@mathew @prism
Files will stay local unless you choose otherwise.

And if you don't want to use OneDrive you should at least have another backup method?

https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/onedrive/save-disk-space-with-onedrive-files-on-demand-for-windows

@mathew @prism
I'm wrong. You're right. Happy?

BTW:
I don't use any Microsoft product or service. I'm full in on Apple. All my files are in iCloud, which also saves most of them only in the cloud. Never lost any file. Why? Backups (eg. BackBlaze and external drive).

And now, I wish you both a nice day.

@prism
I'm not going to defend Microsoft, this is on you.

If those files are really important for you, why didn't you have a backup?

And Microsoft doesn't just delete files from the cloud. You either have to delete your account or delete them yourself. Logging off OneDrive doesn't do that either.