How do i ensure that onedrive isn't deleted when deleting one of my user accounts?

I have onedrive in one user account and another onedrive in another user account which I recently created. They both seem to share most files but no all files. I want to make sure the onedrive isn't deleted when I delete one of my user accounts. How can I ensure that my onedrive isn't deleted if I delete one of my suser accounts?

By retaining the user folders from the deleted account which Windows will attempt to delete. So back them up and then recreate the folder structure they were in.

The contents in OneDrive are part of the contents of an MSAccount.
If you delete that online account, you are also deleting all its contents.
Or do you just mean removing the MSAccount-linked user account from your computer rather than the online MSAccount itself?


Denis

Rollback_Jockey said:

By retaining the user folders from the deleted account which Windows will attempt to delete. So back them up and then recreate the folder structure they were in.

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What do you mean by, "back them up and then recreate the folder structure they were in?"

Visit Onedrive.com and for each account login, and then use the Download option to download either individual files or entire folders and the contents as a ZIP file to your local computer. You can repeat it for the second account. Then you can delete the old account, which will also remove the onedrive for that account. You can then upload any missing files from the downloaded content to your remaining onedrive storage.

pjhutch said:

Visit Onedrive.com and for each account login, and then use the Download option to download either individual files or entire folders and the contents as a ZIP file to your local computer.

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Thanks but how can I know the password to each of my 2 drives?

Your OneDrive data is actually stored in the cloud, not just locally on your PC, so it shouldn't be completely deleted when you remove a user account. However, you're right to be cautious about the local copy.

Here's what you should do:

1. **Before deleting the account**, make absolutely sure that all files in the OneDrive folder have fully synced to the cloud. Check the OneDrive icon in the system tray to ensure it says "Up to date".

2. **Copy important files as backup** - Even though they're in the cloud, it's good practice to copy any critical files to another location temporarily.

3. When Windows prompts you about keeping the user's files during account deletion, **choose "Keep files"** - this will preserve the local copy of OneDrive files in a folder on your desktop.

4. After deletion, you can sign into OneDrive from your other account and the files will still be accessible from the cloud.

The key thing is that your OneDrive data exists in the cloud, so even if the local copy gets deleted, you can always re-sync it from onedrive.com or by signing in with that Microsoft account on any device.

xazs said:

how can I know the password to each of my 2 drives?

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You cannot find them out unless you have previously made a record of them [on a piece of paper, say].
All you can do is reset them - see Options 5, 6.
Reset Password - ElevenForumTutorials


Denis

If we can assume that you haven't relocated (i.e., moved to a location that is different than the default) any of the special folders (Documents, Pictures, Movies, Music, Downloads, Desktop,...) that exist in the user account's personal folder. Then you can turn off OneDrive's folder backup syncing for that user account before you unlink (remove) that user account from OneDrive. (It's highly recommended to turn off folder backup syncing before unlinking your account in OneDrive to prevent files from being deleted from your PC, as unlinking stops the sync but doesn't automatically move backed-up files out of the OneDrive folder.)

1. Turn On or Off OneDrive Folder Backup Syncing Across Windows 11 Devices
2. Unlink Account and PC from OneDrive in Windows 11

As others have stated, files/folders stored locally inside the user account's personal folder are lost when the personal folder that belongs to that user account is deleted. Whereas files/folders that OneDrive either has backed up or moved into the cloud will still be preserved in the cloud:

• You won't lose files or folder by removing an account. After unlinking, all your files will be available from OneDrive on the web.

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From: How to remove an account in OneDrive - Microsoft Support