How to uninstall OneDrive on a Mac

What happens to your files

OneDrive on a Mac is a view of your OneDrive, not the only copy of it. Microsoft's help says you won't lose files or data by unlinking or uninstalling, and that you can still reach your files by signing in at OneDrive.com.

The one thing to be careful with is deleting while the Mac is still linked. From macOS 12.1, Files On-Demand is on by default: files you have not opened are online-only and take no space, and Microsoft is explicit that deleting an online-only file from your Mac deletes it from your OneDrive on all devices and online. So unlink first, and do not empty the OneDrive folder to "tidy up" before you do.

Uninstall OneDrive

1. Click the OneDrive cloud icon in the menu bar, open Help & Settings, and choose Preferences.
2. On the Account tab, choose Unlink this Mac and follow the instructions.
3. Quit OneDrive from the same menu.
4. In Finder, go to Applications and drag OneDrive to the Trash, then empty the Trash.

Check for a second copy

OneDrive comes from the Mac App Store and as a standalone download, and a Mac can end up with both. Microsoft gives a command for each; any path either prints is a copy of OneDrive:

mdfind kMDItemCFBundleIdentifier = "com.microsoft.OneDrive"
mdfind kMDItemCFBundleIdentifier = "com.microsoft.OneDrive-mac"

The first finds the standalone version, the second the App Store one. Drag every copy to the Trash. Microsoft's two-versions page also covers an old OneDrive folder left in the CloudStorage folder: with OneDrive still running, click its menu bar icon, follow Show in Finder in the message, open each OneDrive folder, and if one shows a banner with a Delete button at the top of the window, that folder belongs to the previous version and the button removes it.

If you were uninstalling to fix sync

A reset is the shorter route, and Microsoft says it loses no files either. Quit OneDrive, find it in Applications, Control-click it and choose Show Package Contents, go to Contents → Resources, and double-click ResetOneDriveApp.command (or ResetOneDriveAppStandalone.command for the standalone version). Start OneDrive and choose your previous sync location, so files that have not changed are not downloaded again. If you had chosen to sync only some folders, choose them again.

The local folder

Microsoft's pages do not say what becomes of the OneDrive folder on the Mac once it is unlinked. Before you move it to the Trash, sign in at OneDrive.com and check that what you need is there. Anything you marked to always keep on the Mac takes space until you do; online-only files never did. For other pieces OneDrive leaves in your Library, search by its bundle ID, as the leftover files after uninstalling an app describes.

Where the app comes in

RefreshYourMac has no OneDrive category, so unlinking is OneDrive's job, with the steps above. Its Uninstall an App, described in how to uninstall apps on a Mac, searches both Library folders by the bundle IDs of an app and its helpers and lists every piece with its size before anything moves; your own files go to the Trash, and root-owned ones are removed only after the password prompt. A shared container is listed but left unticked, and it does not look in the CloudStorage folder, so your synced files are never part of the plan. Uninstall an App is in the download edition, not the Mac App Store edition. What any uninstaller should and should not do is in macOS uninstaller apps: do you need one?