Unable to create or save files in "Documents" and "Pictures" folders

Yeah, MS seems to be conspicuously absent in the discussions on this issue. I support over a 150 PC's running windows 7 and 8 and 8 servers. The issue of having to download all the files to every computer really destroys the usefulness of Onedrive. Companies do not want all of the Onedrive files downloaded to every computer. The basic concept of Onedrive was changed without consulting the user base. It was fully functional for me and my clients the way it was, need a file download it, view or edit it and save it. You can still do this by using Internet explorer and logging in to one drive but it is not very elegant any more.
I tried your fix and it worked for some computers for a while but not permanently. I certainly do not want to have to do this on many, many computers and it is not for everyone to do this type of fix.

rspitzer said:

It might be OK for someone to do this for one machine but I have 2 servers and 6 machines now with this issue. I cannot spend that much time trying to fix something Onedrive has messed up. MS needs to fix this NOW! The only thing I could do at this point was stop Onedrive from running on all my machines except the server and then use the server to access the files. Ok for desktops but not for laptops that are out of the office. The whole idea behind onedrive was to be able to access my files wherever I am whenever I want.

I was not suggesting that this would be a fix for everyone. I just posted it because it worked for me and it might work for someone else rather than spending hours searching for the proper fix.

rspitzer said:

Yeah, MS seems to be conspicuously absent in the discussions on this issue. I support over a 150 PC's running windows 7 and 8 and 8 servers. The issue of having to download all the files to every computer really destroys the usefulness of Onedrive. Companies do not want all of the Onedrive files downloaded to every computer. The basic concept of Onedrive was changed without consulting the user base. It was fully functional for me and my clients the way it was, need a file download it, view or edit it and save it. You can still do this by using Internet explorer and logging in to one drive but it is not very elegant any more.
I tried your fix and it worked for some computers for a while but not permanently. I certainly do not want to have to do this on many, many computers and it is not for everyone to do this type of fix.

It's important to note that you must follow through with all of the steps including disabling OneDrive, "stop-sharing" it's "Shares", any "Shares" that were altered by OneDrive, and delete OneDrive's sync file and folders, which should be empty anyway. After reboot, do not turn on OneDrive or allow it to re-create the shares or its folders. Recreate the affected "Shares" with appropriate permissions, check your other advanced security permissions, reboot again and the settings should persist. (Removing the corrupted shares and re-creating them without OneDrive's intervention was the only way I could get the correct parameters to "stick" on my system.)

You are completely correct in your assumption that this is only for advanced users. We shouldn't have fix this on our own.

Thanks guys so much. I think I'm a lucky one. I've disabled OneDrive and done nothing else and I have my computer back. I can save things - open Thunderbird etc. etc. I was tearing my hair out, I'm not going to do the advanced user stuff as I'll only do more damage.
Well done.

BonsaiGuy said:

I was not suggesting that this would be a fix for everyone. I just posted it because it worked for me and it might work for someone else rather than spending hours searching for the proper fix.

I spent days on this, quite literally, before I was able to figure it out...I just hope that my own experiences can help others that might be in the same boat.

Bell98 said:

Thanks guys so much. I think I'm a lucky one. I've disabled OneDrive and done nothing else and I have my computer back. I can save things - open Thunderbird etc. etc. I was tearing my hair out, I'm not going to do the advanced user stuff as I'll only do more damage.
Well done.

Glad to hear it! :)

Solved it in my case by adding the my username to the security-tab of the properties of my document-directory (...User\me\documents)

My problem is I cannot find a simple 'My documents' or 'My Pictures' button anywhere! Where are they? My computer is a workhorse, for writing mostly. I do not need loads of games apps, movie apps and all that; I just want to be able to d=sort and find documents. And I don't only want it via Word because some are pdfs. I sometimes think computer bods forget that ordinary domestic use computers are not always for entertainment!

songbird said:

My problem is I cannot find a simple 'My documents' or 'My Pictures' button anywhere! Where are they? My computer is a workhorse, for writing mostly. I do not need loads of games apps, movie apps and all that; I just want to be able to d=sort and find documents. And I don't only want it via Word because some are pdfs. I sometimes think computer bods forget that ordinary domestic use computers are not always for entertainment!

If you have the default setup, these folders would be located at c:\users (backslash) "your username"\Documents and c:\users (backslash) "your username"\Pictures. These should be accessible through file explorer via the path above and/or listed under user folders.

Bell98 said:

Thanks guys so much. I think I'm a lucky one. I've disabled OneDrive and done nothing else and I have my computer back. I can save things - open Thunderbird etc. etc. I was tearing my hair out, I'm not going to do the advanced user stuff as I'll only do more damage.
Well done.

We here in NZ have just had this dumped on us. You would have thought with all the negative feedback in the US and associated failures, MS would have sorted their act out first. Personally I have a repeat of the issues above and will try disabling the One drive also. Ideally I would prefer to just hit the back button and go back to Windows 7, wait until 2020 and pay for the new improved version.