Change default save location for Word from OneDrive back to local disc

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I recently installed OneDrive and found that it created WAY too many problems. Uninstalled OneDrive. I’m still left with Outlook issues, identified on another prior post and still unresolved, and an issue with the Word default save location. Before OneDrive, the default save location was C:\Users\Don & Lulu\Documents\Word Files. After OneDrive it was changed to C:\Users\Don & Lulu\OneDrive\Documents. NOTE: no Word Files folder. I have spent countless hours trying to revert the default save to its original location without success. I’ve tried deleting the OneDrive entry and both browsing to the former location and typing it in. Nothing works! I get an error message that “The directory C:\Users\Don & Lulu\Documents\Word Files is not valid.” This is despite the fact that I can go directly there using File Explorer, so it DOES exist. So, I can’t do any work with Word since I’m unable to save new documents, access existing documents or modify them. I do NOT have this issue with Excel for some reason???

I would REALLY appreciate some advice on this.

 

D. Eager

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windbg

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From your original post on January 2, 2024 – “As recommended in a recent newsletter, I downloaded, installed and activated OneDrive.”
When this program was downloaded and installed, was a restore made?

Go to Settings (gear icon)>System>About>Related settings>System protection>System restore>check box “Show more restore points”

Is there a restore point for when OneDrive was installed? If there is, you can try to go back and restore the way your computer was before OneDrive was installed.
Or any point before OneDrive was installed.

I am not an expert and I am not sure you can do this but it is all I can think of. Supposedly system restore restores your system to the way it was at an earlier time.

HP Pavilion Desktop TP01-0050 – 64 bit
Windows 10 Home Version 22H2
OS build 19045.5487
Windows Defender and Windows Firewall
Microsoft Office Home and Business 2019
-Version 2501(Build 18429.20132 C2R)

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I likely have a restore point for before OneDrive was installed. However, I don’t think I’d want to do that since I’d probably loose everything I’ve done with other apps and files since then.

I haven’t actually lost any Outlook data as the .pst files are still visible using File Explorer. I’m just unable to use the correct .pst file by adding it to the locations list in Outlook>File>Account Settings>Account Settings>Data Files.

 

Thanks.

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Have you tried changing the default in Word Options? Make sure Word is set to Save on this computer as shown in the image below. Then use the Browse button to go to the location you want.

If you have already done this and Word will still not let you access that folder, try another location and see if Word will accept that.

If not, then I suggest a repair of Office.

HTH, Dana:))

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Yes. I have ensured that the setting for Save to Local is set. Didn’t help. I also set up a new folder under Documents and copied the contents of the original folder to it. Still unable to select that folder in Outlook Data Files. It keeps adding OneDrive to the path.

 

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Hey, Dana, is it possible that OneDrive messed with the file and folder permissions for the \Documents folder so that for some reason when Explorer is run from within Word, it doesn’t see the folder that Don’s trying to point it to, namely Don & Lulu\Documents\Word Files?

I.E. maybe it messed with the folder permissions for the \Don & Lulu\Documents folder rendering it invisible to Explorer when it’s run from within Word.

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One last thing that might be causing this:
Open Word Options and select Trust Center tab and then the Trust Center Settings.
In Trust Center settings, select Trusted Locations.
Is your location you want listed? If not, then list it.
Remove any OneDrive Paths.

See if this fixes the problem.

If not, you need to run a repair of Office. Real easy, but post back if you need instructions.

This could have been caused by a recent Office update (1/4/24) which adds a new Sensitivity label toolbar that applies to all files saved. If the repair doesn’t fix the problem, then a revert to version before this update could be a solution.

Another thought: Start Word in safe mode and see if you can access that folder. To open Word in safe mode: WinKey + R , enter winword.exe /safe and press Enter key.

HTH, Dana:))

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The Trust Center option seemed appealing and at first appeared to work but ultimately failed. Here’s the scenario:

1. Opened Word.
2. Went to File\Options.
3. Went to Trust Center\Trust Center settings\Trusted Locations.
4. NO OneDrive locations listed.
5. Added the location of Word files as C:\Users\Don & Lulu\Documents\Word Files II. This is the location of the newly-created folder recommended previously and containing all files and folders from the original location C:\Users\Don & Lulu\Documents\Word Files. NOTE: all the locations displayed in the Trusted Locations list display path as \Don _Lulu\ and not as \Don & Lulu\. Problem?
6. Went to Word\File\Options\Save.
7. Ensured Save to Computer by Default was checked.
8. Default location showed C:\Users\Don & Lulu\OneDrive\Documents\.
9. Clicked Browse.
10. Modify Location box displayed.
11. Navigated to This PC\Documents\Word Files II.
12. Folder name shows Word Files II.
13. Clicked OK.
14. Returned to Save Documents screen.
15. Default location NOT changed. Still has OneDrive in path.
16. Cancelled.

This is MOST exasperating!

Not sure how to repair Office.  Where might I find instructions? I really appreciate your help so far.

Don E.

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Bob99 wrote:

Hey, Dana, is it possible that OneDrive messed with the file and folder permissions for the \Documents folder so that for some reason when Explorer is run from within Word, it doesn’t see the folder that Don’s trying to point it to, namely Don & Lulu\Documents\Word Files?

Interesting, but I don’t know how it could of change permissions. Easy to prove and see…See if the folder is visible in a Command window and use a Command to open a file with Word from that folder. If it doesn’t open the file, it will tell you why.

HTH, Dana:))

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doneager wrote:

Not sure how to repair Office.  Where might I find instructions?

Repair an Office Application

This could also solve your Outlook problem. Sorry, I missed your posting for that original problem.

HTH, Dana:))

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Running the repair tool did not work. The default save location path still contains OneDrive.

Haven’t re-checked the Outlook problem yet. Addressing one at a time!

Frustration level increasing!

 

Thanks,

 

Don E.

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Are you opening Word the same way? Try this: In File Explorer go to your folder that has your documents, right click one document, and select Open with… and select Word. After that document opens, check to see if you can change the default location in the Options of that document and if it will allow you to save it under a different name to that location. It may be the shortcut you use to open Word. Opening a different way may avoid the OneDrive restriction.

HTH, Dana:))

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I tried this, but it didn’t work. I got an error message stating the the destination folder is not valid. OneDrive keeps being added to the path. No OneDrive installed anymore???

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The following link is a troubleshooting guide for Word problems. Note the STARTUP folder for Word usually at %userprofile%\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Word\STARTUP. With Word closed move anything in this folder to another folder, leaving this Startup folder empty. Restart Word and see if Word can access those documents.

Troubleshoot problems that occur when you start or use Word

HTH, Dana:))

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I went to C:\Users\Don & Lulu\App Data\Roaming\Microsoft\Word. No folder STARTUP found there. Did I go to the folder you recommended? Does %userprofile% equate to what I entered? Any other suggestions?

 

Thanks,

Don E.

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doneager wrote:

destination folder is not valid

This is a worrisome action from Word that usually means:
1)The files were never synced to OneDrive and OneDrive doesn’t recognize the drive. Access to those settings were in the OneDrive app you uninstalled. If you set File Explorer to show hidden files you can go to C:\Users\Don & Lulu\AppData\Local\Microsoft\OneDrive for all of OneDrive files and settings files. Not sure deleting these files is good or not.
At C:\Users\Don & Lulu\AppData\Local\OneDrive\cache is where OneDrive stores its cache. Deleting the cache my change the behavior
2)The files are corrupt (hard to believe for a lot of files)
3)You have lost permissions to access those files. Easy to test. Open one of the files with Notepad or WordPad.

I would like you to try to open one of your documents with a command line and see what the Command window responds.
Open a Command window (WinKey +R, type in cmd, press Enter key)
At the prompt enter the command below to move the prompt to the folder that contains your Word documents (based upon your prior post)

cd C:\Users\Don & Lulu\Documents\Word Files

which should turn the prompt to

C:\Users\Don & Lulu\Documents\Word Files>

At that prompt type in dir after the prompt and press the Enter key.
Does this show all your documents in that file? If not use the mouse pointer to highlight the text in that the Command window responded with and press Ctrl + C to copy and post back here.

At that prompt enter Start Documentname.docx Replace Documentname  with the name of one of your documents in that folder. Note the space after Start and the name of the document must have the .docx extension added to the name. You can copy document name from the dir list and paste that into the Command window.

This will start Word and open that document. Let me know what happens. If it does open try to change the default location in that document.  Also try to access other documents thru that opened Word document.

HTH, Dana:))

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This didn’t work. I got the prompt “C:\Users\Don & Lulu>” upon opening cmd.

Could not figure out how to add \Documents\Word Files to it as recommended.

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doneager wrote:

Could not figure out how to add \Documents\Word Files to it as recommended.

Easy! Simply type the following at that command prompt you get when you first open the command prompt.

First, type “cd\Documents” (without the quotes) and hit the Enter key. That will add the Documents folder to the end of your prompt.

Then type “cd\Word Files” (again, without the quotes) and hit the Enter key. Now, your command prompt should include the entire path that Dana was trying to point you to.

I hope this helps!

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Thanks for your suggestion, however it still doesn’t work for some reason. I started cmd and got the prompt C:\Users\Don & Lulu>. Then typed cd\Documents and hit enter. Got error message “The system cannot find the path specified.” If I use File Explorer and go to C:\Users\Don & Lulu\Documents it finds that folder which only contains a subfolder of Outlook Files. If I use File Explorer and navigate This PC\Documents\Word Files the folder displayed contains all my saved Word documents. VERY strange. Any additional ideas to fix this so I can proceed with the rest of your suggested actions?

 

Don E.

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MY MISTAKE!! I mistakenly included the backslash (\) in the instructions when I shouldn’t have! The way to have made those commands work was to type “cd Documents” and hit Enter, then type “cd Word Files” and hit Enter. My sincerest apologies, must’ve been having a senior moment when typing the instructions in my post above!  😳

In order for those commands to work, there MUST be a space between “cd” and the next word, with no backslash (\).

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No problem. I’m WELL acquainted with senior moments! However, changing the query format to eliminate the \ didn’t help. Same result. Please see my post at 3:05 PM today which discusses the path found which still contains OneDrive. That MAY be the issue.

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Yes, I do believe that the OneDrive directory is part of the “mess”.

I just added clarification (by way of a second paragraph) to my post above regarding the paths and the way they need to be typed into the command line interpreter. Again, apologies for the oversight!

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I apologize, but I’m completely lost about what I’m supposed to do next. Too many threads of suggestions and replies. Very confused. Should we be working on trying to eliminate the OneDrive references I discovered before anything else? If so, how do I do that? If not, what should I try next? I guess what I’m suggesting is a total restatement of where we are and what should be done next.

 

 

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Sorry, I didn’t mean to contribute to what is indeed an already-confusing situation. If you haven’t already, please follow the guidance from Dana in the following post (the last one in this thread as I write this post):

https://www.askwoody.com/forums/topic/change-default-save-location-for-word-from-onedrive-back-to-local-disc/#post-2628221

To help avoid any other potential issues, please focus on what Dana ( DrCard:)) ) says from this point forward.

Again, my sincerest apologies.

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No need to apologize. You were doing what you thought best to help me out. I really appreciate any and all suggestions. Dana has sent a detailed recovery plan in another post and I’ll stick with that and see how it goes. Thanks again, senior to senior. I’m almost 81.

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doneager wrote:

Could not figure out how to add \Documents\Word Files to it as recommended.

Copy the command in bold below

cd C:\Users\Don & Lulu\Documents\Word Files

Open the command window to your C:\Users\Don & Lulu> prompt.
Place the mouse pointer in the Command window and right click. This will paste the copied command for you.
Press Enter key after pasting and the prompt will change to
C:\Users\Don & Lulu\Documents\Word Files>
At that prompt type dir and press the Enter key
This will display the files in that folder and return the prompt to what it was
C:\Users\Don & Lulu\Documents\Word Files>. Remember the name including the file extension .docx of one of the files
At this prompt type in start winword Filename Notice spacing between the words and replace the Filename with the name of the file. Press the enter key. Sorry, forgot the winword part of the command on my prior post.
If you have access to those files, Word should open the file.
Whatever happens:
With the cursor active in the Command window press Ctrl + A keys to select all text in the Command window. Press the Ctrl + C keys to copy all that text. Open a blank Notepad document and press Ctrl + V keys to paste all that text to the notepad document. Save the document and you can upload to show how the Command responded to your commands.

HTH, Dana:))

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doneager wrote:

Then typed cd\Documents and hit enter. Got error message “The system cannot find the path specified.”

I’m sorry for the confusion and it is the details that makes the difference.

cd\Documents is not going to work because there has to be a space between cd and \Documents and should have been cd \Documents. Without the space it will give the error answer you got.
I’ll give you an easy way to get the path in the command:
1) Open the command which you posted is
C:\Users\Don & Lulu>
2) At the prompt type in cd. Enter one space after the cd.
3) Press the Tab key once. It will show a folder that is in the Don & Lulu folder. Each time you press the Tab key it will show another folder in that folder going thru the folders and files in alphabetical order. You can Tab thru every folder and file in that folder.
4) When you get to the Documents showing enter a backslash (\). Press the Tab key to toggle thru the folders in the Document folder to you get to the Word Files displaying. Press the Enter key and the prompt will change to
C:\Users\Don & Lulu\Documents\Word Files>
At that prompt you can do what I asked above to find out why Word can’t access those files.

HTH, Dana:))

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I followed your instructions as far as toggling through the folders until Word Files displayed. That didn’t happen. There were 4 total folders displayed, but that wasn’t one of them. I think this is related to something I believe I previously reported. When using File Explorer to located the Word Files folder there are two different results depending on the search path entered:

1. Navigating This PC\Documents\Word Files the folder displayed contains all my stored Word documents.
2. Navigating C:\Users\Don & Lulu\Documents\displays only a single folder named Outlook Files.

I just can’t believe that my aborted attempt to use OneDrive has created this much of a problem with being able to save my Word files that has lasted so long as well as other problems being address elsewhere. Thanks Microsoft!

I’m totally confused but still hope the folks here at Woody can help me resolve this.

Don E.

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doneager wrote:

hen using File Explorer to located the Word Files folder there are two different results depending on the search path entered: Navigating This PC\Documents\Word Files the folder displayed contains all my stored Word documents. Navigating C:\Users\Don & Lulu\Documents\displays only a single folder named Outlook Files.

Do you have more than one account on this PC?
This PC\Documents is the Documents folder for the current logged on on user. If you are logged on as Don & Lulu as the user account then This PC\Documents should be C:\Users\Don & Lulu\Documents so if they are different then they are different accounts.
Open File Explorer to This PC
Right click the Documents folder and select Properties
On the General tab look at Location which will be C:\Users\Username
That user account is the account that this folder belongs to.
If that Username is not Don & Lulu that explains why the Word Files are not in the Don & Lulu Documents folder.

Post back what you find and we will make sure this is not a permissions issue rather than a Word problem. I strongly think that between adding OneDrive which changes settings in Word and removing OneDrive some of the settings were hung and waiting on a sync that no longer can happen. The repair check all the software and dlls for Word so that leaves Word option values being corrupt, or maybe a permissions problem with your Word files. If we rule out permissions there is one last thing to do and that is to reset all of Word’s options to default values. This would remove any customizations you made to Word since you installed it, but it may be the only way to fix this.
Currently I’m having trouble uploading PDFs, so as soon as that is fixed I upload the PDF which is instructions on how to reset Word’s default settings.

I’ll try to upload now

Reset-Word-to-Default-Settings

Working now.
Thanks to management!

HTH, Dana:))

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I believe that there is only one account on this PC. When I go to Control Panel>User Accounts only Don & Lulu is displayed. Administrator privileges.

I opened File Explorer and right-clicked Documents folder. Properties show:

General>Location shows C:\Users\Don & Lulu\OneDrive.

Location shows  C:\Users\Don & Lulu\OneDrive\Documents.

This may be the issue! If you agree, how can this be fixed?

Don E.

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doneager wrote:

I opened File Explorer and right-clicked Documents folder. Properties show: General>Location shows C:\Users\Don & Lulu\OneDrive. Location shows  C:\Users\Don & Lulu\OneDrive\Documents. This may be the issue! If you agree, how can this be fixed?

It is confusing because there is more than one “Documents” folder so we take this one step at a time.

Copy this

%userprofile%

Click the Search box by the Start Menu, paste the above in the search box and press the Enter key.

This will open File Explorer to C:\Users\Don & Lulu folder (will say that in the address above).

Look a the folders in this Don & Lulu folder.  You will see a Documents folder.  This is the C:\Users\Don & Lulu\Document folder that you said you had kept your documents in but could not find the Word Files folder with the command prompt.  Look further down the list of folders in the Don & Lulu folder and you should see a OneDrive folder.  If you open the OneDrive folder you will find a folder label Documents.  This Documents folder inside the OneDrive folder is not the same as the Documents folder in the Don & Lulu folder.  Look inside the Document folder that is inside the OneDrive folder and see if your Word file folder is there.  We need to know exactly where the documents are.  If you find your documents in File Explorer hold the pointer over a file (don’t click the file)until it is highlighted (selected).  Once the file is highlight click the Copy Path icon on the left side of the Home tab on the Ribbon in File Explorer.   Paste in a document so let us see the exact path.  Once we know exactly where your Word documents are we can take the next step.

HTH, Dana:))

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Dana,

Followed your latest instructions with one minor exception. I had to click on a Word file listed in the folder to check mark and highlight it in order for the Copy Path option to be available. Then I clicked that and the following was displayed:

“C:\Users\Don & Lulu\OneDrive\Documents\Word Files\A Not So Excellent Adventure.docx”

As I’m sure you’ll note right away, OneDrive in the path. So, what’s next? I’m feeling more confident that this can be fixed! Thanks again for your patience and help.

Don E.

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doneager wrote:

So, what’s next?

Use File Explorer and go to
C:\Users\Don & Lulu\OneDrive\Documents (note this is the OneDrive Documents folder)
which shows the Word Files folder.
Place the pointer on the Word Files folder and right click.
Select Copy
Go to
C:\Users\Don & Lulu\Documents (no OneDrive)
which will display what is in this Documents folder.
Right click a blank space and select Paste.

Let me know if the Word Files folder and your documents that were in the folder were copied to that Documents folder and if not what any error message said.

HTH, Dana:))

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Copy was successful! I now have a Word Files folder on the OneDrive path and the path without OneDrive. Contents in both folders are the same. I also can now access the files from Explorer path This PC>Documents>Word Files! The default file location under Options in Word has been corrected to C:\Users\Don & Lulu\Documents\Word Files as well!

It looks like we’re almost done. Should I delete the OneDrive folder under Don & Lulu? Anything else you recommend at this time?

Thanks SO MUCH for fixing this!

 

Don E.

 

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doneager wrote:

Should I delete the OneDrive folder under Don & Lulu? Anything else you recommend at this time?

I would delete the OneDrive folder to avoid confusion with the other copies of the Word files. Windows may put the OneDrive folder back on some future update, but it won’t have your duplicate Word files.

I’m glad its fixed. If you will post again and as creator of this thread you can select to label the thread SOLVED.

HTH, Dana:))

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Problem fixed with excellent help provided here.

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