When you open specific user folders such as Desktop, Documents, Pictures, etc., you will see a new button called Start Backup in the File Explorer address bar. This button appears when you are not syncing user folders with OneDrive. Whether you use OneDrive or not, this button appears until you sync those user folders. However, if you don’t want to use OneDrive or sync those folders with OneDrive, we’ll show you a simple registry hack to remove the Start Backup option from the File Explorer address bar. Let’s get started.
Note: Before proceeding, back up your registry to be safe.
Steps to Remove Start Backup Option from File Explorer
First, open the Run dialog box by press Windows key + R.
In the Run window, enter regedit and click OK to launch the Registry Editor window.
Go to the following folder in the Registry Editor. You can paste the path in the registry’s address bar and press Enter.
Computer\HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\StorageProvider\OneDrive
Make the OneDrive folder is selected on the left sidebar. Next, right-click on the ‘StorageProviderKnownFolderSyncInfoSourceFactory‘ value and select Delete.
When you see the confirmation dialog, click Yes.
That’s it. If you open the File Explorer, you will not see the Start Backup option when you open the Documents, Desktop, Pictures, and other user folders.
Note: If you don’t see the change immediately, restart your computer.
Restore the Start Backup Option
Open the Registry Editor and go to the following folder in it.
Computer\HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\StorageProvider\OneDrive
Right-click on the OneDrive folder and select the New > String Value option.
Give ‘StorageProviderKnownFolderSyncInfoSourceFactory’ as the name of the new string value.
Next, double-click on the value and set its value data as ‘{07CA83F0-DF06-4E67-89DD-E80924A49512}‘ (including the curly brackets and excluding the quotation marks) and click OK.
With that, you’ve restored the option.
And there you have it. It’s that simple to hide or remove the start backup option.