Moving a folder sync'd with OneDrive

[Jeff H]

I have a 90gb folder on my computer that is currently sync'd to OneDrive. I want to remove it from my computer hard drive and keep it on an external hard drive. And I don't need to continue sync'ing it. I just formatted the 1tb external drive, so it has 900gb free. When I try to move the folder, it says I'm 55gb short (I think because it's trying to move the entire parent folder).

When I go to OneDrive online and try to unsync the folder, I get this message, "If you uncheck a folder you are syncing to your computer, the folder will be removed from your computer, but the folder and its contents will still be available online." So I haven't tried that. But I did try to download the folder from OneDrive online, and couldn't.

I'm not sure how to proceed. It seems odd to me that I created and populated the folder on my computer, but by virtue of sync'ing it to OneDrive it seems to be Microsoft's property. They say I'm sync'ing TO my computer, but I think of it as sync'ing FROM my computer.

[HansV]

Can you copy the folder to the external hard drive?
If that succeeds, you should be able to delete it from your computer (and hence from OneDrive)

[Jeff H]

No. And the strange thing is that whatever I try to do returns the message in the attached screenshot. It says "Not enough space on Home Sync, you need an additional 34.2gb."

Home Sync is a general folder I created years ago before OneDrive. I used it to segregate personal docs from work docs. It is still the primary folder I use for all my stuff, and to sync with OneDrive. (The screenshot example, "Big Backup F:", has 720gb free, and the one where I want to put it has 900gb free.)

But here, when I select one specific sub-folder, which is about 90gb, whatever sized place I try to copy or move it to, I get this same 34.2gb storage deficit and a reference to Home Sync. I also tried copying it to the root of C: on my computer. No luck.

Screenshot 2025-03-15 160349.jpg

[StuartR]

Can you copy half of the files/folders and then the rest. You may at least identify the problematic files.

[Jeff H]

That's a good idea. I'll try that, but I have to do it later. I'll report back.

[Jeff H]

Yep, I think you got it Stuart.

I started copying a few subfolders at a time and found one that produced the error. That one had two subfolders of its own, one of which had 121 videos, and that was the problem-child. It is 50gb, but that doesn't seem to explain why it fails. Nevertheless, I'm bringing that one over several mp4s at a time and it's working fine.

Thanks for the help!

[StuartR]

All's well that ends well