How do I stop OneDrive from syncing everything?

Definitely, OneDrive is a good choice for file syncing and provides many useful features for you. But you may encounter the OneDrive sync everything issue. In fact, you just want to sync certain files instead of syncing all files to OneDrive.

Why is OneDrive syncing everything? Generally, this issue is caused by Windows conflicts or program errors. Then, how to stop OneDrive sync everything and choose certain files to sync? Read on to get 6 solutions and 1 tip for you.

Why OneDrive Syncing Everything?

Sometimes, OneDrive syncs everything because you have enabled the Manage Backup feature. And you often save your files to Documents, Pictures, and Desktop folders but you do not want to sync them to OneDrive. As a result, OneDrive will sync everything automatically.

How to fix OneDrive syncing everything in 6 easy methods

How to stop OneDrive from syncing everything? To stop OneDrive from syncing, you can try some different solutions to fix it. If you want to find an effective method for OneDrive selective sync, please refer to the tip in the later part.

Solution 1. Pause OneDrive from syncing

There is a Pause syncing feature in the OneDrive client. It can stop your OneDrive syncing everything for 2, 8, or 24 hours. And you can resume the sync at any time.

1. Click on your OneDrive icon in taskbar, and choose the More option.

2. Select the Pause syncing option on the menu. You can choose how long you want to stop OneDrive syncing. But after a period of time, it will start to sync again.

Solution 2. Disable Internet connection

Since OneDrive is an online backup service, it works relying on a stable internet connection. For this, how to stop OneDrive from uploading everything? You can disable the Internet network connection, then OneDrive cannot sync your data successfully.

Solution 3. Disable the Auto Save feature

It is possible that you have enabled the Auto Save feature in OneDrive, so OneDrive will save your data to OneDrive automatically. To stop it, please go to the OneDrive settings page.

1. In this window, please uncheck the “Automatically save photos and videos to OneDrive whenever I connect a camera, phone, or other devices to my PC” option and the “Automatically save screenshots I capture to OneDrive” option. Then OneDrive will not sync data automatically.

2. Then click on Update folders to go to this page. Please choose Stop protecting to stop syncing.

Solution 4. Try OneDrive selective sync

If you need to sync some of your files instead of syncing everything, you can use the OneDrive selective sync feature, which allows you to choose certain files or folders to sync OneDrive files to your computer. Follow the steps below to enable it:

1. In OneDrive, go to Help & Settings > Settings > Account > Choose folders.

2. You can choose folders or files to sync by yourself.

Solution 5. Stop sync automatically when startup

Sometimes, your OneDrive client will start syncing everything once you start it. To stop it, you can set up in Settings. Find “Start OneDrive automatically when I sign in to Windows” option under General and uncheck it.

Solution 6. Uninstall and reinstall OneDrive

If all the solutions above cannot fix your problem, maybe it is due to system conflicts. How to stop OneDrive from syncing everything in Windows 10, 11, 8, and 7? You can try uninstalling and reinstalling the OneDrive application on your computer. Just open Control Panel and click on Uninstall a program under Programs. Your OneDrive sync will stop then.

After that, go to the OneDrive website to download and install it again. Please set up your OneDrive client without any auto sync feature, then OneDrive will not sync everything for you.

Tip: Better Free Way to Sync Files to OneDrive Easily

If you have been troubled with such an issue for a long time and want an effective way to sync certain files to OneDrive, we highly recommend you a free cloud backup service - CBackup, which provides professional backup and sync features.

In CBackup, you can choose certain files or folders to sync. In addition, you can also choose other types of data like pictures, videos, programs, and hard drives, even sync entire computer with OneDrive. In other words, you could not only sync certain files to OneDrive but also sync everything to OneDrive.

To save time and effort, you can use the Scheduler feature to create OneDrive auto sync for your selected files for free.

Now, you can download and install the CBackup application on your computer. And follow the easy steps to sync selected files to OneDrive:

1. Sign up for a new CBackup account and run the desktop client to log into your new account.

2. Go to the Storage section and click OneDrive > Authorize Now. Follow the instructions CBackup offers to let it access your OneDrive account in a safe way.

3. Click on the Sync tab, and select Sync PC to Public Cloud.

4. Choose files you want to sync as the sync source on the computer. Then choose a OneDrive folder as the sync destination.

5. Press the Settings button on the left bottom of task page and you can enable the Scheduler feature to make your sync task automated with a certain frequency. After configuration, click on Start Sync on the New Sync Task page to sync files to OneDrive selectively.

Note: CBackup has many outstanding features for free and you can take advantage of them.

Combine cloud storage: To get more cloud storage for free, you can use it to merge OneDrive accounts or other cloud drive accounts into one combined cloud.

Backup PC to public cloud: In addition to syncing, you can also create backups in CBackup as well. Google Drive, Dropbox and more public clouds are supported.

Free cloud storage space: CBackup provides each account free 10GB cloud storage in its CBackup Cloud.

Final words

Now, you have known why OneDrive syncing everything and how to fix it in 6 different efficient ways. By the way, another easy method for OneDrive selective syncing is introduced in detail. You can choose it to help you create sync tasks as want.