Onedrive pausing when opening games like roblox, steam games etc

Question

Onedrive pausing when opening games like roblox, steam games etc

ScorpionKitch7 5

Whats going on with onedrive today? It was working fine yesterday so why is it not working now

Colleen Magura 0 Reputation points

2026-10-30T22:12:04.67+00:00

I've had the exact same problem. Tried lots of things to no avail.
Hendrix-V 20,790 Reputation points Microsoft External Staff Moderator

2026-10-31T01:31:01.0833333+00:00

Hi Colleen Magura,

If you're having the same issue, please try the quick test from the answer section then share the result so we can narrow it down.
Péter Mészáros 0 Reputation points

2026-11-07T08:48:08.26+00:00

I'm experiencing the same issue. Whenever I launch a game, OneDrive synchronization pauses after a while. Even if I manually resume it while the game is running, it pauses again after 1–2 minutes. I've tried disabling Windows Game Mode, but that didn't help either.

3 answers

Your answer

Colleen Magura 0 Reputation points

2026-10-30T22:12:04.67+00:00

I've had the exact same problem. Tried lots of things to no avail.
Hendrix-V 20,790 Reputation points Microsoft External Staff Moderator

2026-10-31T01:31:01.0833333+00:00

Hi Colleen Magura,

If you're having the same issue, please try the quick test from the answer section then share the result so we can narrow it down.
Péter Mészáros 0 Reputation points

2026-11-07T08:48:08.26+00:00

I'm experiencing the same issue. Whenever I launch a game, OneDrive synchronization pauses after a while. Even if I manually resume it while the game is running, it pauses again after 1–2 minutes. I've tried disabling Windows Game Mode, but that didn't help either.

Answer 1

Check Windows battery-saver and metered-network settings first, because these are the documented conditions that automatically pause OneDrive; Microsoft’s current known-issues list does not identify a widespread Roblox- or Steam-triggered OneDrive incident.^1^^2^

Check and resume syncing

Close the game temporarily.
Select the OneDrive cloud icon in the taskbar notification area.
If it says Paused, select the paused message/yellow box to resume syncing.
Open OneDrive → Help & Settings (gear) → Settings → Sync and back up → Preferences.
Review OneDrive’s behavior for:
- Battery saver mode
- Metered networks
These preferences control whether OneDrive pauses under those Windows conditions.^3^
In Windows, also check:
- Settings → System → Power & battery → Battery saver
- Settings → Network & internet → Wi-Fi or Ethernet → your active network → Metered connection
Turn off battery saver or the metered designation temporarily, then launch the same game again. If OneDrive no longer pauses, that identifies the applicable trigger.

If gaming and syncing compete for bandwidth

Instead of pausing OneDrive, let it use only spare bandwidth:

Open OneDrive → Help & Settings → Settings.
Select Sync and back up → Advanced settings.
Under the upload setting, select Adjust automatically.

This allows OneDrive to upload in the background using unused bandwidth rather than interfering with other network activity.^4^

If it still pauses with both conditions disabled

Test whether the sync client itself is stuck:

Select the OneDrive cloud → Help & Settings → Quit/Close OneDrive.
Open Start, search for OneDrive, and launch it again.
Start one game and note the exact OneDrive status message and pause duration.
If the problem continues, use OneDrive Settings → Account → Unlink this PC, then sign in again. Unlinking and relinking is Microsoft’s next troubleshooting path for persistent sync problems.^5^

A pause showing 2, 8, or 24 hours is consistent with OneDrive’s normal timed-pause mechanism. If it happens only when games launch despite battery saver and metered networking being disabled, capture the OneDrive version from Settings → About and report it through Contact Microsoft Support on the sync-troubleshooting page; the available public information does not establish the games themselves as the cause.

References

Answer 2

Hendrix-V 20,790 Microsoft External Staff Moderator

Hi ScorpionKitch7,

Since this happens specifically when a game starts, it would be useful to check whether a background gaming utility or third-party service is triggering the pause.

As a quick test, please try:

Perform a clean boot and leave OneDrive enabled.
Launch one affected game and check whether OneDrive pauses.
If it no longer happens, re-enable startup items/services gradually to identify the conflicting software.

If OneDrive still pauses even under a clean boot, please share the OneDrive version and the exact message shown when synchronization pauses. That should help narrow down whether this is specific to the OneDrive client or another system component.

I hope this helps isolate the trigger without repeating the steps you have already tried.

Hendrix-V 20,790 Reputation points Microsoft External Staff Moderator

2026-10-31T06:48:00.17+00:00

Hi ScorpionKitch7,

If you have any further questions or updates regarding this issue, please feel free to let me know in the Comments section. I'd be happy to assist you.
Victor Petrescu 0 Reputation points

2026-10-31T09:08:15.1633333+00:00

Hello Hendrix. I am another proud Microsoft user for over many years. I am here to tell you that this Onedrive problem is an issue I am meeting with as well since 2 days ago and I have already tried every fix possible for this, including the ones you mentioned above. None of them work.

As far as I researched and according to Claude as well, this is a bug that started showing up since the second half of October 2026. Reports and threads about this started showing up at a large number and I think you might wanna send this to the Microsoft development team because it is either a bug that is present on Windows 11 itself OR within your OneDrive application. If I am not the only one confronted with this issue then 100% it is a global problem because if it was a personal issue related ONLY to my computer, one of these fixes would have worked, unless multiple people report the same thing within the same timespan. This is how I noticed it usually goes with bugs that affect most of the users at once.

So please if you can may you forward this to the Microsoft team as soon as possible so that maybe a patch can be brought up? We will also do our best and report this on Feedback Hub, but we respectfully would love if the Microsoft Team would be kind enough to take this case the sooner the better. Thank you!

Kind regards,
Victor
Hendrix-V 20,790 Reputation points Microsoft External Staff Moderator

2026-11-01T03:01:16.5133333+00:00

Hi Victor Petrescu,

As the standard OneDrive settings have already been checked, the next useful step would be to determine whether this is caused by interaction with another application rather than changing additional OneDrive settings.

Please share the test result with a clean boot and launch one affected game. If the issue disappears, re-enable background services/startup apps in small groups until you identify the program associated with the pause.

If the behavior remains unchanged, I’d recommend reporting it through Microsoft Support, including your OneDrive version, Windows version, affected games, and the exact OneDrive pause message.

Please note that this is a user-to-user support forum. Moderators, contributors including external Microsoft employees cannot directly intervene in Microsoft product features or access back-end systems. Our role is limited to providing technical guidance on reported issues, requests, or ideas.

Hopefully this helps narrow down the cause and gives you a clearer next step.
RahbEL 0 Reputation points

2026-11-02T04:20:02.97+00:00

I would like to add onto this since i'm experiencing it as well. I have a Personal Vault and noticed that for the past week its been locking prematurely. I have it set to lock after 4 hrs but it was appearing to lock at random intervals. I then noticed that all of OneDrive was pausing for whatever reason.

I later learned that it was happening whenever I have a video game in focus. At first I thought it was just being caused by Steam and its games but realized it would happen when playing World of Warcraft as well. I could be doing some work on a secondary monitor and Onedrive would be just fine, but as soon as I started playing my game, OneDrive would pause and my Vault would lock.

I've tried everything i've seen in all these posts about settings changes and OneDrive resets but this is something completely new.
Hendrix-V 20,790 Reputation points Microsoft External Staff Moderator

2026-11-04T03:19:27.49+00:00

Hi RahbEL,

At this point, I would recommend reporting it through Microsoft Support for further investigation.

Please note that this is a user-to-user support forum. Moderators, contributors including external Microsoft employees cannot directly intervene in Microsoft product features or access back-end systems. Our role is limited to providing technical guidance on reported issues, requests, or ideas.

Thanks for sharing what you tried and your acknowledgement.

Answer 3

Sebastian Merry 0

Hi @ScorpionKitch7 and @Colleen Magura this might be related to Game Mode (Settings > Gaming > Game Mode). If it’s enabled, could you try temporarily turning it off and checking whether OneDrive still pauses when you launch a game?

Also, out of curiosity, what’s your use case for keeping OneDrive syncing while you’re gaming? I’d like to understand how the pause affects what you’re trying to do.

0 comments