Microsoft has admitted to installing the OneDrive Photos app without consent on numerous Windows computers, both on personal devices and in corporate networks. Until now, anyone who wanted to remove the app had to completely uninstall OneDrive. Starting in September, Microsoft plans to change this and add a separate removal option.
In short:
- OneDrive Photos was installed on computers as part of a regular OneDrive update, without any prompt for consent.
- According to Microsoft, the app ended up on corporate PCs managed by Intune “presumably unintentionally.”
- The built-in facial recognition is disabled by default, and biometric data is supposed to be deleted after 30 days.
- Starting in September 2026, OneDrive Photos can be uninstalled separately without affecting synchronization or files.
What actually happened?
In late July 2026, many Windows users suddenly found an app called OneDrive Photos in their Start menu, even though they had never intentionally installed it. This was caused by an automatic update of the OneDrive client to version 26.123.0628.0001. The new app features a web-based interface for users’ photos, including text recognition in photos and optional face grouping.
The real problem wasn’t so much the app itself, but rather how tightly it was integrated with the sync client. Users who didn’t want OneDrive Photos had no choice but to remove the entire OneDrive service—including file synchronization—for quite some time. For most users, that was simply out of the question.
IT admins were particularly unhappy
Things became even more frustrating in corporate environments. OneDrive Photos currently works only with personal Microsoft accounts; on business accounts, the app is effectively empty. Nevertheless, Microsoft deployed it across the board to managed corporate computers as well; initially, it couldn’t even be removed via Intune. A community script subsequently circulated in IT forums that at least deleted the shortcut in the Start menu, but it didn’t change the installation itself.
Microsoft confirmed to Windows Latest that the rollout on business computers was not planned this way. The company has not yet provided further details on how the error occurred.
And what about facial recognition?
The second point of criticism concerned the “People” feature, which groups photos based on faces. Microsoft has since provided a more detailed statement on this: The feature is disabled by default; users must manually enable it. When active, Microsoft processes the data in the cloud using only the photos stored in the user’s OneDrive account. The company states that private photos are not used to train its own AI models. If you turn facial recognition off again, the biometric data collected for this purpose is supposed to be completely deleted within 30 days.
Whether that’s enough to regain users’ trust is another question. After all, the real point of criticism was never just the technology behind facial recognition, but rather that Microsoft provided virtually no communication beforehand about what data was being stored on users’ computers.
The U-turn: Separating OneDrive Photos and the Sync Client
After weeks of public criticism, Microsoft relented on August 10, 2026. According to a report by Windows Latest, the company announced that it would introduce a separate control in the future that would allow users to remove “the OneDrive Photos experience separately from the OneDrive app.” Microsoft states, verbatim, that this offers “a clear removal option for people who prefer to manage their photos with a different app.”
Technically, this means that OneDrive Photos will be uninstallable in the future without removing the sync client. File synchronization will continue in the meantime; existing photos and files will remain untouched, and the rest of the OneDrive configuration will also remain unchanged. Currently, the app is still tightly tied to the sync client and is not provided as a standalone MSIX file; this is exactly what the update is intended to change.
| Date | Event |
|---|---|
| Late July 2026 | OneDrive Photos will appear on Windows computers via an automatic update without prompting |
| Early August 2026 | IT admins report that the app cannot be removed, even via Intune |
| August 7, 2026 | Microsoft comments to the press for the first time on facial recognition and the corporate rollout |
| August 10, 2026 | Microsoft announces a separate uninstallation option |
| September 2026 | Planned rollout of the update to all users |
What You Can Do Now
Until the update in September, the only options are the familiar workarounds. If you don’t want to use OneDrive Photos at all, you can remove the shortcut from the Start menu, which will at least hide the app from view. If you don’t need OneDrive itself, you can uninstall the service completely, but you’ll also lose automatic synchronization. For everyone else, the only option for now is to ignore the app and wait until September.
Conclusion
With OneDrive Photos, Microsoft has demonstrated almost exactly how to lose the trust of its own users: first, distribute an app without asking; then, remain silent for days while IT admins search in vain for a way to uninstall it. The fact that the company is now backing down and will offer a clean separation between OneDrive Photos and the sync client starting in September is, at least, a step in the right direction. Until then, the only option is patience—or simply uninstalling OneDrive entirely if the app is more important to you than the convenience of cloud synchronization.
