Problem with desktop after using OneDrive

I have Win10 Pro Version 20H2.

I recently tried using OneDrive for the first time. Because of issues that I doubt are relevant for present purposes, it didn't work out at all, so I disabled OneDrive using the Group Policy Editor and went back to the way things were. (At least I hope I did; OneDrive really messed up my files, and it took a while to set things right again.)

I now find that, evidently as the result of my having briefly used OneDrive, the desktop is no longer located in C:\Users\< user name >, but has been moved to the C:\Users\< user name >\OneDrive folder. I assumed that I could simply move the desktop icon it back to C:\Users\< user name >, but after I did that, none of the files that were actually located on the desktop could be opened by clicking on their desktop icons. Trying to open them merely produced the error message "The directory name is invalid". Files that merely had shortcuts on the desktop, on the other hand, could still be opened by clicking on those shortcuts.

So, I guess I've learned that the desktop icon isn't a simply shortcut, and I have to concern myself with a setting that I know nothing about. Thus my question is: how can I get the desktop out of the OneDrive folder and back into C:\Users\< user name >?

Thanks.

BobSt said:

I have Win10 Pro Version 20H2.

I recently tried using OneDrive for the first time. Because of issues that I doubt are relevant for present purposes, it didn't work out at all, so I disabled OneDrive using the Group Policy Editor and went back to the way things were. (At least I hope I did; OneDrive really messed up my files, and it took a while to set things right again.

Hi, BobSt, welcome to the Forum,

Why don't you just leave OneDrive alone? I don't dare to disable or change locations or properties and stuff of three things in my system - OneDrive, MS Store and Cortana, since they are all deeply integrated in the OS.
Never had problems with Onedrive, because I never use it, I let it sit peacefully in Windows. Literally empty at all times. As a cloud storage I prefer Backup and Sync from Google /free and 15GB storage/.

Hope this helps.

AndreTen said:

You have to restore default location of User folders in their properties..

Now I'm a little chagrined that this didn't occur to me. My (entire?) problem with OneDrive apparently resulted from the fact that I had moved the Documents folder from C:\Users\< user name > to the top of the D:\ drive. So I knew how to change default locations; I just didn't think about it in terms of the desktop, because, for obscure reasons not known even to myself, I'd always thought of the desktop icon solely as a shortcut, rather than a folder. Nutty.

So thanks large. Very much much appreciated.

AndreTen said:

My opinion on Onedrive.. it is very useful concept, but don't use its backup functionality -moving your document, pictures etc folders directly to Onedrive. It will cause troubles sooner or later.

This reinforces my conclusion that I should just give up on OneDrive. I don't think that syncing from the cloud can be very useful to me, since I keep only a portion of my desktop data on my laptop, and don't have them organized the same way on the two machines -- for starters, the laptop has only one drive. Unless there's a way of overcoming the different filing organizations, and then syncing only certain file types, which vary according to folder (and Googling hasn't led me to such a solution), I think I'm stuck using a comparison program (in my case, Comparator) and a pen drive to do my syncing. So backing up the desktop is really the only cloud-based task that seems useful to me for present purposes. Meaning that OneDrive remains disabled on my machines.

(Just to satisfy anyone's curiosity about the nature of the problem I encountered: The instructions I'd read merely stated that OneDrive backed up the Documents folder automatically, without mentioning that that folder had to remain in it's default location at C:\Users\< user name >. I assumed that that wouldn't be an issue, that OneDrive would automatically recognize that D:\ was now the Documents folder, and back it up accordingly. Plus, I figured that if it was an issue, OneDrive would simply leave the stuff on my D:\ drive alone. Instead, it moved about 20 GB of 120 GB of files from D:\ to C:\, and actually changed some of the files that it had moved. It would have been relatively easy to fix the problem had OneDrive merely moved files from D to C, but OneDrive turned out to be a bit more creative than that.)

Thanks for the advice.

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Ivan Petrov said:

Hi, BobSt, welcome to the Forum,

Why don't you just leave OneDrive alone?

Hi. Thanks for the welcome and the advice. I definitely intent to leave OneDrive alone after my recent experience.

Ivan Petrov said:

I don't dare to disable or change locations or properties and stuff of three things in my system - OneDrive, MS Store and Cortana, since they are all deeply integrated in the OS.
Never had problems with Onedrive, because I never use it, I let it sit peacefully in Windows. Literally empty at all times. As a cloud storage I prefer Backup and Sync from Google /free and 15GB storage/.

Hope this helps.

I appreciate the suggestion, and will look into Google for the purpose of syncing.

As for backing up, I need to deal with more than 100 GB, so I have to compare what's out there. So far, I've been backing up to external drives, but have finally decided to take the plunge on the cloud.

If anyone has a suggestion on the best service for backing up that much data, for someone who has only a moderate amount of computer knowledge, and less and less patience for learning new things (hey, I'm old), I'd appreciate hearing. If the service isn't free, I'm fine with that (otherwise, the money only goes to my heirs or the World Wildlife Fund).

Thanks again.

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dalchina said:

There's a long list of tutorials on Onedrive- in the Tutorial section.
I see people experiencing various issues using it. Tread carefully- back up before making changes. (Disk imaging is recommended endlessly here e.g. Macrium Reflect - free + large enough external storage).

Here are some tutorials which may be of interest:
Enable or Disable OneDrive Integration
https://www.tenforums.com/tutorials/36246-link-unlink-onedrive-microsoft-account-windows-10-a.html
Uninstall OneDrive in Windows 10

Thanks very much for the advice. I'll take a look at the tutorials (I probably should have looked here first, before touching OneDrive), but I certainly have been made wary of this particular app -- as I am of other things Microsoft.

As I've mentioned in response to another post, if you have any suggestions for a relatively easy to use, cloud-based back up service for over 100 GB of data, I'd appreciate hearing. If it charges, so be it in order to be able to use a quality service, one which provides reasonable support.

Thanks again.

dalchina said:

Basic consideration:
How fast is your upload speed?
Given that, how long would it take you to upload 100Gb?

Between 16 and 17 Mbps.

So, maybe an hour and a half?

Thanks.

Sadly, the problem continues.

The terminology can be ambiguous, so to be clear: when I refer to "the desktop folder", I mean the folder that I see when I navigate to C:\users\< user name >\Desktop using File Explorer. When I refer simply to "the desktop", on the other hand, I mean what I see on my screen when I first log in.

I did the necessary to move the desktop folder back to C:\users\< user name >\Desktop (i.e., I did it by Right clicking on it | Properties | Location tab, then entering the old location in the box). That transferred the desktop folder back to where it belonged, but I still can't open files that are actually on the desktop, although I can open files that are located elsewhere, but that have shortcuts on the desktop.

This is true no matter how I approach it. I can't open files there no matter whether (1) the files already existed on the desktop before OneDrive messed things up; (2) I now move a file from another location to the desktop and then try to open it there; or (3) I create a new file by right-clicking on the desktop and then selecting "new."

Yet I can open such files from the desktop folder; i.e., if I navigate through File Explorer to C:\Users\Bob\Desktop. I just can't open them by via the desktop itself.

At the same time, if I navigate through File Explorer to C:\Users\Bob\Desktop and delete a file from there, the file disappears both from the folder and from the desktop.

So something's broken.

Any and all advice still much appreciated.

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AndreTen said:

About nine hours

Ah.

But in any case, If I gotta back it up, I gotta back it up. No?

Thanks.