Windows 10: Onedrive has emptied my local folders

Help! Onedrive has emptied my local folders under ThisPC/WindowsC:/Users/myname/Documents How do I get them back? I wanted to use Onedrive as a cloud backup for my local data. But now it's all moved and not in my folders.How do I get things back in order? How do I prevent Onedrive from modifying files on my local drive? I want a oneway backup but I don't want Onedrive to change my local files unless I need a data recovery action.

:)

 

Libraries are placed in onedrive folder instead of local folder

Hi HalSATL,

They're shell folders, which are different from Libraries.

To revert the shell folder locations to default, open OneDrive and do the following:

Important: Before proceeding, copy the files in those special folders to another folder or external drive. Please don’t copy them anywhere under Desktop/Documents/Pictures. This is because disabling OneDrive backup for a folder might erase the local copies of the files. Copying them to a different location beforehand will ensure that you don’t need to download them again from the OneDrive cloud.

• Right-click the OneDrive icon in the Notification area and click Settings.
  
• Select the Backup tab, and click Manage Backup
  
• In the Manage folder backup dialog, click on the Stop backup link under the special folder (Desktop, Documents, or Pictures)
  
• Click Stop backup in the confirmation dialog that appears.
  
• Repeat the step for each shell folder you want to revert to the original location.
  

See also: Error “The folder can’t be moved here” Moving Documents/Pictures, Caused by OneDrive

 

Rename folder to OneDrive asks Confirm Replacement with another folder

Hi Kent,

Welcome to the Microsoft community.

I'm Hahn and I'm here to help you with your concern.

Based on your description, we suggest that you can do it all over again as follows:

• Open OneDrive settings on your computer.
  
• Go to the "Accounts" tab and click on "Unlink this computer".
  
• Restart your computer.
  
• Delete the D:/OldOneDrive folder.
  

You can try renaming the old OneDrive folder to something else, then create a new OneDrive folder and set it as a local folder in the OneDrive app.

If the above does not work, then you can try the following steps:

• Open a "Command Prompt" on your computer (run as administrator).
  
• Type rd /s /q "D:\OldOneDrive" and press Enter.
  

This will delete the "OldOneDrive" folder and all its contents.

• Create a new folder in D:/ and name its OneDrive.
  
• Open the OneDrive application and log in.
  
• During the setup process, choose to change the OneDrive folder location to D:/OneDrive.
  

Please note that this will permanently delete the "OldOneDrive" folder and all its contents, so please ensure that you have backed up all your important data.

If there is anything not clear, please do not hesitate to let me know.

Your Sincerely

| Microsoft Community Support Specialist

 

OneDrive keeps creating an empty folder on my desktop

Hi,

1. I've already tried deleting it straight from OneDrive but it is still appearing on my desktop.
   
2. I was trying to open a PDF file in Edge and the empty "XQ" folder was created. It can happen anytime I'm using the file picker, even when downloading files or uploading them.