How Do I Delete Files From OneDrive, but Not My Computer?

❓❔ There are a couple of ways to delete files from OneDrive without deleting them from your PC: move them or stop using OneDrive.

The best way to delete a file from OneDrive but keep it on your computer is to move it out of your OneDrive folder to another folder on your PC that isn’t within OneDrive. Depending on the urgency, you may then want to empty OneDrive’s Recycle Bin online. The other approach is to unlink OneDrive from your computer entirely.

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[arkle]

Would it have been too much to simply add a button that says "Unsync"? How the hell did they mess something like this up? How couldn't they think that people would want to remove things from OneDrive only? It's such a simple yet fundamentally major design flaw that I can't wrap my head around it.

[ThaRealFloridaMan]

This has bothered me for years and my files were always all over the place thanks to one drive. I finally consolidated everything and can find the files I need. Thank you

[thepatrickkellypodcast]

One Drive Duplicates everything in your Documents of the "C" Drive and then takes up Harddrive space decreasing your Storage on your Computer.

[MalevolenceX]

Thank you for your service, everything I saw just kept switching to to pictures under "This PC", where in my case, the pictures originated from. With this I just tried the actual Local Disk user and it worked.

[kellytriplett]

What a great explanation!! Thanks, Leo!!

[ROCKY-puzt]

Sir, thank you for your help, that was great

[skagittoetapperson-lineclo]

I accidently made almost every file one drive. how do i put files back to pc. is it the same process. can i move an entire file back to c: drive?

[iainbremner]

I'm at my wits end with Onedrive! I run Adobe Lightroom, and Windows 11. I imported my camera files to my Laptop 'Pictures' folder, and did not understand that Onedrive was syncing this folder to the cloud. I have struck a problem with Onedrive - it is stuck on syncing 2 files. The toolbar icon, when hovered over, says 'Onedrive - Personal Processing 2 changes'. In the meantime I am not able to make changes e.g to file names in Lightroom. The syncing process has made the files currently inaccessible. After striking problems with Onedrive earlier, I tried unlinking my laptop. Then all my photos in the Explorer directory on my laptop displayed a brown box on their corner. What does that mean? Meanwhile Onedrive still has not finished processing the 2 files. What now?

[louiewgroenewald]

I can not just move the file from onedrive documents folder as it is not just a normal document file the files in this folder is program data files of programs I installed and make use of for work. If I move these files around the program won't work properly anymore.

I need to be able to use onedrive as you do because I use onenote on mobile and PC as apps. They need to sync.
But I do not want these other program data to sync to the onedrive cloud as I do not have enough storage.

It is almost as if MS is now forcing us to purchase more storage. I do not need more cloud onedrive storage. The free version works fine as I only use onenote and nothing else that needs to sync

[WILLY]

One Drive is driving me crazy, how do I remove it but not lose all my files that's on there? I wasn't aware that it duplicated my files and now I can't find it on my computer where it normally is. I'm afraid I'll lose all my files please help?

[gibberish]

Data should NEVER have left my PC and been placed on some public storage somewhere on the net, A). less my knowing and B). less my permission in the first place.
This modern trend of intrusion and liberty taking is infuriating.

[Cmtb]

Hey man… THANK YOU. The fix was a little simpler than I thought. I have tried in the past to do this, and had trouble. I did it again today, and no trouble. I hate OneDrive !! I like to organize my files in my PC exactly how I want them. On the hard drive. I only want CERTAIN things to be shared. And OneDrive just wants to gobble up everything then tell me “running out of space, buy more “. Nah… I’m not BUYING MORE ANYTHING. Anyway, thank you!

[garyt]

OneDrive is over complicated. It's a backup service. It should just ask for folders one wants backed up and do it's job. Deleting files from the folder shouldn't remove them from OneDrive and vice versa. Microsoft has made this product act like an external hard drive.

[tammygreenggum]

I just want to say that you are AWESOME! I have asked so many people how to do this and no one could offer successful advise or instruction. Thank you for being so easy to understand and easy to follow. YOU ROCK!!!

[stefanmirica]

Why would anyone think that deleting from online BACKUPS would mean I want to delete the main files. Backups are for backups, not for the main files.

[ethelwai]

0:35 Opening One Drive
1:02 Saving on PC only
2:00 Remove files from One Drive Recycle Bin
4:01 No longer want to use One Drive

[hekarluzir]

Hi Leo, I have another problem with OneDrive. Today, I just mistakenly clicked YES to back up my Documents folder in my PC to my OneDrive, which I thought the system would allow me to choose which file, but it happened to be all the files in my Documents folder. The problem is, once I did that, there is no turning back, which I tried many times to unsync OneDrive, unlink it as well as to stop back up the folder. What happened was, all my files in the Document folder on my PC disappeared too. It seems that OneDrive has removed all my files from the PC to the OneDrive folder and never allows me to bring them back to my PC. I hope you could do a video or may be explain here on how to solve this problem.

[Espion-]

this has been giving me a ton of trouble, thank you so much for the solution!! it feels really shady that there isn't a more intuitive option, everything in onedrive feels clunky and convoluted. i wasn't even aware until recently that the things i was saving weren't saved directly to my pc, and the only thing that made it clear were the storage errors and the constant insistence that the only way to get more space was to buy more onedrive storage (which i by no means have a real need for, i have more than enough space on my pc). again, thank you!

[edugator]

Leo - Thanks so very much for explaining this in a clear and concise manner. I didn't realize items were going to a OneDrive storage - - UNTIL I began to get the message that my OneDrive was FULL! Then I noticed that I was getting ERROR messages on my files. I also noticed there were two Docs folder, but still didn't make a connection. WOW! How confusing! Again, many thanks!

[jasonwilson]

It's outrageous that private files are automatically updated to Microsoft's cloud without your permission.