I want to back up just my Windows documents folder to cloud. It won't let me!

Question

I want to back up just my Windows documents folder to cloud. It won't let me!

Elliot Gingold 20

When I try to follow the instructions to set up the backup in one drive settings it greys all the options out. The reason : because the Pictures folder contains another cloud storage. True, but I don't want to backup the Pictures folder. Why can't I set up the other options and leave the Pictures folder out of the backup up? This makes this whole backup function unusable for me!!

2 answers

Your answer

Answer 1

Gunasekar N 27,210 Independent Advisor

Hello, try changing the iCloud Photos folder path outside of the OneDrive pictures folder.

Create a new folder on another partition for example D:\iCloud Pictures. (Turn off Icloud Photos Syncing)
Open iCloud for Windows, go to Photos then Options and change the location to D:\iCloud Pictures.
In File Explorer go to C:\Users\YourUsername\Pictures\iCloud Photos\Downloads Select all photos and copy them to D:\iCloud Pictures. (Turn on iCloud Sync again)
After confirming the files copied successfully, delete the originals in C:\Users\YourUsername\Pictures\iCloud Photos\Downloads
Take a picture on your iPhone wait for it to sync and check if it appears in D:\iCloud Pictures.
Restart your computer.
Enable OneDrive PC folder backup and it will no longer include your iCloud Photos folder.

See if it works.

Elliot Gingold 20 Reputation points

2025-08-12T08:34:14.5866667+00:00

The advice helped, though I am not usure if it is the full answer.

1 I turned off the iCloud photos - I could not find out how to stop it syncing, so I simply switched it off. This lead to a rapid wiping out of all iCloud photos on the desktop computer, but did not delete the photos from other devices.

2 I could not set up a new location for the icloud photos on a different partition as I only have c: on mine. I normally do have a second partition on my computers but in the excitement of setting up my new one I forgot to do this. I did try to set up a new folder on the c drive but this did not help.

3 I decided to go ahead and try the onedrive app to see if I able if the settings tab would allow my to select the Documents folder for backup without the others. Yes it did work brilliantly and I now have a full backup of this in the cloud.

4 I have since restarted the iCloud sync of the offending folder and this too has worked and resynced the Apple folder. It doesn't seem to have broken the previously set up syncing of the Document folder.

I am not sure if this is going to breakdown at some point in the future and would have preferred to simply move the iCloud folder somewhere else such as a "D:\iCloud Pictures". The ICloud App does not seem to allow any changes to the location. I did find on the web you could move the whole of the Windows Pictures folder to another drive/partition. But this would not seem to help as the onedrive system would now have this location for Pictures!

Thanks for your help and I hope that this all continues to work.

Answer 2

Gunasekar N 27,210 Independent Advisor

Hello, thank you for reaching out to Microsoft Q&A.

Could you please clarify what you mean by "Pictures folder contains another cloud storage"? Are you using other Cloud storage apps like iCloud, GDrive or Dropbox on your Windows PC to sync your Pictures folder?

If you have any of these third-party cloud storage apps installed on your device, uninstall them as they can conflict with the OneDrive application, which is reason all the backup options might be greyed out in the OneDrive settings.

After disconnecting the other cloud storage, right-click the OneDrive icon on the taskbar, select Settings, click Manage backup, and Then Turn on the toggle for the Documents folder.

Let me know if you still need more help.

Elliot Gingold 20 Reputation points

2025-08-09T02:47:23.1133333+00:00

My main cameras for taking photos has for many years been my iPhones! Thus it makes perfect sense for me to use the to apple software to store my photos. However my main place to view the photos is my Windows 11 desktop and allowing the photos to be synced to this and previous Windows computers using iCloud Photos has worked well for me over a long period . I have synced over 3000 pictures from the phone to my Home system. It makes perfect sense for me to continue to do so! I certainly do not want to turn this off. The inability to specify which folders I want backed up by OneDrive means I will have to continue to use local methods to backup up instead of using the OneDrive system. A great pity as I wanted to move to a cloud based backups for at least my Document folder. Especially as I have 1 TB available on OneDrive due to my Office 365 subscription.

I do not use iCloud for any other purposes so any way able to get this get around this problem would be most appreciated!
Elliot Gingold 20 Reputation points

2025-08-09T02:49:58.94+00:00

My main cameras for taking photos has for many years been my iPhones! Thus it makes perfect sense for me to use the to apple software to store my photos. However my main place to view the photos is my Windows 11 desktop and allowing the photos to be synced to this and previous Windows computers using iCloud Photos has worked well for me over a long period . I have synced over 3000 pictures from the phone to my Home system. It makes perfect sense for me to continue to do so! I certainly do not want to turn this off. The inability to specify which folders I want backed up by OneDrive means I will have to continue to use local methods to backup up instead of using the OneDrive system. A great pity as I wanted to move to a cloud based backups for at least my Document folder. Especially as I have 1 TB available on OneDrive due to my Office 365 subscription.

I do not use iCloud for any other purposes so any way able to get this get around this problem would be most appreciated!

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I want to back up just my Windows documents folder to cloud. It won't let me!

2 answers

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