Duplicate OneDrive folders

I’ve always used Carbonite for my backups, but I recently experimented with OneDrive.
I decided to stick with Carbonite at least until the subscription expired and I unlinked OneDrive.
I ended up with duplicate OneDrive accounts, and the file paths all look like this.

C:\Users\jim-o\OneDrive\Documents\One Drive\OneDrive\Pictures\Garden
C:\Users\jim-o\OneDrive\Documents\One Drive\OneDrive\Pictures\Pictures

OneDrive seems to have taken over. Is there any way of returning things back to normal?

I think @glasskuter is the expert on this.

To completely remove OneDrive and return to standard folders, first, unlink your PC from OneDrive to stop syncing, then move your files from the OneDrive folder to your desired local folders. After confirming all files are saved locally, uninstall the OneDrive app from Windows Settings. Finally, you can delete the local OneDrive folder in your user directory and restart your computer to fully remove it.

@Hazel123 No, I am far, far from being a expert. I just know all the proper steps a user must take to deal with Onedrive from the onset when a user uses a MS account that is syncing to onedrive. So much depends on a user's actions before he asks for help.

@Jim1, I have to assume a lot here on what you have done resulting in this mess.

ORIGINALLY, Your MS account was syncing to Onedrive. You unlinked your MS account from onedrive at some point in the past in order to use Carbonite. Is that correct? Then later you decided to experiment and relinked your MS account to Onedrive. Is that also correct. I am also assuming you are NOT using Office 365. Is that correct?

If all that is correct, I believe you did not complete all the steps to get onedrive out of the picture in the first place. If any is incorrect. STOP and report back.

Stop Carbonite from running and follow these steps in order.

COMPLETE STEPS TO PROPERLY GET RID OF ONEDRIVE

Step 1: Turn Off OneDrive Folder Backup Syncing

First, you need to stop OneDrive from automatically syncing your Desktop, Documents, Pictures, and Videos folders. This guide will also help you get your files back on to your local drive.
Turn On or Off OneDrive Folder Backup Syncing in Windows 11

At this point go to folder properties of Desktop, documents, pictures, videos. Under general tab, make sure the location is
C:\users\yourusername\foldername
Make sure all your files are in these folders. Your case is a little unique so if you end up with any duplicate files/folders inside your user folder, you will have to manually deal with them.

Only If the folders don’t automatically return to their default local location under C:\Users\YourUserName in step 1:

Use the tutorials below (Option Three) to manually restore the default location of each folder and move your files manually from Onedrive into it.
Move or Restore Default Location of Desktop Folder in Windows 11
Move or Restore Default Location of Documents Folder in Windows 11
Move or Restore Default Location of Pictures Folder in Windows 11
Move or Restore Default Location of Videos Folder in Windows 11 |

-----------------------------------------------------------------
Step 2: Unlink Account & PC from OneDrive
After syncing is turned off, disconnect your account and computer from OneDrive:
Unlink account & PC from Onedrive.
----------------------------------------------------------------------

Step 3: Prevent OneDrive from Starting Automatically or Uninstall Onedrive -

At this point, you can either disable OneDrive from autostart or uninstall it.

To disable (recommended):

Open Task Manager (Ctrl+Shift+Esc).
Go to the Startup Apps tab.
Find OneDrive, right-click it, and select Disable.
This prevents OneDrive from launching at startup and survives Windows updates. It also keeps you from getting Onedrive nags.

To Uninstall OneDrive (Optional)

If you prefer to completely remove OneDrive, use one of these methods:

Method 1 – Using Revo Uninstaller (recommended):
Download Revo Uninstaller Freeware Portable.

• Open Revo and look under Windows Apps to find OneDrive.
• Uninstall it using Revo, then run its scan feature. Check all the leftover files and registry entries Revo finds and remove.

Method 2 – Built-in Windows option:
You can also uninstall OneDrive through Windows settings, but this may leave some registry entries behind. Uninstall and Reinstall OneDrive in Windows 11

NOTE!!!!!! All your files remain in onedrive until you go to Onedrive on the web and delete them Microsoft OneDrive

Once everything is in proper order in your user folders, turn Carbonite back on.
--------------------------------------------------------------

Disclaimer: Whether this will work as written for you depends on what steps were taken in your prior attempts to get rid of Onedrive. Sometimes a user’s incorrect actions can have unwanted results. Nevertheless, your files should still be in Onedrive so they are not lost. You just may have to take other measures to get them back on your computer.

gunrunnerjohn said:

o completely remove OneDrive and return to standard folders, first, unlink your PC from OneDrive to stop syncing, then move your files from the OneDrive folder to your desired local folders. After confirming all files are saved locally, uninstall the OneDrive app from Windows Settings. Finally, you can delete the local OneDrive folder in your user directory and restart your computer to fully remove it.

Click to expand...

In theory that is correct if a user has taken no prior steps to deal with Onedrive. However, you are not telling the user how to do even those basic steps.
Other considerations need to be addressed, too. Whether or not a user has messed with onedrive in any way, what his current state is, or if he uses Ofc365 which defaults to saving its files to Onedrive,

glasskuter said:

In theory that is correct if a user has taken no prior steps to deal with Onedrive. However, you are not telling the user how to do even those basic steps.
Other considerations need to be addressed, too. Whether or not a user has messed with onedrive in any way, what his current state is, or if he uses Ofc365 which defaults to saving its files to Onedrive,

Click to expand...

Or those. Very true, if you're in an unknown state, it is certainly a bit trickier.

@Jim1 I forgot to tell you, if you use Office365,Offi 2021, or Office 2024, your Word and Excel apps save location defaults to Onedrive. You will need to go into the options of both those apps and change the default save location to be a folder on your system drive.

OneDrive is a nasty virus, they suck you in with a lousy 5GB of space and then sit and wait for you to need more and start paying for it. Having it enabled by default should be illegal, most folks wouldn't have a clue how to get rid of it!

I am overwhelmed with the response, so thank you all for replying so quickly. It’s going to take me a while to get my head around this. I will be back, however, so thank you all

I’ll just mention one more thing. I did lose a Folder while this was happening (my fault, I’m sure), but Carbonite were very good in helping me retrieve it. They let you talk to a living person there. I also have a portable Seagate expansion drive. I don’t keep it up to date, but all the important historical stuff is on it.

Jim1 said:

I’ll just mention one more thing. I did lose a Folder while this was happening (my fault, I’m sure), but Carbonite were very good in helping me retrieve it. They let you talk to a living person there. I also have a portable Seagate expansion drive. I don’t keep it up to date, but all the important historical stuff is on it.

Click to expand...

Now that you've seen how fast data can disappear when you least expect it, I'd start rethinking your backup scheme. I probably have an extreme backup model, but most folks have woefully inadequate backup.

As you have found Carbonite has great support, for what you pay for.
They also offer making an Image file to a separate external USB drive.
If you leave the USB drive hooked up, Carbonite will automatically do Incremental Image backups to your original Full Backup.

Spunk said:

As you have found Carbonite has great support, for what you pay for.
They also offer making an Image file to a separate external USB drive.
If you leave the USB drive hooked up, Carbonite will automatically do Incremental Image backups to your original Full Backup.

Click to expand...

I'm always a bit worried about leaving all my backups on-line at all times. I have a couple of alternating 4TB USB drives that I only connect by-weekly and do a complete backup of all my boot and data drives and then disconnect. I figure if the worst happens, I still have a clean backup that I can recover my systems with.

I've just about got it sorted now. I agree with everything you've all said about backups. My situation was easier than most because I only use the PC for recreational purposes. All my photo's for instance are old family snaps. I don't go round snapping at everything that moves anymore, and my music is all pretty ancient. The only thing that alters is stuff I write for myself.
I struggled trying to follow the paths you gave me, so knowing I had all the important stuff on my Portable Expansion Drive, I used a Microsoft program to wipe the computer clean and re loaded from the drive. I unlinked OneDrive and although it's still there it is dormant for now and my file paths are all back to what I believe is normal.
It's good to know there are people out there willing and able to help.

As long as you have a current backup of your files, all should be good. You may also consider doing an Image Backup, which is part of your Carbonite package.
If you want to remove OneDrive, here are the instructions.