Ask Paul: Turn Off OneDrive in the Windows 10 Photos App

If you sign-in to your Windows 10-based PC or device with a Microsoft account, the personal photos and videos you store in OneDrive will appear automatically in the Photos app. But what if you don’t want that?

Dwight F. asks:

Is there any way to disable OneDrive from turning up in my photo gallery in the Photos app? I have my photos on OneDrive and on the PC. I have turned off OneDrive, but the setting keep getting turned back on, creating doubles of everything.

Answer:

If you sign-in to Windows with a Microsoft account, the Photos app will automatically see your OneDrive-based photos. To turn that off, you just need to sign out of your account in the Photos app by selecting your account name at the bottom right. In the window that appears, click your account name again and then click “Sign out.”

Expansion:

A few additional thoughts. I always sign-in to Windows 10 with my Microsoft account, but the interaction between apps and your MSA is somewhat mysterious. For example, if you prefer to not sign-in to Windows with your MSA, some Windows 10 apps will let you sign-in on an app-by-app basis, but when you sign into some apps, your Windows 10 sign-in changes too (so be careful when doing this).

As for the Photos app, I find it a bit basic for my needs. I realize that Windows Photo Gallery, part of the deprecated Windows Essentials suite, is on the way out, but I still find it to be a better solution for viewing and (especially) editing photos.

On that note, I should make sure this is covered in the Windows 10 Field Guide. We’re going to start our (free) Anniversary Update edits soon.

Update

You can also toggle OneDrive access in the Photo app’s Settings interface. –Paul