Onedrive is Driving Me Insane

TraderGary · Mar 5, 2023

@Dru2, I'm curious, what files do you have that OneDrive can't sync? I've maintained a synced 1TB cloud OneDrive for many years.

Catnip · Mar 5, 2023

A big thanks to all who replied, especially Glasskuter who linked those great tutorials that my search did not turn up.

I managed to get it settled with the tutorials and a little elbow grease. Plainly put, lots of fiddling and rebuilding of my desktop several times, but it works now!

Marking this as solved. Thanks again, everybody! :)

glasskuter · Mar 5, 2023

Dru2 said:
The only problem OneDrive has is people's FUD

No, at least not for me. I'm in no way afraid of it. There are reasons besides FUD Onedrive might not work for some. As I've said many times, not everyone is able to have fast, dependable internet. Speaking for myself, mine is down almost as much as it is up. We don't all have multiple provider options available with multiple plans. If we do, we have to settle for the slowest plan because faster speeds are too expensive. (One of the woes of both living in the sticks and being on a fixed income)

Also, I don't have a fondness for Onedrive. I don't like it. Googledrive is better since you can selectively sync folders. Do I have some things on Onedrive. Yes I do, but it's stuff I've chosen to put there.

What about cases where the user has more data than they have onedrive space... Which is often since 5 gb is not much when a little old grandmother has lots of photos of her grandchildren. (and no, I don't want to hear about the 100gb included with 365. The grandmother would never use 365)Should this grandmother have to buy more storage when she has a lot of unused storage on her own hard drive? Maybe she has unused cloud storage elsewhere she'd prefer using. Yet, she's not given a choice.

Most importantly, one's files belong to the user. One should be able to store them where he wants without having to jump through hoops to do it. I think most people's main objection is not FUD, but about choice. I've already jumped through my hoops, I knew how. But my new enlightenment about Home users no longer being given a choice since 22h2 is wrong any way you look at it. Most are novice users . They have no idea their files are no longer on their hard drive. What's more they have no idea how to get them there.

Just because some here are Onedrive fanboys does not make it right for everyone. It's easy for us to forget we are not mainstream users. Even if one is afflicted with FUD, he has as much right to fear or doubt the cloud as people here do to trust and embrace it.

Microsoft is just wrong. Another poster mentioned a lawsuit. Usually, I can see validity in most of what MS does, but not in this. I truly hope someone will sue MS and win. In fact, I hope there will be a class action suit and the settlement be HUGE.

Winuser · Mar 5, 2023

glasskuter said:
I was wrong. I haven't set up a new system since 22H2 was released and was unaware that OOBE for 22h2 has eliminated the option of save files to this PC if one has Home. It is still there with Pro. Please accept my apologies.

No apology needed. I rarely do clean installs and have to admit that I based my post by reading what other users have experienced.

Winuser · Mar 5, 2023

glasskuter said:
I think most people's main objection is not FUD, but about choice.

glasskuter · Mar 5, 2023

Winuser said:
Tell me one good reason why the default couldn't be set for local

There's not one, except MS taking choices away. Like I replied to Dru2, we here can figure out ways to overcome most things, but the mainstream user is at their mercy.

Edwin · Mar 5, 2023

I'm not into using cloud storage but, I knew I had some somewhere.
I looked it up through my mobile Office Suite and somehow I got 20GB free..., good enough for me.
I'll access it via a browser so it won't drive me nuts!
(I get frustrated with OneDrive's convoluted integration)

Scannerman · Mar 5, 2023

Because I made a local account while installing Win 11 Pro on my TPM1 platform turning off this annoying Windows program wasn't too hard. I know it can be a good deal tougher to remove on other installations. They certainly do know how to detect your Microsoft account via email however! If you don't have a local account I highly recommend doing what our colleague, Glaskuter, suggests here:

The biggest travesty in all this is the simple lack of it being a straightforward process to create a local account during setup so users are not aware that it can be done in order to bypass all the OneDrive crap. Therefore, it seems to me the easiest and best solution for the folks in this situation is:

1. copy any personal files to an external drive
2. create a new local account with administrative privileges
3. log out of MS account
4. login to newly created account
5. copy the data from external drive into new local account
6. From new account stop Onedrive from autostarting or uninstall onedrive
6. Delete the MS account.

kgarrett67 · Mar 5, 2023

I just tried this on a VM and it works for both Home and Pro versions of Windows 11. By running the OOBE\BYPASSNRO from the command prompt during setup, it will show the I don't have internet link to clink on. Then you can enter a local account. After install is finished, you can connect to the internet to finish. I deleted OneDrive from Installed Apps before connecting to the internet and so far, no OneDrive.

Set up Windows 11 without internet - oobe\bypassnro - Microsoft Q&A

Ok, now on Insider builds you can't get it past anymore by killing OOBE Connection Flow. This is just nonsense. How are we supposed to set up PCs that don't have any Wi-Fi/Ethernet drivers in the first place? When killing Connection Flow you just get…

answers.microsoft.com

Haydon · Mar 5, 2023

Buddy said:
And a small, but ongoing aggravation. MS supplies the path to the local OneDrive folder as a default save location when a new software application installs and creates its own folders. Even though I've disabled OneDrive, every new program saves files to the local OneDrive folder until I change it. It's easy enough for the actual data files, but a lot of programs save settings, templates, that sort of thing there and they are harder to redirect.

Does the aggravation still happen if you uninstall OneDrive?

Haydon · Mar 5, 2023

Edwin said:
(I get frustrated with OneDrive's convoluted integration)

Yeah, you don't want to figure out, in the middle of a busy workday, what file goes where (local or cloud) that was one of my major, major frustrations

Dru2 · Mar 5, 2023

TraderGary said:
@Dru2, I'm curious, what files do you have that OneDrive can't sync? I've maintained a synced 1TB cloud OneDrive for many years.

I'd had a folder there with files that are actually online (OneDrive) instead of local to the PC. Those files won't sync, because OneDrive does not sync junctions as explained in the notice. Here's what I mean, these are files I have in a music folder, but they are actually links to the files in the OncDrive folder online. If I click on a link, it will download the folder to the PC, as shown in the red box. The items still online have no green check mark as seen in the green box. The purpose here is to save space locally by having the files online and downloading as needed.

What OneDrive is saying is it can't backup those links. I'll have to download them or remove them. Once I remove them OneDrive will then backup that folder if needed.

@glasskuter, You've made it very clear many a time you've no fondness for OneDrive so there's no need debating this with you. That said, I'm keenly aware there are always exceptions to the rule, and why one will never be able to account for every "what if" in the universe.

Understanding that, I still stand by my statement. That's also partly based on yours and many posts seen on this site, with some of the usual answers to OneDrive is.... it sucks. I don't use it. Get rid of it. Again, understanding there are exceptions

Peace

Buddy · Mar 5, 2023

Haydon said:
Does the aggravation still happen if you uninstall OneDrive?

Good question. I held off uninstalling OneDrive, waiting to see if Google Drive worked well and fit my needs. Now that I've learned more about Google Drive, I'm happy with it. I'll probably uninstall OneDrive when I have time to read through all the details about doing that.

Buddy · Mar 5, 2023

If anyone knows about CSIDL (where it is, how to change it), I'd love to hear from you. See this thread, particularly post #9, about my continuing experience with newly installed programs wanting to save to OneDrive even though it is now disabled per Brink's tutorial.

Default save location for newly installed programs still OneDrive

I disabled OneDrive with the Group Policy Editor change from the Tutorials. I left it installed, on the off chance that I might want to use it again some day. It's stopped trying to sync, but... Every time I install a new program, the default save folder for documents that it creates is...

www.elevenforum.com

idgat · Mar 6, 2023

Buddy said:
If anyone knows about CSIDL (where it is, how to change it), I'd love to hear from you. See this thread, particularly post #9, about my continuing experience with newly installed programs wanting to save to OneDrive even though it is now disabled per Brink's tutorial.

Disabling/Removing OneDrive doesn't stop other (Microsoft) programs from trying to access it. It's the settings in the (individual) programs that also have to be changed.

Dru2 · Mar 6, 2023

Buddy said:
If anyone knows about CSIDL (where it is, how to change it), I'd love to hear from you. See this thread, particularly post #9, about my continuing experience with newly installed programs wanting to save to OneDrive even though it is now disabled per Brink's tutorial.

Default save location for newly installed programs still OneDrive

I disabled OneDrive with the Group Policy Editor change from the Tutorials. I left it installed, on the off chance that I might want to use it again some day. It's stopped trying to sync, but... Every time I install a new program, the default save folder for documents that it creates is...

www.elevenforum.com

idgat said:
Disabling/Removing OneDrive doesn't stop other (Microsoft) programs from trying to access it. It's the settings in the (individual) programs that also have to be changed.

Even Microsoft programs can't access OneDrive if it's been "disabled/removed" so what "individual programs" are you talking about?

That said, if for example you remove OneDrive and then install Office 365, then I suppose OneDrive will get reinstalled since it's part of Office.

Fabler2 · Mar 6, 2023

That said, if for example you remove OneDrive and then install Office 365, then I suppose OneDrive will get reinstalled since it's part of Office.

That's an interesting thought.

Did a clean install not long ago. In OneDrive settings stopped it syncing and stopped it starting with Windows then exited it. Ran Geek Uninstaller and removed pre-installed programs and Microsoft Store Apps, including OneDrive, which were unwanted, then rebooted. Although 'Everything' shows a multitude instance of OneDrive one of them is OneDrive Setup.exe, so I think you're right that it will be set-up again.

As I'm no longer bugged by OneDrive I'm leaving well alone as is.

I do like the free Microsoft 365 App from the Store, though, as it allows me to do what I want with my 5GB allowance online totally separate from the PC.

Dru2 · Mar 6, 2023

Fabler2 said:
As I'm no longer bugged by OneDrive I'm leaving well alone as is.

I do like the free Microsoft 365 App from the Store, though, as it allows me to do what I want with my 5GB allowance online totally separate from the PC.

I find OneDrive extremely convenient, especially when working with multiple PCs. Example when working on my backup PC, I can simply drop a file in its OneDrive folder and access it from my main desktop.

When I was going to school, I could work on a project from my laptop, drop the files in its OneDrive folder and access them from my desktop without ever touching the laptop. Even more beautiful, is the app available to android devices so there's access there. For me, I find OneDrive so valuable that it's my top must have app.

BTW this is also coming from one who initially had "cloud" reservations back when OneDrive was formally known as SkyDrive. Once I started playing with the app and saw what it could do, I quickly got over my reservations and never looked back.

That's me.

Haydon · Mar 6, 2023

Fabler2 said:
Did a clean install not long ago. In OneDrive settings stopped it syncing and stopped it starting with Windows then exited it. Ran Geek Uninstaller and removed pre-installed programs and Microsoft Store Apps, including OneDrive, which were unwanted, then rebooted. Although 'Everything' shows a multitude instance of OneDrive one of them is OneDrive Setup.exe, so I think you're right that it will be set-up again.

That sounds a bit alarming to me. It looks like the Windows file and folder structure includes the OneDrive file and folder structure by default, even if the OneDrive app is uninstalled after every unintended installation.

That means that every app (MS apps and third party apps) will work with THAT default (i.e. OneDrive file and folder structure included by default)

If you want something else (not everyone wants to have everything in the cloud) then you have to 'personalize' which is not catastrophic, but it IS (or would be) an added inconvenience.

Edit: Relevant to Fabler2's post #37 quoted above is Edwin's post #6 quoted below showing multiple OneDrive executables and a SilentConfig file

Edwin said:
I noticed on the last few Builds, Task Manager Startup items has a whole whack of OneDrive Silent Setup stuff...

View attachment 54277

idgat · Mar 6, 2023

Fabler2 said:
Although 'Everything' shows a multitude instance of OneDrive one of them is OneDrive Setup.exe, so I think you're right that it will be set-up again.

That's just an installation "stub" file, a link to the full installation files that are still stored on the 'net. Not uncommon when downloading any program only to have the "stub" file downloded, not the full program.

Delete it.

Onedrive is Driving Me Insane

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