Remove offline OneDrive content from Windows Phone 8.1

[davesurfer]

Hi! I have a nice old Lumia 1020 that I want to repurpose for my kids so they can play games on it without internet. It's currently set up with my super old Microsoft account that I no longer have access to. I don't want my kids having access to my photos or files on the phone. When going into the Photos app and OneDrive Albums I can still see offline content of folders and photos there, and can open to view photos. I can also see all my old OneDrive folders in the Documents section in the OneDrive app. I've tried to go to Settings and reset the Microsoft Office app to hopefully remove all offline content, but this content still displays!

I know I can reset the phone and that will clear it off, but it will also clear off some of the nice games (Angry Birds, Game Chest, MS Solitaire collection etc.) that I want my kids to play. And, of course since the WP Store is now defunct, I can't get those games or apps any more.

Any suggestions?? Thanks!

 

[HelloNNNewman]

Hi davesurfer,

Are you sure you cannot access the old MS account that the phone is tied to? You should be able to try and recover the lost password using that phone - unless you’ve changed phone numbers. If you can’t recover the account for some reason - I’d check the phone’s settings to see if you can turn off the synching for those apps. You should be able to delete the app data for each app, but I can’t remember if there are any actual settings that let you tell the phone not to synch certain apps. Worth checking into….

 

[davesurfer]

Hi thanks for responding! No I can't get to that account, a while back I got locked out as Microsoft said it violated something and the account was suspended. I've tried to recover the account, but they won't do it, so I'm hooped.

There's no syncing thats happening, because when WIFI is on it continuously pops up asking for credentials for that MS account. But one can see all the folders and files in the OneDrive app--AND, can look at all the photos in the "OneDrive Albums" through the photo gallery app. So there's obviously offline versions of the photos that still exist. I plugged it into a PC, cleared off what I could, but it only shows the basic Documents, videos etc. folders and it won't show any system folders.

I have done a "reset" on the Office apps from the Settings a few times, but that doesn't seem to remove any offline content. When in the OneDrive app I can press and hold on one of the folders/files and the checkboxes pop up, and I can check things, but there's no option to remove or delete when things are selected.

If I could just reset it I would, but I'd hate to lose access to the games and other apps I've purchased on there from the now defunct Windows Store!