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I recently did a reset of my Windows 10 computer.

I have two drives connected:

  • C: an SSD, and
  • D: two regular HDDs forming a dynamic mirrored drive within Windows.

On the D: drive I had my old onedrive folder. d:\OneDrive after the reinstallation of Windows 10 it automatically made the OneDrive appear here: c:\users\xxx\Onedrive

I now want to remove my old onedrive folder on my D: drive. The problem is that windows won't allow me to delete, rename, copy or move that old folder. Giving me this error:

Error 0x8007018B: Access to the cloud file is denied.

Since it is a mirrored drive I can't easily but a portable unix-OS to modify it directly, so now I do not know what to do. That error message is not very documented on the web.

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2
  • Unlink your account in OneDrive then re-add it specifying the proper location this time. Delete the folder on the C: afterwards.
    – Appleoddity
    Jun 23, 2018 at 0:06
  • @Appleoddity that's not the problem. How can I delete the old folder on D: ?
    – ehm
    Jun 23, 2018 at 10:04

3 Answers 3

Reset to default
14

I was able to get rid of my old OneDrive folder by opening Powershell(admin). Then going to parent directory and using the command 

Remove-Item "OneDrive folder name" -Recurse -Force

To open Powershell, press the Window key and X

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5
  • 1
    This worked perfectly for me.
    – Sylaan K'daar
    Dec 2, 2018 at 21:21
  • Worked for me. Much appreciated.
    – FirasR
    Jan 9, 2019 at 16:04
  • 5
    I had high hopes this would work for me too. When I tried it I got the error: Access to the cloud file is denied. Maybe a newer version of Windows or OneDrive no longer allows this method of deleting. I'll keep looking for another way.
    – Matthew MacFarland
    Jul 28, 2020 at 15:29
  • Did you ever find one? Something has definitely changed in OneDrive or PowerShell. You're unable to use Remove-Item "Folder" -Force with files on demand. Pretty sure this used to work...
    – munrobasher
    Nov 18, 2020 at 22:08
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    Cmd's rmdir /S worked for me when PowerShell gave the cloud file error. Some say PowerShell works by doing Get-Item on folder then calling .Delete() on the result. Apparently the cloud file error can also be caused by switching off Files On-Demand if/when OneDrive fails to remove reparse point flag from folders.
    – Vimes
    Dec 10, 2021 at 0:16
7

You need to disable first “Files-On-Demand” feature in OneDrive:

  1. Right-click OneDrive in the System Tray Click the menu icon -> Settings -> Settings tab -> “Files-On-Demand” section -> disable the “Save space and download files as you use them” option
  2. Now run Remove-Item .\Your_Folder_Name\ -Force

If still doesn't work and you face the error:

Remove-Item : There is a mismatch between the tag specified in the request and the tag present in the reparse point

then do this:

  1. run Dism /Online /Cleanup-Image /CheckHealth
  2. run Dism /Online /Cleanup-Image /ScanHealth
  3. run Dism /Online /Cleanup-Image /RestoreHealth
  4. and now on an elevated prompt run cmd /c rmdir /s /q C:\Users\Your_User_Name\Your_Folder_Name

PowerShell cannot handle broken symlink, use the hammer, use CMD.

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4
  • This should be the accepted answer. It is the only one that correctly identifies the real problem (On-Demand files setting) and the proper solution. Force deleting on boot or through admin-console may leave inaccessible files in your OneDrive storage in the cloud if you don't turn of the On-Demand feature first.
    – Tonny
    Dec 15, 2020 at 12:25
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    It is indeed the correct answer although why Microsoft are unable to fix it is perplexing...
    – munrobasher
    Feb 25, 2021 at 16:59
  • 2
    This solution worked for me.
    – Rajaraman Subramanian
    Mar 2, 2021 at 8:57
  • Additionally needed sfc and chkdsk: superuser.com/a/1734952/164429
    – Tyler Montney
    Aug 31, 2022 at 22:24
1

I managed to delete the folder by using boot deleter. I just had to make sure to give it admin privileges by right clicking the .exe -> properties -> compatability -> run as admin.

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1
  • 6
    I don't like the idea of trusting this random program from a sketchy site.
    – mm201
    Aug 6, 2018 at 7:21

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