After an update on 12/22/2014 OneDrive started magically importing photos and videos from my iPhone (my Windows Phone is managed by Phone App for Desktop). Microsoft refers to the process as “Auto Save”. This is the second OneDrive update in a row where the change has silently occurred (or I missed it twice!).
Issue: OneDrive “Auto Saves” any new pictures or videos to a folder on your computer named after the phone or device you’ve connected. This change appears to happen after any of the recent 2014 OneDrive updates and happens without asking the end user for their preference. Specs in my case – Windows 7 with OneDrive version 17.3.1229.0918 and an iPhone 6 running iOS 8.1.2.
Solution: Change your AutoPlay settings.
- Right click the OneDrive icon in the Notification Area of your Taskbar
- Choose “Settings”
- Click the “Auto Save” tab
- Uncheck “Photo’s and videos” and “Screenshots”
OneDrive looking for photos and videos
OneDrive importing photos
OneDrive Settings
Onedrive Auto Save
9 thoughts on “OneDrive – Stop Auto Importing Photos”
Thanks mucho for this import information.
Microsoft obviously thinks their customers don’t know what’s going on. So they automatically make changes to our computers gaurentee-ing that we don’t know what’s going on.
Can’t understand what a directory is? We’ll invent folders which are sometimes directories but sometimes system generated and sometimes in the cloud. Cuz this will be simpler.
Don’t know where your files are? We’ll stop showing you the full path so you really never learn that in the first place.
Extensions confuse you? We’ll hide those and show you only part of your filename.
My “Auto save” options are both unticked and have been since I got my laptop, but I still found a load of my laptop photos saved to OneDrive instead of my laptop! When I deleted them off my OneDrive, it wiped my laptop of all photos, even though I never wanted them to save to the OneDrive and wanted them saved to the laptop in the first place! So lucky I always back files up straight away! How can I fix this?
Onedrive is getting to be a pain in the ass. It hijacks your computer into thinking your personal files belong to onedrive. I didn’t ask for this service to be all in my business and do what it wants to do.
How can I get my photos OUT of onedrive? I’d like to be able to upload them individually as actual photos and not a onedrive link.
Thanks to one drive my boss has now seen my dick…screw you one drive…screw you…
Thank you! This was getting annoying, but the last straw is now OneDrive is reducing storage space by 60% unless we pay.
THANK YOU!!! The settings were slightly different for my computer after step 3, but it got me started in the right direction!
Thanks ! I was shocked when I went to my one drive to see every photo I had taken in the last few months. How do they implement this change without alerting the user. Shame on you Onedrive.
Great help! Thanks. One Drive suddenly started importing photos just the way you described.