# "one drive"?



## motdaugrnds (Jul 3, 2002)

I keep getting msg on this windows 10 desktop that my "one drive" is full and I should upgrade to get more space. Can anyone explain what this "one drive" actually does? I don't want to use it if I don't need to.


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## painterswife (Jun 7, 2004)

One drive is cloud storage through Microsoft. I expect that you have your computer set up so that everything you save saves into one drive ( or backs up there).


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## Nevada (Sep 9, 2004)

After you resolve your One Drive issue consider using Google Drive instead. One Drive only offers 5GB free space while Google Drive offers 15GB free space. I never liked working with Microsoft anyway.


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## motdaugrnds (Jul 3, 2002)

How do I find out if that is what I'm doing, i.e. all being saved to onedrive? How do I stop that? Why would I need back up files saved?


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## Nevada (Sep 9, 2004)

motdaugrnds said:


> Why would I need back up files saved?


All of your user files (documents, spreadsheets, images, whatever) that you can't afford to lose should be saved to a shared drive, such as One Drive, Dropbox or Google Drive. That way a copy of your important files is kept on a remote server. That provides backup in the event of drive failure.

If you decide not to do it then that's up to you, but you'll get no sympathy from me if your hard drive dies and you lose everything.


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## motdaugrnds (Jul 3, 2002)

I actually have nothing on this computer that I cannot afford to lose; so I would prefer not to have that one-drive backup. How do I get rid of it? And I'm guessing getting rid of it will not interfere in what I do on the net...or with the multi-player game I enjoy as I don't think any of these need back-up files...or do they??


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## Nevada (Sep 9, 2004)

motdaugrnds said:


> I actually have nothing on this computer that I cannot afford to lose; so I would prefer not to have that one-drive backup. How do I get rid of it? And I'm guessing getting rid of it will not interfere in what I do on the net...or with the multi-player game I enjoy as I don't think any of these need back-up files...or do they??


If that's the case then the simplest way to get rid of it is to remove the Microsoft OneDrive application. Go to Settings, and then Apps. Scroll down until you find it and click the uninstall button.


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## Cabin Fever (May 10, 2002)

Click on the OneDrive icon and click "Help and Settings". This will give you a pop-up box. In the pop-up box, click "Close One Drive."










Then, you'll get another pop-up box. In this box, click "Close OneDrive."


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## motdaugrnds (Jul 3, 2002)

Thanks. Done!


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## motdaugrnds (Jul 3, 2002)

Well, now none of my movies will open in my VLC media player. Now what? I enjoyed those movies!


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## painterswife (Jun 7, 2004)

Reinstall it. Download all your movies to a different folder then unistall it again. The other option is to open onedribe on a browser and download the files.


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## motdaugrnds (Jul 3, 2002)

I did reinstall the one drive; and now just to get one of the movies to play it is having to reload, which is taking forever; and all the other movies are the same way. Seems my VLC player cannot open these movies anymore; and I don't understand this. Is this OneDrive so important? Do I need it? I'm not even sure what it does except it seems even the "txt." files I create (information only I want to save) have to re-load now. I don't understand!

I don't know how to download the movies to a different folder.  I'm feeling so stupid .... again .... as I'm just not technically minded at all.) 

How do you open One Drive on a browser? And if I did doesn't that mean I would always have to use it to view what I downloaded?

I don't have a disc player on this computer; but my son got me a little $30 thingy that plays DVDRWs and it seems to by-pass this One Drive. However, some of my favorite movies I don't have on a disc; as they were downloaded from the net and got caught by that One-Drive without my realizing it. 

Feeling rather lost about all this  ..................................


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## motdaugrnds (Jul 3, 2002)

This is what I did:
If you just don't want to use OneDrive, the easiest solution is to unlink it! (You won't lose any files or data already in the OneDrive cloud; and you can always access these by signing in to OneDrive.com.)
1. Select the OneDrive icon in the taskbar or menu bar.
2. Select "help & settings" > Settings
3. On the "account" tab click "unlink this PC" and then "Unlink account".

After doing this I discovered every single movie I had in my movie file (that was linked to OneDrive) was gone! I am so sad! Still I'm liking the fact that I am more in control with what occurs on this PC. Thanks for helping everyone.


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## painterswife (Jun 7, 2004)

Everything should still be in the cloud. You should be able to download them to your computer.


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## Nevada (Sep 9, 2004)

motdaugrnds said:


> After doing this I discovered every single movie I had in my movie file (that was linked to OneDrive) was gone! I am so sad!


Strange. In post #6 you assured me that there's nothing on your PC that you don't mind losing, so why the long face?


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## motdaugrnds (Jul 3, 2002)

Nevada I was talking about legal matters as I never use my PC for such things. But I do create a lot of files containing information that I've learned from people in here as well as from internet; and I have downloaded a lot of pictures, puzzles and information regarding the multiplayer game of RuneScape I enjoy. All those disappeared.

So what I did was re-instate One Drive; and now I'm starting over in an attempt to stop OneDrive from controlling my files (in the clouds) as I only want what I create to be on this PC only. All my hard work did return and is now accessible to me.

Then I created a new "folder" in an attempt to save what I created without OneDrive having it in the clouds. What I did was try a copy/paste of the files from the old folder OneDrive apparently has control over to the new folder. It was easy for the txt files; but the pictures were taking an extreme amount of time and the videos were taking even longer. So I did a "drag" from that old file to my new one. This did not work as I had hoped because when hovering over the videos and pictures I dragged into this new folder I got message they are "on line" which I think means they will disappear again when I undo OneDrive again. So now I'm stuck! Is there any way to get my files off OneDrive? (I do the copy/paste with pictures and videos and it is so slow it will take hours just to get a few of them....I'm so sad about this.)


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## motdaugrnds (Jul 3, 2002)

I'm guessing....Can I put these pictures and videos on a thumb drive, stop OneDrive from acting on this PC, then put the movies and pictures back on this computer? Will they then be accessible to me without their being "on line" as they are when OneDrive has control of them?


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## sniper69 (Sep 23, 2007)

The files on one drive should be in folders just like on your PC (desktop, documents, pictures, videos, etc). Right click on the folders on your PC (usually will be under users and your profile on your PC) (after one drive and your PC are synced) and select "Always keep on this device". That way the files will be on your computer. 

When saving a document, go to save as, make sure the file path starts with "this PC" and it will save on your computer.


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## motdaugrnds (Jul 3, 2002)

Thanks. I did manage to get all my files away from OneDrive's control with the copy/paste...all but the videos, pictures and movies...then I did the following:
1. Select the OneDrive icon in the taskbar
2. Select "help & settings" > Settings
3. On the "account" tab click "unlink this PC" and then "Unlink account"

All my videos, pictures and movies disappeared yet all my hard working files remained accessible to me. Guess I'll just have to live with this....


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## TroyT (Jun 24, 2008)

OneDrive attaches itself to a folder or folders on your system. The folder can be just about any folder, but the most common are the library folders Pictures, Documents, Videos etc. The files don't actually exist on your local system but in the cloud (on the internet). Each file can have multiple states. The two most common are: 

Dehydrated - meaning the file is not on the local system but is located in the cloud. So when you see them in file explorer what you are looking at are links to the file in the cloud. 
Hydrated - meaning the file is located on your local system but is also present in the cloud storage, so changes you make locally are synced with the cloud storage.
If you want to get your files from OneDrive and store the locally, you must first copy them to a local folder that is not controlled by one drive. Then remove OneDrive or unlink the folder from OneDrive and copy the files back to where you want them.

MS pushing OneDrive hard. They want that monthly revenue from people buying more storage, they are also activly looking at ways to monetize your data that is stored in the cloud. Remember anything you put in the cloud is not private. Many new systems are being shipped with all the library folders configured to store your data in the cloud.


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## motdaugrnds (Jul 3, 2002)

Thanks Troy I did all I could to get the pictures and videos I had; but it was either taking hours to copy/paste or an error msg showed up during the process. So I gave up! At this time OneDrive is disabled on this PC. Yes I know I can reconnect it; but not going to do it even to get my beloved pictures and videos...


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## TroyT (Jun 24, 2008)

motdaugrnds said:


> Thanks Troy I did all I could to get the pictures and videos I had; but it was either taking hours to copy/paste or an error msg showed up during the process. So I gave up! At this time OneDrive is disabled on this PC. Yes I know I can reconnect it; but not going to do it even to get my beloved pictures and videos...


I don't know what your internet connection is like but you can copy and past the whole folder. Just start the process and go to bed and check it in the morning!


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## motdaugrnds (Jul 3, 2002)

Cannot do that Troy because on some of the larger files I get an error msg then the whole process freezes ...


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## TroyT (Jun 24, 2008)

motdaugrnds said:


> Cannot do that Troy because on some of the larger files I get an error msg then the whole process freezes ...


Perhaps you should try it in batches. Do the large files one at at time?


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