The carbon sequestration effect of soil organic carbon (SOC) and identification of the influencing factors are the core and frontier issues of current research. However, the retention of SOC after returning farmland to forests and the synergistic effect of various influencing factors are still unclear. The quantitative attribution based on climate, vegetation, soil, and other factors still needs to be strengthened. By collecting117 papers about the influence of vegetation restoration on SOC storage after returning farmland to forests on the Loess Plateau from 1999 to 2022, 1140 pairs of valid data were obtained, and the influence of vegetation restoration on SOC storage under different conditions (climate factors, vegetation factors, and soil factors) were analyzed. At the same time, the main driving factors affecting SOC storage of different vegetation restoration types and their interaction were identified and quantified through the modeling of geographic detector. The results showed that vegetation restoration could significantly increase SOC storage on the Loess Plateau, and the effect of forest land restoration on soil carbon sequestration was better than that of shrub land and grassland, which were significantly increased by36.21%, 32.41%, and 15.57%, respectively. The effect of vegetation restoration on the SOC storage increased with the increases of vegetation restoration age and vegetation coverage, but decreased with the increase of soil depth. When soil bulk density was low (<1g/cm^-3), it was more likely to promote the increase of SOC storage. In addition, when mean annual temperature (MAT) was 7-10℃ and mean annual precipitation (MAP) was 450-550 mm, the restoration of forest land was more conducive to increasing SOC storage. When MAT was <7℃ and MAP was 450-550 mm, the effect of shrub land on SOC storage was more significant, but it was limited by vegetation coverage. When MAT was <7℃ and MAP was >550 mm, the effect of grassland restoration on SOC storage increased significantly. The geographic detector model showed that vegetation restoration age, vegetation coverage, and MAP were main driving factors for SOC storage in forest land, shrub land, and grassland, respectively. In the aspect of increasing SOC storage, the interaction between various factors was better than that of single factor. Specifically, the interaction between MAP and vegetation restoration age made the most significant contribution to SOC storage of forest land, which was 33.46%. In shrub land, the interaction between MAT and soil bulk density contributed the most to SOC storage (86.77%). The interaction between MAP and vegetation coverage contributed the most to SOC storage of grassland (60.59%). It provides a reference for selecting reasonable vegetation allocation under different restoration conditions.