onedrive

OneDrive Upload Stuck

Resolution Checklist

  • 1 Understand Why OneDrive Uploads Get Stuck
  • 2 Step 1: Terminate Applications Holding File Locks
  • 3 Step 2: Scan for Long File Paths and Invalid Characters
  • 4 Step 3: Pause and Resume OneDrive Sync to Cycle the Tunnel
  • 5 Step 4: Re-initialize the OneDrive Application Cache
  • 6 Summary Checklist

OneDrive Upload Stuck

When a Microsoft OneDrive upload gets stuck, it freezes at a specific progress percentage (e.g., “Uploading 12.4 MB of 45.0 MB”) or stalls indefinitely on a specific number of remaining files.

This issue is typically caused by file locks from active applications, character limit issues in file paths, or broken sync chunks in the transfer database.

This manual walks you through identifying the root cause and resolving stuck uploads on Windows and macOS.

Understand Why OneDrive Uploads Get Stuck

Before fixing the issue, consider these common reasons why uploads stall:

  1. Exclusive File Locks: When an application (like Microsoft Excel, Word, or Photoshop) is editing a file, it locks the file to prevent corruption. OneDrive cannot read the file to upload it until the application releases this lock.
  2. Path and Filename Length Limits: The combined file path and name cannot exceed 400 characters in OneDrive. Additionally, folders containing special characters can confuse the upload API.
  3. Maximum File Size Limits: OneDrive has a single-file size limit of 250 GB. Files larger than this will fail to sync and block the rest of the upload queue.
  4. Network Timeout Blocks: If your connection drops briefly during a multi-gigabyte upload, the client can get stuck waiting for an acknowledgement token that never arrives.

Step 1: Terminate Applications Holding File Locks

If a file is locked by a running application, close the app. If the application has crashed or is running in the background, you can force-close it.

On Windows:

  1. Open Task Manager (Ctrl + Shift + Esc).
  2. Locate the app (e.g., Microsoft Word or Excel) and click End Task.
  3. Alternatively, you can use these commands in Command Prompt to force-terminate hung Office apps: 
    taskkill /f /im winword.exe
taskkill /f /im excel.exe
taskkill /f /im powerpnt.exe

On macOS:

  1. Open Terminal and force-close any hung Office applications: 
    killall -9 "Microsoft Word"
killall -9 "Microsoft Excel"
killall -9 "Microsoft PowerPoint"
  2. Try saving and closing other heavy editing applications like Adobe Photoshop or Premiere Pro.

Step 2: Scan for Long File Paths and Invalid Characters

If your OneDrive contains deeply nested subfolders, the file paths might exceed the length limits.

Windows (PowerShell Path Length Scan)

  1. Open PowerShell.
  2. Run this script to locate any files or folders inside your OneDrive directory that exceed 250 characters (giving you a safe buffer before the 400-character absolute limit): 
    Get-ChildItem -Path "$env:USERPROFILE\OneDrive" -Recurse | Where-Object { $_.FullName.Length -gt 250 } | Select-Object Length, FullName | Format-Table -AutoSize
  3. Rename or move any listed files to a shallower directory.

macOS (Terminal Path Length Scan)

  1. Open Terminal.
  2. Run this command to list all paths inside your OneDrive folder that exceed 250 characters: 
    find ~/Library/CloudStorage/OneDrive-Personal | awk 'length($0) > 250'
  3. Rename these files or folders to shorten the paths.

[!WARNING] Ensure no file names contain invalid characters: \, /, :, *, ?, ", <, >, |.

Step 3: Pause and Resume OneDrive Sync to Cycle the Tunnel

Pausing and resuming OneDrive resets the connection state and clears minor transfer hangs.

  1. Click the OneDrive cloud icon in the system tray or menu bar.
  2. Click the Gear Icon (Settings).
  3. Select Pause syncing and choose 2 hours.
  4. Wait 15 seconds, then open the menu again and select Resume syncing. This forces OneDrive to reconnect and verify the active upload queue.

Step 4: Re-initialize the OneDrive Application Cache

If the upload queue remains stuck, reset the OneDrive application database to clear corrupt transfer tokens.

Windows Reset Command

  1. Press Windows Key + R to open the Run box.
  2. Run this command: 
    %localappdata%\Microsoft\OneDrive\onedrive.exe /reset
  3. If it fails, run: 
    C:\Program Files\Microsoft OneDrive\onedrive.exe /reset

macOS Reset Script

  1. Open Terminal.
  2. Run the reset command: 
    /Applications/OneDrive.app/Contents/Resources/ResetOneDriveAppStandalone.command
  3. Restart your computer and open OneDrive to rebuild your sync connection.

Summary Checklist

Action ItemTarget OSObjective
End App TasksWindows / macOSCloses applications that are locking files and blocking uploads.
Check Path LengthsWindows / macOSFinds and flags file paths that exceed OneDrive length limits.
Pause and ResumeWindows / macOSCycles the network connection to clear minor upload hangs.
Run /reset CommandWindows / macOSClears out the app cache and restarts stuck transfer queues.