FIX: Install-Package: Access to the cloud file is denied PowerShell

‘Access to the cloud file is denied‘ while installing a PowerShell module?

The error ‘Access to the cloud file is denied‘ makes you think it’s the PowerShell Gallery, but it’s probably your OneDrive and the location of your $env:PSModulepath and then probably including the -Scope CurrentUser parameter and variable.

There are several things you can try.
See the headers for different solutions.

FIX 1: With administrator permissions

What helped me were the following steps:

• Open PowerShell as Administrator
• Run the following cmdlet (change to the correct module name)

Install-Module -Name Az

Since you don’t use the -Scope CurrentUser, PowerShell automatically grabs a different path in your $env:PSModulePath.
If you want to read more about this, it’s best to go to this section ‘Windows PowerShell startup‘.

FIX 2: With disabling Files On-Demand in OneDrive

Not everyone has administrator rights on their device, but because the above step already worked for me, it’s difficult to troubleshoot further, but what I’m guessing the problem is is the OneDrive files On-Demand function.

You can disable this by opening the Settings of OneDrive and going to the Settings tab. Under Files On-Demand you can disable the option.

Windows PowerShell startup

Windows PowerShell uses the following logic to construct the PSModulePath at startup:

• If PSModulePath doesn’t exist, combine CurrentUser, AllUsers, and the $PSHOME modules paths
• If PSModulePath does exist:
  • If PSModulePath contains $PSHOME modules path:
    • AllUsers modules path is inserted before $PSHOME modules path
  • else:
    • Just use PSModulePath as defined since the user deliberately removed the $PSHOME location

The CurrentUser module path is prefixed only if User scope $env:PSModulePath doesn’t exist. Otherwise, the User scope $env:PSModulePath is used as defined.

Source: about PSModulePath – PowerShell | Microsoft Docs

So the structure of my $env:PSMODULEPATH is as follows:

$env:PSMODULEPATH

C:\Users\BasWijdenes\OneDrive\Documents\WindowsPowerShell\Modules;C:\Program Files\WindowsPowerShell\Modules;C:\WINDOWS\system32\WindowsPowerShell\v1.0\Modules

This is an Array containing the CurrentUser, AllUsers, $PSHOME modules locations from left to right.

My $PSHOME looks like this (So, for the PowerShell module path it would add \Modules):

$PSHOME

C:\Windows\System32\WindowsPowerShell\v1.0