Back Up Documents to One Drive

Question

Back Up Documents to One Drive

Richard Burton 0

I’m trying to set up One Drive to back up the folders on my PC. In One Drive settings I receive the message that The Documents folder is unable to sync as it contains other important folders and isn’t supported for file backup.

I’ve checked the One Drive Folder isn’t in Documents.

I've tried the suggestions from the automated response but am still unable to back up documents to One Drive.

Richard Burton 0 Reputation points

2026-10-13T11:38:53.06+00:00

AI bot replied:

This error usually means OneDrive detects another important folder inside Documents and will not protect that folder until the nested folder is moved. Try this end-to-end check: Open Documents in File Explorer. Look for folders named like important Windows folders, especially: Desktop Pictures Music Videos Downloads Screenshots Camera Roll If any of those folders exist inside Documents, move them out of Documents or rename them. Then open OneDrive > Help & Settings > Settings > Sync and backup > Manage backup. Try turning on backup for Documents again. [---]

I've tried the above suggestions but the problem still exists.

2 answers

Your answer

Richard Burton 0 Reputation points

2026-10-13T11:38:53.06+00:00

AI bot replied:

This error usually means OneDrive detects another important folder inside Documents and will not protect that folder until the nested folder is moved. Try this end-to-end check: Open Documents in File Explorer. Look for folders named like important Windows folders, especially: Desktop Pictures Music Videos Downloads Screenshots Camera Roll If any of those folders exist inside Documents, move them out of Documents or rename them. Then open OneDrive > Help & Settings > Settings > Sync and backup > Manage backup. Try turning on backup for Documents again. [---]

I've tried the above suggestions but the problem still exists.

Answer 1

Ramesh Srinivasan 88,875 Independent Advisor

Hi Richard,

Please open Command Prompt and run the following command.

reg.exe query "HKCU\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\User Shell Folders"

Copy the output to a text file and upload it in your reply. The above command queries the shell folder locations from the registry.

0 comments

Answer 2

This error usually means OneDrive detects another important folder inside Documents and will not protect that folder until the nested folder is moved.

Try this end-to-end check:

Open Documents in File Explorer.
Look for folders named like important Windows folders, especially:
- Desktop
- Pictures
- Music
- Videos
- Downloads
- Screenshots
- Camera Roll
If any of those folders exist inside Documents, move them out of Documents or rename them.
Then open OneDrive > Help & Settings > Settings > Sync and backup > Manage backup.
Try turning on backup for Documents again.

Also check for these supported causes from OneDrive backup:

Important folders aren’t in the default locations: OneDrive will block backup if the folder with the error contains another important folder.
Folder contains a reparse point: if Documents contains a junction point or symbolic link, OneDrive cannot protect it.
File or subfolder path is too long: shorten the file name or subfolder name.
A file is larger than 250 GB: remove that file from the folder before retrying.
Invalid file names: names cannot start with a space or include \ : / * ? < > " |.

If OneDrive moved files into similarly named folders and the original Documents location is now empty, and error 0x80070005 appears, that points to the “Prohibit User from manually redirecting Profile Folders” group policy being enabled. In that case, move the contents back to the original folder location and have the policy changed.

If the issue is only with Documents while other folders back up normally, the most likely fix is removing or renaming any nested folder that matches an important Windows folder name inside Documents.

References: