Is your OneDrive constantly backing up files, eating up your storage space, and causing you frustration? In this post, we'll walk you through 4 effective methods on how to stop automatic backup to OneDrive. With these simple solutions, you can regain control of your cloud storage and ensure a seamless digital experience.
Your PC may be backing up to OneDrive for several reasons, as it's a feature provided by Microsoft to help users protect their data and make it accessible from multiple devices. Here are some common reasons why your PC is backing up to OneDrive:
Since you may want to learn how to stop auto backup in OneDrive for different reasons, here we will show you 3 ways to pause OneDrive backup, turn off OneDrive folder backup, unlink your OneDrive account with the PC, and quit OneDrive. You need to know first that all the 3 ways are for the OneDrive desktop app.
Step 1: Click the OneDrive icon in the taskbar. Usually, it is in the lower-right corner.
Step 2: Select the gear-like icon to extend the context menu. Then choose “Pause syncing” in the dropdown menu. Here you can choose to pause for 2 hours, 8 hours, or 24 hours.
Step 1: Click the OneDrive icon in the taskbar.
Step 2: Tap on the gear-like icon and select “Settings”.
Step 3: Choose “Sync and back up” in the left sidebar and then select “Manage backup”.
Step 4: Switch the button beside Documents, Pictures, or Desktop according to your needs. Then close the window and OneDrive will stop updating the selected files. You can also move the backed-up files from the OneDrive folder to one of your local folders.
Step 1: Click the OneDrive icon in the taskbar.
Step 2: Tap on the gear-like icon and select “Settings”.
Step 3: Choose “Account” in the left sidebar and click the “Unlink this PC” button under your profile.
Note: After unlinking your PC with OneDrive, you don’t remove OneDrive from File Explorer and can still access the files in the OneDrive folder without signing in to your OneDrive account. This action just stops updating files from your PC to the OneDrive folder.
Step 1: Click the OneDrive icon in the taskbar.
Step 2: Tap on the gear-like icon, select “Pause syncing”, and choose “Quit OneDrive”.
Note: After quitting OneDrive, you can also access the files that were backed up to OneDrive before in File Explorer. But this time, you need to log in to your OneDrive and then access these files. Of course, this action will stop OneDrive auto backup.
If you want to know how to stop OneDrive backup due to the limited OneDrive storage, you can transfer some files from OneDrive to another cloud drive like Google Drive, Dropbox, or iCloud Drive. In this regard, MultCloud can play a role in helping you do the transfer.
MultCloud is a free cloud management service that supports 30+ cloud drives, such as OneDrive, Google Drive, iCloud Drive, iCloud Photos, Icedrive, iDrive, and so on. With it, you can manage different cloud drives with an app instead of skipping back and forth. The whole Cloud Transfer process created on MultCloud is automatic so that you don’t have to manually download or upload files for transfer. Besides, Cloud Transfer offers several options to handle repeated files, select your desired files, set a transfer frequency, and delete files after transfer.
The following steps are for OneDrive to Google Drive transfer.
Step 1: Create a MultCloud account for free.
Step 2: Add OneDrive and Google Drive to MultCloud. First, click “Add Cloud” and the cloud icon. Then, sign in to the cloud account and allow MultCloud to access your cloud in the pop-up window.
Step 3: Click “Cloud Transfer” in the left sidebar and select OneDrive and Google Drive in the FROM/TO boxes. Then click on the “Transfer Now” button to start this transfer task.
Notes:
We've explored 4 effective ways to regain control of OneDrive backup: pause OneDrive auto backup, turn off OneDrive folder backup, unlink the PC with your OneDrive account, and quit OneDrive. Now that you know how to stop OneDrive backup, you can tailor it to suit your needs seamlessly.
If you read the bonus tip and are interested in MultCloud Cloud Transfer moving files, you may give it a try and it will not let you down. Besides, MultCloud can give you more functions like Cloud Sync, Cloud Backup, Team Transfer, Email Migration, Image Saver, etc. to resolve more cloud file transfer tasks. For example, if you want to save multiple Instagram images to the cloud at once, you can use MultCloud Image Saver to realize it.