OneDrive Questions

I'm a new user of Windows 11 Home, and tried out MD 365 for a month and decided not to use it. When I moved files from my old computer to this one, I didn't initially realize they went to a user\OneDrive\ folder. OneDrive started backing these files up to the cloud but didn't finish before I decided not to get a subscription. Now I don't understand what will happen with these files in the OneDrive folders and also if all of the files that did get uploaded to the cloud are still on the hard drive. This seems way more complicated than it should be and is the main reason I will stick with Google for these services, even with its limitations.

In Windows Explorer, I'm used to clicking documents, photos, etc, and it takes me to those folders directly under my user profile rather than OneDrive\. If I uninstall OneDrive, I assume I should first move all of my files out of those OneDrive folders, but will new links be created in windows explorer?

Any insight would be appreciated!

Welcome to the forum. It hasn't got anything to do with 365. When using a Microsoft account, your personal folders' location defaults to onedrive.
If you want to move files back to default location in your user folder on C: drive see this tutorial.
Turn On or Off OneDrive Folder Backup Syncing Across Windows 11 Devices Tutorial

So, on a new install of Windows, when using a Microsoft account, OneDrive will automatically be setup for you to use. My examples here are not using Office 365 whatsoever, so that has no bearing on the default behavior here.

As you can see here, it has a Desktop folder, a Documents folder and a Pictures folder. These folders are automatically synced from this computer to OneDrive. However, something like your Downloads folder is not synced to OneDrive. I guess the theory here is that items downloaded to this computer would be for this computer and you wouldn't want to see them on all of your possible computers.

Now, I have gone into the onedrive website and I created a folder called TestDataFolder, and I put a file into that folder via the web interface.. Imagine as well that I had another computer and I copied files into that TestDataFolder from another computer.

Now, on this computer, I can see the folder, and I can see a small cloud icon next to it. This indicates that the information in the folder is stored ONLY in the cloud right now. This is due to a feature called Files on Demand. This feature is enabled by default, and on new computers that you add into OneDrive, the files stay in the cloud only until you click on them and use them. This way it doesn't chew up a bunch of disk space on your computer.



So, if we click into that Folder, you will see the 1 file I have. And it has the cloud icon. Meaning it's only in the cloud and not on this computer.




When I click on the file and use it, it's downloaded to my computer. And you can see the icon has changed to a little checkbox which indicates that the file is in the cloud and also on this computer.


If you right click on the cloud icon in the taskbar, and choose Settings you can choose what folders to show on this computer.


For example, I can deselect TestDataFolder and it will no longer show up within FIle Explorer on this computer. It will still be stored in the cloud and available.



And finally, if you don't want the Files on Demand feature, you can disable it from settings and then all files will be both in the cloud and on your local computer.