Known Issue: OneDrive Fails to Launch on Windows PC

On some computers, OneDrive will not load once launched from the Start menu, even after reinstalling the software. Upon the inspection of HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Policies\Microsoft\Windows\OneDrive registry key, you will notice that DisableFileSyncNGSC is set to "1".

Most likely, the affected computer was at one point used as a shared workstation and had shared PC mode enabled on it by Intune via a device configuration profile in Endpoint Manager. Once a shared PC mode is enabled on a PC, OneDrive is disabled automatically (see: Shared PC technical reference). We enable shared PC mode (which is a registry setting) on computers used in computer labs and classrooms and those added to TLC - Devices - Shared Desktops | Laptops groups via assigned device configuration profiles. If one of these computers gets re-purposed to a user as a primary-user workstation without resetting Windows, OneDrive will still be disabled on it.

To address this issue without resorting to resetting Windows, check and update the following settings:

Windows Registry

  1. Press (Windows key) + R to open the Run box.
  2. Type regedit and click OK.
  3. Navigate to Computer\HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\SharedPC. If SharedPCMode is set to "1", you have to change it to "0".
  4. Navigate to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Policies\Microsoft\Windows\OneDrive. Make sure DisableFileSyncNGSC is set to "0". (It is also OK if the registry doesn’t exist)

Group Policy Settings

  1. Press (Windows key) + R to open the Run box.
  2. Type gpedit.msc and click OK.
  3. In the Local Group Policy Editor, in the folder list under Local Computer Policy, navigate to Local Computer Policy > Computer Configuration > Administrative Templates > Windows Components > OneDrive > Prevent the usage of OneDrive for file storage. Make sure it is set to "Not configured" or "Disabled".
  4. Run gpupdate /force from a command line to refresh the group policies.

Reboot the computer and launch OneDrive which should now start.

Additional Resources

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