Microsoft has integrated OneDrive deeply into the Windows 11/10 operating systems. This allows us to sync files between your system and the cloud server. The OneDrive feature comes to the rescue when your system fails and you need to access your important documents urgently. If you have synced your files with OneDrive, you can access them from anywhere on the web.
Today, I came across the synchronization issue with my OneDrive folder inside File Explorer. Actually, the OneDrive option in the left pane of Explorer window was showing a yellow exclamation mark error icon on the OneDrive entry. Here is the screenshot of the scenario:
However, when I saw this error icon, I was still able to synchronize my files, but it looked like a single or some files didn’t synchronize from the huge bunch of files. That’s why I was getting the warning mark. I tried resynchronizing all the applicable files but unfortunately, it didn’t help me. So finally I tried the following steps in order to resolve this problem:
OneDrive Exclamation Mark Icon in File Explorer
1. First of all, close the SkyDrive app and File Expiorer from the Task Manager (pressing CTRL + SHIFT + ESC reveals this).
2. Now press the Windows Key + R and type the following location in the Run dialog box and hit Enter:
C:\Users\%username%\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Windows\OneDrive\settings
3. In the Settings window so opened, select all the items and Delete them.
4. Moving on, press Windows Key + R combination, type put Regedt32.exe in Run dialog box and hit Enter to open the Registry Editor.
5. Navigate here:
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\OneDrive
6. In the right pane of this location, look for the UserFolder named registry string and double-click to modify it. Now in the following box, put the Value data for the correct OneDrive folder, because you might find a different location here since you’re facing the issue.
7. Click OK and close the Registry Editor and reboot the machine. After the restart, you’ll see that OneDrive can now sync your files, and the error exclamation mark has been removed. Now go to the following location:
C:/Users/%username%/
8. In the above-shown window, delete the OneDrive.old or SkyDrive.old folder.
Now open the SkyDrive Modern App and press Windows Key + I, click Options. Finally, enable the Access all files offline option by moving the slider to On.
Thus, your problem can be fixed.
Read: Can’t open online-only file error when opening a file in OneDrive.
What does OneDrive icon with red X mean?
A red X on an icon indicates that OneDrive files, folders, or drives are not properly synced with your Microsoft account.
seems like a long drawn out process, but I guess it is worth it.
Thanks
Hi,
Thank you very much for the help, it works perfectly!! :)
^^ Thanks for the feedback, glad to hear it worked for you :)
This fix took care of my synch problems, but I lost a load of documents! My skydrive folder was in usersowner and I reconfirmed that location when I used this fix. However, when I open Word and select some recent documents Which word says are saved in that location, I get the error, “Sorry, we couldn’t open “http://d.docs.live.net/9craed3e724e1e6ab/” followed by the path name and file name. I seem to have lost everything from the last two weeks. Is there any way to fix this problem or am I screwed?
wow google drive and drop box are so much better than this crap. I’m getting this error. I think I’ll just stop using this piece of garbage. I was using skydrive until all of a sudden it wouldn’t sync my Access databases anymore. When I complained about it some big shot know it all microsoft nuthuggers were saying it shouldn’t because of blah blah blah database design blah blah. So I moved the Access database over to google drive and voila it works perfectly. Again microsoft for the fail!
Firstly, thanks to Kapil for posting this fix to an annoying problem.
Here’s another way to fix it, which I discovered by accident (while backing up OneDrive directory before attempting the fix as described above). it’s a bit simpler, so might be worth a try – you’ve got nothing to lose except a minute or two of your time.
Copy the local (to your PC) documents (and/or other directories within the OneDrive directory) to your desktop (or other convenient location – remember to copy not move). During the copy process, you will likely receive an error message that you cannot copy a file (or perhaps more than one) to the desktop as it’s only available online.
Note the file name and go to the relevant local OneDrive directory and locate the file in Windows Explorer. Right click the file and choose “make available off-line”. You will then get another error message stating the file can’t be made available off-line due to Syncing being paused. Follow the prompts and turn syncing on.
The yellow warning triangle will then expand (from the OneDrive icon) through the directory tree to the file(s) in question and you’ll also see the syncing symbol appear over the relevant icons.
Once the syncing process is finished the yellow warning symbol(s) will disappear, including from the OneDrive icon. My syncing process took like 10mins as it had a few updates to complete. You can check progress (although I can’t remember what I clicked) and it opens the OneDrive app and provides a % update.
Hope it helps.
Win8.1 64bit
^^ Thanks for your inputs, I am sure it will help many others :)
Don’t panic… Just Reboot…
Worked for me.
don’t panic.
Just Reboot…
Worked for me.
Don’t Panic – Just Reboot.
Working just fine.
Doesn’t work anymore. Can delete all files from settings
Having problems at step 5 help
same here i dont see userFolder in the list
I can’t find the user folder though. help please
It worked for me…without any issue. thanks.
^^ Glad we could help :)
Since this uses the old “SkyDrive” name, I’m nervous to try. Has anyone tried it since the re-name to “OneDrive”? Are the steps the same except replacing latter for former when relevant? Thanks!