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OneDrive for Mac: 3 residual CloudStorage folders impossible to delete after full uninstall — "Resource deadlock avoided" (macOS Tahoe 26.3.1)

AdrienMuller-4493 0 Reputation points
2026-05-11T08:28:44.6766667+00:00

Environment

  • MacBook Air M4
  • macOS Tahoe 26.3.1 (25D2128)
  • OneDrive version: 25.222.1112 (now fully uninstalled)
  • FileVault enabled

Problem

After fully uninstalling OneDrive and all Microsoft Office apps, three folders remain in ~/Library/CloudStorage and cannot be deleted by any method:

  • OneDrive - Sonaltra
  • OneDrive - Shared Libraries - Sonaltra
  • OneDrive - Shared Libraries - OneDriveCloudTemp

They appear empty (total 0) but the system reports them as non-empty. No Microsoft process is running.

Error messages observed

sudo rm -rf OneDrive-Sonaltra
→ rm: Directory not empty

ls -la OneDrive-Sonaltra/
→ total 0
→ ls: fts_read: Operation timed out

find OneDrive-Sonaltra
→ fts_read: Resource deadlock avoided

xattr -rc OneDrive-Sonaltra
→ [Errno 60] Operation timed out

diskutil unmount OneDrive-Sonaltra
→ Unmount failed

All steps already attempted (all failed)

  1. sudo rm -rf, rmdir, chflags -R nouchg, xattr -rc
  2. pluginkit -e ignore -i com.microsoft.OneDrive-mac.FileProvider
  3. pluginkit -e ignore -i com.microsoft.OneDrive-mac.FinderSync
  4. sudo killall fileproviderd
  5. Deleted entire FileProvider sandbox:/private/var/folders/gl/.../C/com.microsoft.OneDrive-mac.FileProvider/including mds/mdsDirectory.db and mds/mdsObject.db
  6. Deleted ~/Library/Group Containers/UBF8T346G9.OneDriveSyncClientSuite
  7. Deleted ~/Library/Application Support/CloudDocs
  8. Deleted ~/Library/Caches/com.apple.FileProviderDaemon.AppStoreService
  9. From Recovery Mode Terminal (macOS Tahoe Recovery):
    • Unlocked FileVault volume: diskutil apfs unlockVolume disk3s5
      • cd / then diskutil unmount disk3s5 → succeeded
        • diskutil repairVolume disk3s5 → fsck exit code 0, volume appears OK
          • Re-unlocked volume, attempted rm -rf → still Directory not empty
            • diskutil unmount of the individual folders → Unmount failed
            1. diskutil unmount force → failed
            2. diskutil repairVolume on unmounted volume → failed to enable crypto I/O mode: Invalid argument (FileVault conflict)

Key observation

diskutil list and mount show no OneDrive-related volumes. The folders are not APFS volumes. They are not real mountpoints. Yet the kernel treats them as non-empty directories with no accessible content — consistent with corrupt or orphaned FileProvider inode entries that survive a full uninstall and even Recovery Mode.

Question

Is there a supported procedure to deregister or force-remove these orphaned FileProvider mountpoints from macOS, without reinstalling OneDrive? Specifically:

  • Is there a lower-level tool or API (beyond pluginkit, brctl, diskutil) to remove FileProvider domain registrations?
  • Does the FileProvider framework store domain state somewhere that survives deletion of the app sandbox and CloudDocs metadata?

Thank you very much

Microsoft 365 and Office | OneDrive | For home | MacOS
0 comments

Answer recommended by moderator

AdrienMuller-4493 0 Reputation points
2026-05-12T08:22:18.2533333+00:00

Hi Kai-H, thanks for your swift reply. I did contact the apple support and they ran similar steps to the ones you suggest. I think what cut it in the end was simply to run the OneDrive uninstall a second time, which unlocked the deletion of the links in Finder. All clean now, I’ll reinstall the clean office suite personnal.

thank you,

best wishes,

adrien

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  1. Kai-H 18,195 Reputation points Microsoft External Staff Moderator
    2026-05-12T07:13:58.4866667+00:00

    Hi, Adrien Muller

    This looks less like a normal OneDrive folder and more like a broken macOS File Provider entry. Once macOS owns that CloudStorage placeholder, rm, xattr, diskutil, and Recovery Mode may still fail because the folder is not being treated as a regular folder.

    Here are some suggestions you can try:

    It is recommended that you temporarily reinstall the same OneDrive version, but do not sign in. Then run the reset script inside the app:

    /Applications/OneDrive.app/Contents/Resources/ResetOneDriveApp.command

    If it is the standalone build, use:

    /Applications/OneDrive.app/Contents/Resources/ResetOneDriveAppStandalone.command

    After that, restart the Mac, check ~/Library/CloudStorage, and remove the folders from Finder if macOS shows a delete prompt.

    If that still fails, I would stop trying forced delete commands. At that point it is likely stale File Provider state inside macOS, not OneDrive itself. The supported route is to collect a sysdiagnose and open a case with Apple, since macOS no longer exposes a reliable public tool to manually purge broken File Provider domains.

    Thank you for your patience in reading, I hope this information has been helpful to you. 

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