SharePoint, much like OneDrive, defaults to syncing your cloud documents in folders placed within your user directory. Your user directory refers to the folder that stores sub-folders relevant to your user account on Windows. For ease of access, organization, or simply disliking shortcuts, you may want to change the root directory for your shared document libraries. As luck would have it, the intricacies of this process are not at all complex, yet more so tedious.
Solution:
- Right-click OneDrive’s taskbar icon
- Select settings from the dropdown
- Navigate to the account tab
- Select stop sync
- Click unlink account
- Sign back into your associated account
- Click next
- Click choose new folder
- Select your intended root folder
- Choose your intended backup options
- Select continue/skip
- Close the window
Before you can change your SharePoint/OneDrive root folder, where OneDrive syncs libraries, you must first stop syncing the library on your device; it is impossible to change the sync location while syncing is in progress. Therefore, the first topic of this post will guide you on stopping a shared library from syncing. We will follow up by providing a step-by-step guide on altering the SharePoint/OneDrive root folder straight after.
Contents:
- [1] Stop syncing a folder to OneDrive/SharePoint
- [2] Change your root OneDrive/SharePoint root directory
- [3] Recap & Farewell
Stop syncing a folder to OneDrive/SharePoint to change the sync location
Step 1 – Open Settings from the OneDrive application dropdown
Assuming you’re using the default Windows layout, your taskbar should be at the bottom of the screen; you’ll notice the Windows icon on the far left, as well as the date and time on the far right. On the taskbar, you’ll be able to identify OneDrive via its blue cloud icon- as shown below. Right-click to continue. From the dropdown created, select “Settings.”
Step 2 – Click stop sync in the account tab
Open the “Account” tab from the OneDrive configuration window. You can do this by clicking the tab or using the “CTRL TAB” shortcut until you reach it. Upon doing so, you should click “Stop sync” to continue.
Step 3 – Confirm your actions
You are given two options within the new window: “Unlink account” and “Cancel“; you must select the first option to continue.
Change your root OneDrive/SharePoint root directory to change the sync location
Please follow on here- after the end of the last guide.
Step 1 – Sign back into your associated account
You will now need to enter the credentials for the account associated with the unsynced share library. The credentials consist of your email and password.
Step 2 – Skip the page
You can skip this page by selecting “Next,” as it is relatively pointless.
Step 3 – Choose to select a new folder
OneDrive will ask you to use the default folder in the next window or choose a new folder. Click “Choose new folder” to continue.
Step 4 – Select your intended root folder
Within the file-explorer, navigate to the folder you wish to use as your root folder, and select “Select” in the bottom right of the window after clicking it.
Step 5 – Configure additional options
If you would like to back up the content stored in your desktop, documents, and pictures folder, click them (if no checkmark is present). Otherwise, leave them untouched (unless a checkmark is present). Afterwhich you will need to select “Continue” or “Skip.”
Step 6 – Close the window
You may now close the window via the “X” corner.
Recap & Farewell
Recap
OneDrive and SharePoint sync libraries to a folder in your user directory by default; thus, this may not be where you intended to receive your documents. Hence why you may want to modify your shared library root folder. Unfortunately, it’s currently impossible to change our sync folder without first preventing the folder from syncing- despite this, the method for changing the directory once ready is relatively simple.
Farewell
As usual, offering thanks to our readers for their support is the intention of our closing section. We’d be pleased to know you found this post helpful and informative. If you have any more Office 365 related queries, please consult our related articles (listed below). However, if you have other questions, consider looking at the rest of the site. We frequently post new stuff each week and may have the guide or troubleshooting tips you need. Regardless, we wish you a good day/night- farewell, readers.
Our related articles:
- How to unsync SharePoint folder from desktop -A mirror like relationship is established between devices syncing to the cloud, hence when a change is made in one place, it’s applied on other synced devices at the same time. This can be problematic in some caseses where changes made are detromental. Here’ll be teaching you alll about how you can stop syncing right now.
- How to approve access requests in SharePoint Online – The access request function is utilised by users to request access to content they’re not normally able to observe. Most find their requests to have been delivered via an email, although some also prefer to directly ask their manager for access.
- SharePoint: can’t add site members: Causes and fixes – SharePoint is a OneDrive linked document manager that enables users to distribute news and documents in a group. Although, this not always the case as SharePoint has been found to infrequently struggle with adding new members to a site.- in this blog we’ll be running through some causes and discussing fixes.
- How to change the default text color in Word – Microsoft’s OneNote and Word applications enable you to format text in various ways. Albeit, Word is favoured for more extensive documents due to its’ greater formatting and writing capabilities; yet, word has also been found to contradcit it’s own functionality- by overriding user formatting choices.