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How To Disable OneDrive Folder Backup In Windows 11

How To Disable OneDrive Folder Backup In Windows 11

One Of The Annoying Features Of Windows 11 Is The Automatic Backup And Synchronization Of Some Folders In OneDrive. You Can See The Deactivation Guide Below.

Microsoft has changed OneDrive for Windows 11, which automatically backs up the Desktop, Documents, and Pictures folders in the cloud. This feature, called Folder Backup, used to show up on initial startup, and you had the option to turn it off, but now it’s on by default.

Of course, backing up your important files is a valuable task, but the way it works is that files are backed up from your computer and restored from the cloud so that you can access them quickly. Backup files include desktop icons, which means that when you purchase a new laptop and log into your account, your desktop may look like the image below:

Some links have problems; although desktop icons are supported, their associated programs are not. Also, if you have multiple computers or restart the computer, the backed-up files will be merged and appended to the previous files by appending Copy to the file name. This is a big problem.

Fortunately, you can disable OneDrive folder backups without officially notifying Microsoft. Here’s how to do it.

  1. Click OneDrive on the taskbar

Note:
You may need to click the arrow first to open the menu.

  1. Then click on the gear icon at the top of the OneDrive panel and select Settings.
  2. Go to the Backup tab at the top and then click Manage Backup.

Note:
In newer versions of the OneDrive app, the Sync and Backup page opens by default, which contains a Manage backup button.

  1. Under each of the folders (Desktop, Pictures, and Documents), click on Stop backup
  2. You may need to click Stop Backup again to confirm your choice.
  • The settings page has been completely redesigned in new application versions to back up known folders. You should make sure to turn off all three
  • changes, as seen below:

  1. Then close the window.

When you stop backing up your folders, any files backed up in them will be removed from the original folder location. Instead, you can find those files in the Desktop, Pictures, and Documents folders in your OneDrive. You can copy or move those files to your local folders if needed.

To avoid the need to copy or move files, you can disable this feature soon after turning on the computer for the first time to clear all frequently used desktop icons at once. If you’ve been using your computer for a while and you’re just disabling this feature now, you’ll need to restore some of your files from the relevant OneDrive folder.