Move SkyDrive folder to a different location without having all files resynced
Blog

Move SkyDrive folder to a different location without having all files resynced

By Subhendu Das  |  Published on March 10, 2015

Netwoven Blog

OneDrive, formerly Skydrive gives us the ability to sync any Sharepoint document library into local computer. For whatever reasons, if you have thousands of documents already synced into your local computer and realize that you have run out of space in your present synced drive, what would you do? Create a new folder and re-sync? Possibly you would not like to waste hours behind re-synching and downloading all documents. Here is a smart way to handle such situation.

Solution

To Move SkyDrive folder to a different location without having all files re-synced.

Right click SkyDrive icon on the task bar, click settings

In the settings tab, click Unlink SkyDrive button

s1

Move your SkyDrive folder to new sync folder location.

Launch SkyDrive again, on the first run, click Change button to choose the folder set in step

s2

SkyDrive will now use the new folder you choose, all existing files will be merged without getting resynced from cloud.

Another workaround can also be followed here if you do not find the option of unlink.

Exit the SkyDrive/OneDrive application by right click on your system tray.

s3

Move the existing SkyDrive folder (under your user profile by default) to the new desired location. I moved mine to “D:MAXSkydrive”.

Use Windows Explorer to navigate to the folder“c:users[username]AppDataLocalMicrosoftSkyDrivesettings” where [username] is your user profile. If APP Data is not visible, need tomake it visible from Control Panel by selecting “Folder Options” > “View” > “Show hidden files”

s4

Look for the .ini file with the random letters & numbers (in the above image, it is 08368ecf2576d77c.ini). Edit this with your favourite text editor.

Search for the line which starts with “library = “. This line shows the folder where your SkyDrive data was originally synchronised after “personal“. Change this to the proposed new file location.

s5

Make sure you get this exactly right. Once you are done, Save and Close.

Launch SkyDrive from your Start Menu. You may get an error pop up, but the application will do a quick scan of the folder and confirm all is in order.

By Subhendu Das

Subhendu Das is a technically competent IT Professional offering a distinguished career donning leadership roles for over 18 years primarily in IT Infrastructure Services along with a 12 years’ experience in IT Education Industry as a lead Educationalist. Subhendu has been working as a Senior Manager – IT Infrastructure with Netwoven and he is driving a team of IT Administrators and building sound IT Infrastructure for developers and remote servers in US. He is also actively involved with various client infrastructure migration, SharePoint, Exchange and Office 365 projects. Subhendu holds a Bachelor of Science from Calcutta University and also is a graduate from National Institute of Information Technology. He is a Microsoft Certified professional with certifications in MCSE, MCITP, MOS, MCTS, MCSA.

Leave a comment

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Unravel The Complex
Stay Connected

Subscribe and receive the latest insights

Netwoven Inc. - Microsoft Solutions Partner

Get involved by tagging Netwoven experiences using our official hashtag #UnravelTheComplex