Troubleshooting - OneDrive won't Open

Owned by Barb Yantha
Last updated: Mar 21, 2023 by Rohan Raghavan
1 min read

If you are unable to start OneDrive it may be because the "Prevent the usage of OneDrive for file storage" setting was enabled in your O365 account. You might notice that no synchronization of files occurs, and no error message is displayed. The fix is to reverse the setting with the following steps:

Important: These steps must be done with administrator privileges and require knowledge of how to edit the Registry. Registry changes can cause problems if not done correctly. Please contact your IT support staff for assistance if you do not have administrator privileges, or do not have experience making Registry changes.

  1.  Navigate to the following registry key: 
    HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Policies\Microsoft\Windows\OneDrive  

  2. Change the following key:  
    DisableFileSyncNGSC = 1 
    to
    DisableFileSyncNGSC = 0 

  3. Then open OneDrive 

More information is available in this Microsoft article: https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/office/onedrive-won-t-start-0c158fa6-0cd8-4373-98c8-9179e24f10f2   

If OneDrive is not working properly, you may need to re-install OneDrive: https://uwaterloo.atlassian.net/wiki/spaces/ISTKB/pages/262013320/Adding+OneDrive+accounts+to+Windows+10#If-OneDrive-is-not-working-properly%2C-you-may-need-to-re-install-OneDrive

Need help?

Contact the IST Service Desk online or 519-888-4567 ext. 44357.

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