Page History

This is a fix for multiple OneDrive folders showing up in the explorer window and in “Save as” fields in Office applications.
Groove.exe is OneDrive’s original sync client that the program was built with since 2007. In October 2017 they updated the sync client to a new version, onedrive.exe. Somehow our version of windows sometimes ends up with both of these sync clients. It is not often, but sometimes they end up running at the same time and connecting at the same time. This usually ends up creating multiple OneDrive folders showing up in the explorer window and in “Save as” fields in Office applications. 

The Groove.exe client that runs from  C:Program FilesMicrosoft Office 15rootoffice16Groove.exe is the version that does not have any “settings” to configure and does not sync correctly – this is the non-functional version.  

The OneDrive.exe client runs from the users folder and is generally the more updated version. It has all the settings that allows you to configure OneDrive correctly.   

Preparing

Before making any drastic changes to any OneDrive folders, go to the settings of the functional version and “unlink this PC” from the OneDrive account. This will preserve the users documents in the cloud while you are fixing things on the client end.  

Consider your specific situation – make sure you aren’t going to lose any of the users documents.  

The Fix

Step 1 - Remove the "Groove.exe" sync client

In my experience the groove.exe application will relaunch itself about 10 seconds after you end the process. You will not be able to remove the application while it is running. You may have to open the file location and the task manager side by side so you can end the process in the task manager and delete the application before it relaunches. 

• Open the Groove.exe location in a file explorer: In a file explorer go to C:Program FilesMicrosoft Office 15rootoffice16Groove.exe 
• Open the task manager and locate the OneDrive process: Right click on the clock in the lower right corner of the task bar and click on “Task manager” – in the process tab, sort the processes by name, scroll down and locate “Microsoft OneDrive”.  
• End the OneDrive process and delete the groove.exe application: In the task manager, right click on the “Microsoft OneDrive” process and choose “End Task”. Then, quickly go to your file explorer, right click on the “Groove.exe” application and delete it.  
• Reboot the computer: Your next steps will depend on how the computer behaves after reboot.  

Step 2 - Uninstall OneDrive from the application list in windows

• From the control panel, choose “Uninstall a program,” find Microsoft OneDrive and run the uninstall process.  
• Delete all OneDrive folders: In troubleshooting and reinstallation there are sometimes several versions of the onedrive folder that may exist. Delete all of the folders and the files (only if you are sure you can recover them from the cloud).  

Step 3 - Re-install OneDrive

download onedrive from the Microsoft web site and go through the installation process

Step 4 - Sign in and re-sync folders

At this point everything should be fixed and functional with OneDrive, however the locations in the file explorer may still exist. If this is the case, make note of the names of the folders, which ones are functional and which ones are not – the functional one is the one that will say “email.wsu.edu” on it.  

The following steps will help you remove the excess OneDrive file locations in the file explorer by editing the computer registry.  

1. Hold Windows key and press R.
2. Type regedit.exe and press Enter.
3. Go to this: location HKEY_CURRENT_USERSOFTWAREMicrosoftWindowsCurrentVersionExplorerDesktopNameSpace
4. Locate the folders that has Onedrive entries in it (from the left pane). You can click the folders one by one and look at the right pane to see the name of the registry. It should say OneDrive. Copy or note the name of the folder somewhere. 
5. Now navigate to this path HKEY_CLASSES_ROOTCLSID by double clicking HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT and then double clicking the CLSID folder. 
6. Locate the folder with the same name as the OneDrive folder (that you noted in step 4). 
7. Click the folder. 
8. Double click the entry (right pane) named System.IsPinnedtoNameSpaceTree.
9. Make its value 0 and click Ok.  

This should hide the folder. If you want to reshow the folder again then just repeat all the above steps and make this value 1 again. 

Original author: Adam Dvorak.