How do I turn off OneDrive or iCloud Drive without losing my files?
Unlinking is safe only in a specific order: download everything, copy it out, verify the copy, then unlink. Doing it the other way round is how people lose the lot.
- Difficulty
- intermediate
- Time
- 45 min
- Read
- 4 min
- Safety
- warning
Short answer
Order matters. First make every folder always available on this device and wait for the download to finish. Second, copy the whole sync folder somewhere outside it — a different drive is best — and open a few files to check. Third, unlink or sign out of the account, which stops syncing but leaves what is on the drive. Only after all that should you delete anything from the service. Never start by unlinking.
Do this first
People turn sync off for good reasons: reclaiming disk space, ending a subscription, separating work from home, or simply wanting files that behave like files. All of those are fine. It is the sequence that goes wrong, because unlinking and "free up space" sit next to each other in the interface and mean opposite things.
Safety
Step by step
- Find out how much is actually online-only.Compare the size the service reports for your account with the free space on your drive. If the account is bigger than the space you have, you cannot simply download everything and you will need an external drive as the destination.
- Make everything available locally, or download to a drive.Either set the top-level folders to always keep on this device and wait, or use the service's export or download-all facility to produce archives. Downloads of a large account will take hours and often arrive as several compressed files.
- Wait for the client to say it is fully up to date.Not "syncing", not "processing" — finished. Large accounts stall on individual files; if the client is stuck, find the file it is stuck on rather than assuming it finished.
- Copy the contents out to a location that is not synced.An external drive, or a folder on a second internal drive. Copy, do not move — you want both to exist until you have verified. This copy is what actually protects you.
- Verify the copy properly.Compare the folder size and file count with the service's reported total, then open a document, a photograph, a video and something from an application folder. A copy that stopped a third of the way through looks fine until you check.
- Now unlink the account.Use the client's unlink or sign-out option rather than uninstalling. Unlinking stops synchronisation and leaves the local folder in place. Read every prompt; decline anything offering to remove local files.
- Undo folder redirection if it is on.If Desktop and Documents were redirected into the sync folder, point them back at their normal locations and move the contents yourself. Do this deliberately and check both places afterwards.
- Wait a fortnight before deleting anything from the service.You will find something you missed. Storage is cheap for two more weeks; a deleted cloud account is not recoverable once its retention expires.
Common mistakes
- Unlinking first and downloading afterwards — Once unlinked, the placeholders can no longer fetch their contents, and on some services the local folder is cleared. The files still exist on the service but the machine can no longer reach them through that folder.
- Accepting the "free up space" prompt while tidying — That converts local files back into online-only placeholders — precisely the opposite of what you are trying to achieve, and easy to do by reflex.
- Uninstalling the client instead of unlinking — Uninstalling can remove the local folder along with the software on some platforms, and it removes your ability to check what synced before you have verified the copy.
- Cancelling the subscription on the same day — You lose the safety net at the moment you most need it. Keep paying for one more month.
If it doesn't work
Client says syncing forever and never completes
Cause: A file it cannot handle — an illegal character in the name, a file in use, or one over the service's size limit — Fix: Look at the client's list of problem files, rename or close the offending item, and let it continue. Many clients keep a visible errors list that people never open.
Not enough local space to download everything
Cause: Cloud account larger than the drive — Fix: Download in sections to an external drive, marking one top-level folder at a time as always-available, copying it out, then setting it back to online-only to release the space.
Files became shortcuts with a tiny size after unlinking
Cause: Placeholders left behind with no client to fetch them — Fix: Sign back in, wait for it to reconnect, set folders to always available, and only then unlink again. The data is on the service; the local stubs are meaningless without the client.
Questions people ask
Will unlinking delete files from the cloud?
No. Unlinking only ends the relationship between this machine and the account. The account keeps its contents until you delete them or the subscription lapses.
Can I keep the account but stop it syncing one folder?
Yes — selective sync or folder choice does exactly this on all the major services, and it is usually a better answer than unlinking altogether.
What about iCloud Drive specifically?
The same order applies, and the download-everything step is the one to be patient with. Turning iCloud Drive off offers to keep or remove local copies; keep them, verify, and only then consider removing anything.