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When I enable OneDrive it displays files from my son's computer as if they are mine

Twice I have tried enabling OneDrive on my Windows 10 laptop.  Both times, once I signed into OneDrive with my Microsoft account, it "grabbed" or displayed files from my son's laptop as if they were mine.  For instance, all of a sudden, I had his desktop & mine mingled together.  And other stuff.  Very disconcerting at first, but when I sign out of OneDrive, it all goes away.

We both have Windows 10 laptops.  I am logged into Windows on my PC using my Microsoft account, and he is logged into Windows on his PC using his Microsoft account.  I have confirmed this by looking at "Your Info" under account settings.

(It is possible that his original Windows installation was initially linked to my account, but I don't know if that's causing the problem, or how to fix it.)

Also, he is a child in my Microsoft "family", would that somehow cause this?

Thanks,

Kelly

One other thing - there is something weird with his laptop about where his files are.  For instance, I can find his Documents, Downloads, & Pictures under "This PC".  However when I go to Users, his Documents are not under any of the User folders.  But his downloads are.  How can I straighten this all out?

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Hi and thanks for reaching out. My name is William. I'm a Windows technical expert. I'll be happy to help you out today.

This is part of how OneDrive redirects the local profile folders to create a seamless file experience across devices, Most people don't pay attention to it I feel that Microsoft intentionally obscures this. And since your son is part of your family, you will see his Desktop. Documents, and whatever other folders he has synced to OneDrive.

To stop this sync from happening, have your son open File Explorer > right-click the respective folders under This PC (Desktop, Documents) > select Properties > Locations > and likely you (or him) will see the path pointing to C:\Users\UserName\OneDrive\Desktop... Select the option to Restore Default, which will reset the path to the default local path of C:\Users\UserName\Desktop. Repeat for the other folders.

Going forward, he should only place files he wants in OneDrive by manually putting them there.

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Thank you for the quick reply!

When I try to Restore Default on his Documents folder, I get an error message that says "Can't move folder because there is a folder in the same location that can't be redirected.  Access is denied."

How do I get around that or fix it?  Should I manually move each folder under Documents to the User folder?  One of them is .minecraft and I'm worried about "messing something up" in his game if I move that.

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There are a couple ways to do this, again MS buries this in OneDrive settings.

Right-click the OneDrive icon in the notification tray > select Settings > under the Account tab select Choose folders. From here, try to un-check option for "make all files available". If you receive a message that says Sync setting will not allow o something to that affect, then select the individual folders in the tree below by expanding each folder respectively and then un-check the subfolders within to deselect the parent folder. You will receive a message that all the locally saved files will be removed but they will still reside in OneDrive, so your son may want to move these files to a local temp location before hand and restore afterwards, or do it afterwards by moving them from One drive to local path. When this is done, the local Documents, pictures, Desktop should not be pointing only to C:\Users\YourSon\Desktop, Doucments, etc.

Going forward, he can still use OneDrive, but he will need to specifically move items into OneDrive by placing in there via file explorer or using the web app.

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OK, everything seems squared away now, thank you!

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You're welcome.

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Last updated March 17, 2024 Views 1,369 Applies to: