Microsoft Got Bullied Into Removing Forced OneDrive Survey

Update: All the online backlash that Microsoft received finally worked. They got rid of the survey that users were forced to take every time they would quit the OneDrive app. They also remarked that it was just a test. In a statement that they gave to The Verge, it said, “Between Nov. 1 and 8, a small subset of consumer OneDrive users were presented with a dialog box when closing the OneDrive sync client, asking for feedback on the reason they chose to close the application. This type of user feedback helps inform our ongoing efforts to enhance the quality of our products.”

The story below is unchanged.

Microsoft being annoying about ads, forced surveys, or pushy polls is nothing new. You might remember when they started rolling out ads in the Windows 11 Start menu. These appeared in the guise of ‘notifications’ repeatedly convincing users to start using Microsoft’s services such as OneDrive. They also tried sticking some ads in the Windows 11 Settings menu. Again, these came in the form of not-so-gentle reminders that insisted you start using, for instance, Microsoft 365.

They’re back at it with a similar tactic. Every time you quit OneDrive on your PC, you must take a survey on why you chose to close the app. It sounds suffocating, right?

As soon as you hit the close button, you get a pop-up saying, “Quit OneDrive?” If you close OneDrive, files in your OneDrive folder won’t sync or back up to the cloud, so that you won’t see your changes across devices.” Then, you see a dropdown that says, “Select a reason for quitting OneDrive.” These are the reasons you have to pick from.

• I don’t want OneDrive running all the time
• I don’t know what OneDrive is
• I don’t use OneDrive
• I’m trying to fix a problem with OneDrive
• I’m trying to speed up my computer
• I get too many notifications
• Other

At the bottom, the usual ‘Cancel’ option would take you back to using this case if you change your mind about closing it. There’s also a ‘Quit OneDrive’ button, but, of course, that’s grayed out and only becomes clickable once you choose one of the listed reasons for daring to quit the app. That’s as pushy as they can get.

I’m sure that Microsoft hopes data from these surveys will have some value in helping improve the OneDrive experience. Here’s hoping, at least.