How to Disable OneDrive in Windows 10,11?

What is OneDrive?

OneDrive is a cloud storage service offered by Microsoft. It enables you to upload files to the Cloud. Its storage size ranges from 5 GB to 1 TB. You can rapidly and securely share files with others by simply emailing a link across Android, iOS, Windows, and macOS devices. Users can save any files at any time from any location. 

OneDrive offers 5 GB of free storage space only. You can pay for additional space. You can use OneDrive to sync images automatically. Besides, you can upload, edit and share Microsoft documents and OneNote directly online. Users can edit and save files in real time to protect data better.

If you are running Windows 10, you don’t need to download and install OneDrive. It can help you to sync files or folders.

Why should you disable OneDrive?

Although OneDrive is useful in some ways, there are times when you will wish to disable or remove it from your computer.

You want to disable OneDrive, because you may want to keep your sensitive or personal files from a cloud server. Besides, OneDrive will run automatically after you boot your Windows operating system. It will take up the system and network resources in the process. Sometimes, OneDrive files could be missing after sync.

It’s good to disable OneDrive if you have other storage devices for backup or the system is low-spec. There are kinds of methods to pause or disable OneDrive.

3 solutions for disabling OneDrive

How to disable or uninstall OneDrive in Windows 10/11? There are several methods for turning off OneDrive on your system. You can stop the service from starting automatically, disable it through the Group Policy Editor, or unlink your account from it. Follow the detailed steps to turn off OneDrive.

Method 1. Disable OneDrive via Settings

Step 1. Select the OneDrive icon in the taskbar. Right-click it and open OneDrive.

Tips: If you can’t find it in the taskbar, you can search OneDrive in the search bar to open it.

Step 2. Click the gear icon and then click “Settings”.

Step 3. Go to the Account tab, and click “Unlink this PC”.

Step 4. Confirm to unlink account. You will see a window to ask you to enter your email address. Waiting for a moment, disabling OneDrive process will be completed.

Method 2. Turn off OneDrive via Group Policy

If you want to stop OneDrive syncing in Windows 10, you can use this method.

Step 1. Press “Windows +R” keys to open “Run”. And then type “gpedit.msc” in the Run window to open the local group policy editor.

Step 2. Go to the option “Computer Configuration” > “Administrative templates” > “Windows Components”. Then you can find OneDrive.

Step 3. In OneDrive, select “Prevent the usage of OneDrive for file storage” and then double-click it.

Step 4. In the pop-up box, select the option enabled from the left pane to prevent the usage of OneDrive for file storage. Select Apply, then click OK to save changes.

Method 3. Disable OneDrive via Registry Editor

Users can set the errors in different system utilities and programs by changing registry values. This is an effective way to disable OneDrive.

Step 1. Press “Win + R” to launch the Run window. Type “regedit” and click “OK” to run the registry editor.

Step 2. Follow the path to locate the Windows folder.

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Windows

Step 3. Right-click the Windows folder and select “New” > “Key”. Name the new key “OneDrive”.

Step 4. Locate the OneDrive key and right-click in the space, and select “DWORD(32-bit) Value”.

Step 5. Click the key and change its value. Input “1” and click “OK” to confirm the change. Restart your computer to take effect.

If the methods above can’t solve your problem, you can uninstall OneDrive permanently. Go to Control Panel and select “Programs” > “Programs and features”. And then find OneDrive in the list of programs. You can click OneDrive and confirm “Uninstall” to remove OneDrive from your computers.

How to restore deleted files or folders in OneDrive?

If you accidentally deleted files or folders in OneDrive, you can go to Recycle Bin first. OneDrive has a built-in Recycle Bin. You can go to the OneDrive website and log in to your OneDrive account. You can find Recycle Bin in the left panel. Deleted files in the Recycle Bin can be restored easily.

If you are unable to locate your deleted OneDrive files in Recycle Bin, there is a second-stage recycling bin. It will save files that have been deleted from the Recycle Bin. As a result, you may be able to recover your deleted OneDrive files here.

Recover deleted OneDrive files from the local folder

You can retrieve deleted OneDrive files by going to the OneDrive local folder. OneDrive always creates a OneDrive folder on your computer. It will automatically sync all of your OneDrive files. Navigate to Settings and select the “Account” tab. You can find the “Choose folders” button to open the folders you choose will be available on the PC.

If local files are permanently deleted, and you don’t have any backup files, you can only rely on professional data recovery software. MyRecover it is! It is designed to restore permanently deleted or lost files from kinds of storage devices on Windows 11/10/8/7 and Windows Server.

Download and install MyRecover on your PC to start data recovery right now.

Step 1. Launch MyRecover and hover the mouse over a partition where the deleted files were saved before. Click  Scan.

Step 2. The software will scan the partition quickly. You can restore files during scanning if you find them.

Step 3. After the scanning ends, you can search the file name or filter the scanning result to locate deleted files fast.

Conclusion

To sum up, this post offers three different ways to solve “how to disable OneDrive”. Besides, you can remove OneDrive via Control Panel directly. But have to say OneDrive is a good way to back up important files.

If you are worried about data security, it’s recommended to use Windows backup freeware-AOMEI Backupper. It provides automatic, incremental, and differential backup methods to back up OS, entire hard drives, or personal files to local or external hard drives.