Can't delete photo files in Onedrive.

[Petethepop]

I have an issue with Windows One Drive and would be grateful for a bit of advice?

When I click on my Windows key (bottom left) and scroll down to ‘Photos’ it opens up a

Photos – One Drive which contains a number of thumbnail photos. I need to remove 114 such thumbnails from this page but they will not delete. I highlight the thumbnails and when I press delete I get this message:

Couldn’t delete we couldn’t delete one or more of the files. Another app might be using them, or you might not have permission to delete them.

This problem only applies to a certain number of greyed-out photo files. I have many others on this page and don’t have any problems deleting or adding.

Any ideas? Most grateful for your help.

Cheers

[Bastet]

If you open the online version of OneDrive are the photos there?
The greyed out photos may be online only.

[Petethepop]

Thanks for your message. I opened the online version of Onedrive and yes all my photo files are there but NOT the greyed-out png photo files. They still
remain and can’t be deleted.

[Bastet]

Are they showing under the OneDrive folder on the PC within the Documents folder? Not via the Photos app.
Have you restarted the PC to close any app which may be using the photos?
Have you tried deleting them within safe mode?
Can you right click on a file & choose properties to see if you’re shown as the owner or whether they came from another PC?

[Petethepop]

Are they showing under the OneDrive folder on the PC within the Documents folder? Not via the Photos app.
[COLOR=rgb(184, 49, 47)]No
Have you restarted the PC to close any app which may be using the photos? [COLOR=rgb(184, 49, 47)]Yes no luck there
Have you tried deleting them within safe mode? [COLOR=rgb(184, 49, 47)]No not yet
Can you right click on a file & choose properties to see if you’re shown as the owner or whether they came from another PC? [COLOR=rgb(184, 49, 47)]When I right click no properties is shown.

I have always had a dislike for Onedrive, it’s caused me problems in the past. I am seriously considering to remove it from my PC and use something better. Any recommendations?[/COLOR][/COLOR][/COLOR][/COLOR]

[Bastet]

Thanks for the update, I would try safe mode.
I only use cloud services to share files. I also use iCloud Drive as I have IDevices, MediaFire, Dropbox & Google Drive.

[Bruce]

right click the OneDrive icon in the system tray, choose Settings.
on the Account tab, click Choose Folders.
if your Pictures folder is listed, untick to stop it be sync’d to OneDrive and see if that helps.

[Petethepop]

Many thanks for your messages I really appreciate your help. It’s late as I’ve had enough, so am going to get some shuteye.
Will try again tomorrow.

Cheers
Peter

[Petethepop]

Thank you all for your input. I have decided to live without the annoyance of Microsoft’s Onedrive. Transferred all images to my external hard drive.

[Bruce]

I will close this now as it is (sort of) solved, albeit indirectly.
all I can say is I’ve been using OneDrive now for about 4 years, DropBox for a few before that, and have had no issues.

arguments against online storage that get thrown around are “where is your data” and “who can access it” - both valid questions.
I’ll let members do their own research in this area.

of course no system is bulletproof - even financial, military and health systems get hacked and they have massive private and government allocated budgets.
but these cloud solutions are as good as they can be, they do after-all want people to trust and use the systems.