[Windows 10 Tip] How to Disable OneDrive Cloud State Icons in Navigation Pane of File Explorer
Navigation Pane is the left-side pane present in a Windows Explorer window (also referred as This PC, File Explorer and My Computer). Navigation Pane contains list of hard disk drives and other icons such as Quick Access, OneDrive, Network, etc. Navigation Pane is basically used to navigate between drives, files and folders quickly and easily.
In newer Windows 10 versions, the Navigation Pane also shows cloud state icons to inform users about the state of their OneDrive files and folders on demand. The file on-demand feature lets you access all your files stored in the cloud without having to download them.
There are different cloud state icons shown by File Explorer Navigation Pane. Some of them are as following:
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- Blue cloud icon: Indicates that the file is only available online. Since it’s an online file, it won’t take an space on your computer and you can’t open an online-only file without Internet connection.
- Green tick icon: Indicates a locally available file. If you open an online-only file, it automatically downloads on your computer and becomes a locally available file. Now you can open a locally available file anytime without Internet connection.
- Green circle with white check mark: Indicates an always available file. When you mark a file as “Always keep on this device”, it gets a green circle with white check mark.
- Red circle with white cross: Indicates that a file or folder cannot be synced.
Following screenshot shows these OneDrive cloud state icons in File Explorer’s Navigation Pane:
If you don’t like these extra icons in Navigation Pane and find them unnecessary and annoying, there is a way to remove these cloud state icons.
Windows 10 comes with a built-in option to disable cloud state icons in Navigation Pane. Following steps will help you in getting rid of these state icons:
1. Open Windows Explorer (or File Explorer or This PC) and click on View tab in Ribbon.
2. Now click on Options button, it’ll open Folder Options window.
3. Go to “View” tab, scroll down to bottom and disable “Always show availability status” option.
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Apply the changes and it’ll immediately remove the cloud state icons from Navigation Pane in Windows 10 File Explorer.
Also Check:
[Windows 10 Tip] Remove Icons from Navigation Pane of This PC
Hi VG,
My PC is Surface 3 LTE having Windows 10 v1809.
I am facing problem with OneDrive. The system tray icon of OneDrive in bottom right corner near the clock is showing in Black color (earlier it used to be white). Now my taskbar is also black color by default so instead of OneDrive icon it only shows a blank space but when I click on the blank space it opens the OneDrive popup. I have unsintalled and reinstalled OneDrive but the problem persists.
The issue only occurs in latest OneDrive built 19.086.0502.0006. In previous versions the icon shows as white only. I tried installing the previous version but it gets automatically updated to the newer version.
Please help me.
Thanks
Carl
^^ Are you using a Windows Insider Preview build or preview version of OneDrive?
^^ No, both windows and onedrive are stable builds.
The Windows is Home edition which came bundled with my Surface 3. It was Windows 8 actually but later when windows 10 released I received upgrade option for Windows 10 so I upgraded it.
It was not a clean install though.
Onedrive also came preinstalled in Surface 3 and it updates to next stable version automatically. I have never faced this problem before. It only started after Onedrive updated to version 19.086… before that it was version 19.070… then I did not face this problem.
^^ It might be a bug in newer version of OneDrive.
This doesn’t work. At least not on Windows 1909 and newer. My “Always show availability status” setting is already unchecked; however, I still get the large OneDrive status image overlays.
Agreed with mkanet
Same problem as Mkanet. My “Always show availability status” setting is already unchecked; however, I still get the large OneDrive status image overlays.
I don’t want to have to resort to completely closing and disabling Onedrive.
How do I get rid of these red dots (x) They’re all over my docs and image folders. I just spent $3K on a machine. I disabled Onedrive after 5mb got filled up. Am I stuck with it forever?
This doesn’t work on my new surface pro 7. The box is already unchecked yet the red icons are everywhere. Please help!
Solutions offered do not work, period.