Change location of OneDrive folder in Windows 8.1

Download PC Repair Tool to quickly find & ready Windows errors automatically

We have seen that, with Windows 8.1, OneDrive has been deeply integrated with it. The OneDrive squad has been regularly adding features, as it receives its users' feedback. While the OneDrive users have welcomed its integration with Windows, one of their virtually common complaints was that they could not alter the location of the OneDrive binder.

Nowadays we meet many PCs with the boot bulldoze being a Sold State Bulldoze (SSD) where infinite is a premium as these SSDs haven't nonetheless get as economical every bit regular Difficult drives. By default files in the OneDrive binder are stored at the C:\Users\<username>\OneDrive. And with OneDrive information being stored there, it was a cause of concern because of the lack of storage infinite. Before with OneDrive desktop app, yous had the option to configure where OneDrive synced its files, but with the integration of OneDrive in Windows 8.1, information technology became a business concern, because of the absence. It thus became the most requested feature by OneDrive users.

TIP: Windows 10 users tin can come across hither how to move or modify the location of the OneDrive folder.

Change location of OneDrive folder in Windows 8.1

In Windows 8.ane you tin can do it hands. This postal service is a small tip virtually the same, though small, but many of the Windows 8.1 users don't know near this, kind of hidden yet useful feature.

Yous don't become this feature from OneDrive options in the new PC Settings. For this, you have to open up Windows Explorer in the desktop.

Right click on SkyDrive/OneDrive in the navigation pane and select Properties and in that you accept the 'Location' tab.

Hither, you can change the default path. You tin change where the files in this folder are to be stored, to another location on the same hard drive, other drive or even some other calculator on the network. Simply click on the Motility.. button and select the new location of your selection and Apply. The contents in the SkyDrive folder volition go stored in the specified location.

Y'all also have the option to Restore Default dorsum to its default path. Delight annotation all the screenshots above are from Windows viii.1 RTM and the feature is available in Windows eight.1 RTM merely.

This is a big space saver for those users having smaller SSD every bit their Kick drive. Apart from this shifting of the location to save space on the kicking drive, there's another unique space saver SkyDrive feature that doesn't sync all your content to your PC, unless you lot ask SkyDrive to do so. We accept seen this feature in our before postal service. Though it looks like the entire SkyDrive folder is downloaded, actually information technology's just the 'placeholder' of those files. It thus consumes very petty space compared with the actual files. You tin but check this, by right-clicking on SkyDrive in Explorer in Desktop and bank check for General tab in Properties for the size.

As you lot can run into, though the size is 137 MB, the size on disk is 9.two MB, though all the files, folders are listed.

Update : Since some people had queries about moving the location to a removable drive or to an SD card drive similar in Surface Pro. I'm updating this mail service regarding the aforementioned. On a regular PC, I have tried using removable USB Pen drive and it works. It might exist a bit slower than accessing on faster SSDs/hard drives. Only thing is, it has to be formatted to the NTFS file system.

And so connect your Pen drive or select your SD card drive in your Surface Pro/Laptop and format it in NTFS file system

Create a folder in that USB drive/SD card, as SkyDrive content tin only be moved to a folder.

Subsequently that, from SkyDrive properties the equally described above, Right-click > Backdrop > Location, click on Move and select the Destination and click on Employ.

And click Yes, and the Moving of all files from the former location to New Location starts. It will take fourth dimension according to the size of the OneDrive binder. Let some time for the move to exist fully complete.

That's all, so you have set your new location of the OneDrive folder to USB Pendrive or to an SD menu drive.

As mentioned earlier, y'all can use 'Restore Default' to set back to its default location, if needed.

Then try these squeamish OneDrive features and as a thing of precaution, do take backups before experimenting.

The author has been a Microsoft MVP awardee in various Windows categories (2006-2016) and currently a Windows Insider MVP. A Technology Enthusiast, interested in anything technical and is committed to Microsoft technologies and products. He is actively associated with diverse Microsoft online communities, forums, Newsgroups and has been actively involved in Beta testing diverse Microsoft products and bug submissions.