How to Stop Microsoft Office from Automatically Saving Documents to OneDrive (Default to PC)

If you subscribe to Microsoft 365, the Office suite (Word, Excel, PowerPoint) defaults to treating OneDrive as the primary storage location for all your files. When you click “Save” on a new document, the first option presented is your cloud storage account, requiring you to manually click “This PC” or “Browse” every single time if you prefer to save your files locally to your hard drive.

For users who do not use OneDrive, have limited internet bandwidth, or simply prefer to keep their sensitive documents entirely offline, this automatic cloud prioritization is highly frustrating. Fortunately, you can change a global setting in Office that forces Word, Excel, and PowerPoint to default to your local computer when saving.

How to Default to Local PC Saves in Microsoft Office

You only need to change this setting in one Office application (like Microsoft Word), and the change will automatically apply across the entire suite, including Excel and PowerPoint.

1. Open Microsoft Word and create a new blank document.
2. Click on File in the top-left corner of the ribbon menu.
3. Select Options at the very bottom of the left sidebar. (If you don’t see it, you may need to click “More…” first).
4. In the Word Options window, select Save from the left-hand navigation pane.
5. Under the “Save documents” section at the top of the window, look for the checkbox labeled Save to Computer by default.
6. Check this box.

How to Specify Your Default Local Folder

Now that Office knows you want to save to your PC, you should tell it exactly where on your PC you want those files to go (e.g., your Documents folder or a specific project drive).

1. Directly beneath the checkbox you just checked, look for the text box labeled Default local file location.
2. Click the Browse button next to this text box.
3. Navigate to the folder on your hard drive where you want your files to be saved by default (for example, C:\Users\YourName\Documents).
4. Click OK to select the folder.
5. Click OK one final time at the bottom of the Word Options window to apply your changes.

The next time you press Ctrl + S to save a new document, the dialogue box will instantly open to your chosen local folder, completely bypassing the OneDrive prompt.