desktop).

Eventually I thought of a way to fix this: by creating a new admin account (see instructions in the makeuseof.com link) without connecting to my Microsoft account, naming it properly in the first place, and then only connecting my Microsoft account in settings after it had been set up properly. (To avoid conflicts I had to undo the user profile folder name change, and make an entirely new account which makes a new user profile folder with the correct name from the start.)

Basically, if you run into issues after trying to move your user folders out from under OneDrive, the better option might just be to make a totally new account without Microsoft sign-in first. I did this in February 2024 and confirmed in the new account that although there is a OneDrive folder, it was empty and the Desktop etc. folders were in their "normal" places. I had to delete the original account first, so it wouldn't conflict when I logged in with the same Microsoft account in the new account (via the Settings home pane).

Lucky for me this is a new computer so I didn't have to backup/transfer files. If you already have files then of course make sure to back them up for transfer.