Old business email account being prompted - e.g. logging in to OneDrive

Hi folks - I have had a long time issue with Microsoft logins.
Over the last two years, I've being finding way to delete old work related email accounts and wherever else that email address is 'stored' on my PCs
On this Windows 11 machine, I've been through the account deletion process, so that I don't see the account as a Windows account anywhere.

Yet to this day, when I log in to Microsoft products (today was OneDrive, which I'd reinstalled as a Windows app having previously just had it as a 'folder' in Windows file explorer).
I was instantly prompted to use either of the two emails I had when working for that business previously, not my personal one that's linked to my Microsoft account, and from which I subscribe to Office 365.

This 'feels' very wrong - as the implication is this PC is somehow 'tied/linked' to my old work, yet it's only ever been my personal laptop, used for a year to access business Microsoft stuff - Teams/OneDrive/Sharepoint/DOCS/EXCEL ETC.

I've done a search on this inside the forum and couldn't see anything, so thought there might be a Windows 11 expert in here that understands where these 'cookies' or whatever hold old email addresses in Microsoft world, are, and how to delete

I've just found out something new ... I can do a search in registry for things ... so that was fun. Not a Registry expert.
I get a few results that mention the old company, and SharePoiint, and they're contained way down a Registry tree and end up in
Computer\HKEY_USERS\S-1-5-21-277403690-22863038.......................

I've attached registry tree pics.

Anyone any idea is this is the source of the issue, or just a symptom of something else needing deleted?

Hello,

You can double check using options 2 and 4 in the tutorial below to see if this account may be listed to be used by other apps to sign in, and remove it if so.

THanks for this reply. Looking through 2 and 4 they remind me of the initial attempts last year to do this. I'm sure I had to remove things (per option 4).
I've double checked though again for 2 and 4 - nothing listed.
Yet if I try and sign in to OneDrive I'm immediately prompted with two (they were both with the same company - they just changed domain names part way through my time there) emails addresses to choose from, and I have to ignore those and manually type my own email address in.

I wonder is the OneDrive 'App' specifically has a mainly business focus, and somewhere it stores any business email addresses from the past. I just can't find it, and I don't want reminded of my old work ....

Since this is happing with OneDrive, go ahead and sign in (if able) to OneDrive with that account(s) you want to remove, then use "Unlink this PC" below to hopefully remove them from the PC.

Brink said:

Since this is happing with OneDrive, go ahead and sign in (if able) to OneDrive with that account(s) you want to remove, then use "Unlink this PC" below to hopefully remove them from the PC.

Unlink Account and PC from OneDrive in Windows 11

This tutorial will you how to remove an account and unlink your PC from OneDrive for your account in Windows 10 and Windows 11. You can use OneDrive to sync files and folders between your computer and the cloud, so you can get to your files from anywhere - your computer, your mobile device, and...

www.elevenforum.com

Click to expand...

what if you can no longer sign in with that account as it's a deactivated account? I get this with old work email accounts even after a complete reinstall of Windows?

If it's happening after a clean install, then they're getting synced from OneDrive online.

You can check the registry key below to see if the business accounts may be listed to delete. Not sure if it'll stop it from syncing again later though.

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\OneDrive\Accounts\Business1

(steps found online for this:)
If you don’t want to use the user interface to unlink the account, then things you need to delete:

1. Exit OneDrive by right clicking on the OneDrive - Company name system tray icon > Exit.
2. Open the Registry Editor by clicking the Windows + R button and enter regedit > OK.
3. Navigate to HKEY_CURRENT_USER > Software > Microsoft > OneDrive > Accounts > BusinessX.
4. There will be X amount of Business accounts depending on how many you have logged into previously. Find the specific one by looking at the UserEmail value. After you found the correct one, delete the entire folder containing that key.
5. Go to hkey_current_user\software\microsoft\windows\currentversion\explorer\desktop\namespace
6. Find registry with name “onedrive - xxx” in “data” column, delete the registry by right click on it.
7. Delete the OneDrive for Business local folder.

Note: please first backup the registry before making any changes. you can right click on it > export to save the registry in another location.

Brink said:

If it's happening after a clean install, then they're getting synced from OneDrive online.

You can check the registry key below to see if the business accounts may be listed to delete. Not sure if it'll stop it from syncing again later though.

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\OneDrive\Accounts\Business1

(steps found online for this:)
If you don’t want to use the user interface to unlink the account, then things you need to delete:

1. Exit OneDrive by right clicking on the OneDrive - Company name system tray icon > Exit.
2. Open the Registry Editor by clicking the Windows + R button and enter regedit > OK.
3. Navigate to HKEY_CURRENT_USER > Software > Microsoft > OneDrive > Accounts > BusinessX.
4. There will be X amount of Business accounts depending on how many you have logged into previously. Find the specific one by looking at the UserEmail value. After you found the correct one, delete the entire folder containing that key.
5. Go to hkey_current_user\software\microsoft\windows\currentversion\explorer\desktop\namespace
6. Find registry with name “onedrive - xxx” in “data” column, delete the registry by right click on it.
7. Delete the OneDrive for Business local folder.

Note: please first backup the registry before making any changes. you can right click on it > export to save the registry in another location.

Click to expand...

I don't have OneDrive for business installed so nothing shows up in that key.