all my photos and files have been moved off my computers hard drive to one drive. AL

Hi David,

I'm Cherrelyn, I'm here to help and I understand how upsetting it is when your files are suddenly moved and reorganized without your intention. To get your files back in order on your hard drive have you tried to open OneDrive and go to the folder (like Pictures or Documents) where your files now live. Then select and copy the files or folders you want to move back. Paste them into the corresponding location on your local drive ex. his PC > Pictures. Once confirmed, you can turn off folder backup by right-clicking the OneDrive icon in the taskbar > Settings > Sync and Backup > Manage Backup, then disable the folders.

Let me how it goes' I'm here to help you further.

Warm regards,

Cherrelyn

It would be good if Microsoft had some real people on the end of a phone. They used to.

Impossible to get any help from Microsoft after they get into your files and reorganise them. I am going to keep everything on portable hard drives so they can’t do this again.

Hi David,

Thank you for your honest feedback, and I completely understand your frustration in your photos and how you organize them are deeply personal, and it’s upsetting when things are changed without clear consent. Just to clarify, OneDrive’s folder backup can sometimes activate automatically during setup or after updates, which leads to files being moved to the cloud without warning. It’s not intentional, and I agree and it should be more transparent.

Your plan to use a portable hard drive is a smart one if you want full control. In the meantime, if you'd like help restoring your folders as close to the original structure as possible, I’d be happy to guide you step-by-step to make it faster and less tedious.

Warm regards,

Cherrelyn

David, I am happy to walk you through.

Very important - don't try to move anything at all. We can sort this through.

This is the original instruction I gave you, in order for me to unpack anything and walk you through, I need to know which step you ran into issue/challenge, and we will work on this.

Right click on the OneDrive cloud icon on the lower right on your taskbar to go to Settings.

1. On the "Sync and Backup" tab, click on "Advanced Settings" to expand that section. Then under File On-Demand, click on "Download all files".
2. Give it plenty of time to allow the files to be downloaded from the online cloud. On your computer's file explorer, you can observe the OneDrive folder and its folders/files inside. You want all of the green checkmark icon to turn solid green with a white checkmark. Depends on how many files you have, this process can take a while, so please be patient.
3. Once all of the folders and files turn into the solid green icon with white checkmark, you can go back to OneDrive Settings. Very important - click on "Manage Backup" button, then turn off all folders listed there.