Wha can't I move my Documents folder?

Question

I'm running out of space on my C drive, so I started moving my data folders to my hdd. To do this, I opened file explorer, right clicked the folder (e.g. "My Videos") and changed the directory path under the "location" tab.
This worked fine for all folders that weren't affected by OneDrive.

The affected folders are stored under "C:\users\ <my_name> \OneDrive\Documents" and I would like them to go to "X:\Documents" or something like that.

The main Issue is my Documents folder. I want to make sure that any software trying to find stuff that was put there can still find it after I move the directory. When trying to move the directory in the way described above, I get an error message: (It's in german, but it says something like this:)
"The Folder cannot be moved, because there is a non redirectible folder in the same location. Access denied."

The funny thing is, OneDrive was apparently inactive on my machine. When trying to undo the OneDrive snchronization I signed back in to one drive, which still remembered my mail address etc. Then I unlinked my account following these instructions.
This did not in fact move my documents folder out of this evil OneDrive folder, effectively leaving me right where I started.

I then tried to log back in to OneDrive from fresh. Obviously It wanted to download my files from the cloud, and asked me where to put the OneDrive folder. I told it to use the existing OneDrive folder.
Apparently it tried to download all my files on top of the local copies, telling me that there was not enough space on my disk.

I did some digging and I found the relevant registry keys to force windows to do as I say, but I'm afraid of unwanted consequences. (Blindly messing with the registy has forsaken me on other matters before)

So here's my question:
How do I move my Documents Folder?

PS:
I'm using windows 10.
If any other info is needed I'm happy to share.

Answer 1

The OneDrive folder and subfolders cannot be redirected even after unlinking if you haven't turned off backup in OneDrive settings before unlinking.

When you turn off backup, OneDrive will offer to restore the affected folder to its original location (in your UserProfile folder), but doing so doesn't automatically move the files and subfolders, you have to do that manually. But once you've done this, re-direction via the Location tab will work as expected.

Answer 2

Windows is very particular as to how to move the predefined folders, i.e., Documents, Downloads, Music, Pictures and Videos. Moving them any other way than the following may lead to issues.

1. Set up an empty folder to hold Documents, e.g., X:\Documents.
2. Right-click in Explorer on the current Documents folder, and select Properties.
3. On the Location tab, click the Move button.
4. Select the new location, set in step 1.
5. After setting the new drive, you may let Windows automatically move the existing contents of Documents to the new location, or you can do it manually (perhaps with Windows' Robocopy utility, which is more robust than drag-and-drop).