My onedrive folder is duplicated on my Mac

Question

My onedrive folder is duplicated on my Mac

Anonymous

Hi,

I recently enabled the option to "Download all onedrive files now" and noticed that it was taking up a lot of space on my drive. And the reason is, every single file is kept in 2 versions. So in Macintosh HD/User/Dartagnan990/Library there are 2 folders with all my onedrive files:

CloudStorage/Onedrive - 958.86GB

Group Containers/UBF8T346G9.OneDriveStandaloneSuite/Onedrive.noindex (hidden folder) - 960.78GB

I have read answers from Microsoft support that these are not duplicate and that even if Mac OS is showing them as two 1TB folders, they actually only take up 1TB only. I am 100% sure that this is not the case, I don't think I have 960GB of files that are unnoticed on my mac. Also when I look at storage, 1.81 TB comes from system data. And I've sorted all my files and folders (even hidden ones) by size, there's nothing else that comes even close to that size, so the onedrive files are indeed duplicated.

May I ask why and how to get rid of this please?

Thanks

Locked Question. This question was migrated from the Microsoft Support Community. You can vote on whether it's helpful, but you can't add comments or replies or follow the question.

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10 answers

Answer 1

I'm having the same issue on my Macbook.

I keep all my OneDrive files downloaded so I still have a offline backup and can easily copy them to an external HDD as well.

Now I just found that all my downloaded onedrive files are duplicated to another folder and taking up twice the space.

They are located in the CloudStorage Folder but also in the Group Containers Folder.

It seems like microsoft is telling you that the files only use the space once, but this is clearly wrong. My 2 TB SSD of my Macbook is nearly full because of this issue.

If microsoft does not fix this, onedrive is useless for me. And no: Setting the files "on demand" is not the solution and not a fix.

I need the files offline. On windows it works just fine.

If you just search the internet for "Onedrive duplicating files on macos" or similar keywords, you find many users with this problem.

I'm worried microsoft will not fix it, because the problem exists for a long time now.

I am thinking about paying the higher price and switching to iCloud. But therefor i'm unsure about how good icloud works on windows and android as I use a mix of all operating systems. But be aware: OneDrive on MacOs is the worst!

Answer 2

Same here,

I just want to store the content in an external HD, first, it must be set in encrypted format. Then the OneDrive folder duplicated in two exact folders. And the App suddenly stopped and disappeared. It's a **** company. The company I work chosen this kind of service, otherwise I won't be dealt with those troubles. Anyone read this message, GET RID OF OneDrive.

Answer 3

I am having a similar problem with duplicate OneDrive folders. In my case, after reinstalling OneDrive, the OneDrive folder is repeated infinitely on my 16" 2021 MacBook Pro running OS 15.3.1. It was doing the same thing under Ventura, too. How could this possibly happen? I only reinstalled twice over the past six months in my troubleshooting process.

From OneDrive online, I downloaded all my data to another non-OneDrive folder on my Mac because OneDrive wasn't allowing me to move the files out of my OneDrive folder on my Mac. It was a long download process but it worked.

However, haven't been able to delete all the folders out of the OneDrive folder on my Mac. OneDrive either gets stuck in some kind of loop or tells me that I have to unlock files (but it doesn't say which files). OneDrive also is getting hung up on a file that was deleted a long time ago. I'm told that it has incorrect characters but OneDrive can't auto-change the file name because the file doesn't exist.

Also, when I go to the the above link (My onedrive folder is duplicated on my Mac · Community) that gave us, I'm told to log in again to this site. But every time I go to that page, it says I need to log in. I'm in an infinite loop even on the Microsoft site.

Is there a fast way to force the deletion of the OneDrive folder on my Mac? I have tried unlinking the account and removing OneDrive but nothing seems to help. I'm probably missing something in the process to completely flush OneDrive from my system.

Any help is appreciated.

No more OneDrive for me.

Thanks,

AA

Answer 4

Hi,

Just in case someone finds this thread, DO NOT buy microsoft product on Mac, they are absolute trash.

I've done a complete reinstall, fresh from the start. Emptied my online onedrive folder completely, installed onedrive, then started populating it with files. Exact same thing happened, 2 folders, everything is stored twice.

Complete waste of money and incompetence from Microsoft, it's unacceptable. I will try to get a refund.

Answer 5

Dear Dartagnan990,

I am very sorry to reply you so late.

As your problem has occurred before in Windows, but is rare in Mac. We have fed back your issue and hopefully the OneDrive support team will be aware of the issue.

Additionally, in order to make the OneDrive developers aware of this issue, I've helped you create a link to the issue via the User Feedback Community, where a dedicated developer will be following and commenting on your feedback, and you can vote for the link, or click ‘Yes’ for the reply that includes the link. So that more users in the community who are experiencing the same problem will take note of this direction.

My onedrive folder is duplicated on my Mac · Community

Thank you for your understanding and help.

Best regards

Isabella-MSFT | Microsoft Community Support Specialist