Using One Drive to automatically back up My Documents folder

Anonymous
2014-05-28T20:37:52+00:00

Hello 

I would like to automatically sync the My Documents folder to One Drive. What is the best way of achieving this ?  The online information on OIneDRive does not make this clear 

Tony

Windows for home | Previous Windows versions | Files, folders, and storage

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@CmdrKeene 90,631 Reputation points Volunteer Moderator
2014-05-29T03:22:52+00:00

Perhaps the easiest way is to set the Documents folder to be saved inside your OneDrive folder.

  1. If you don't already have one there, create a folder named "Documents" inside your OneDrive folder.
  2. Right-click the original Documents folder (not the one created in step 1), and choose Properties
  3. On the Location tab, click Move, and choose the Documents folder you created in step 1.
  4. Confirm that you want to move your Documents folder.

You'll still see a Documents folder inside your C:\Users\Tony folder, but it's actually become a redirect -- anything put there will actually be inside OneDrive (both on your hard drive and, of course, synced up to OneDrive cloud).  You can even do this for your Desktop folder and other special shell folders that have a location tab on their properties.

Windows 8's Internet Explorer already syncs your bookmarks, but if you have a PC using 7 or older, this is also a great way to sync your bookmarks (Favorites).

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@CmdrKeene 90,631 Reputation points Volunteer Moderator
2014-05-30T21:58:38+00:00

The "Restore Default Location" button won't be available, but you will certainly be able to put Documents back to the proper location if you decide to do so later.  That warning is actually a bit of a stretch.

It's possible (although incredibly unlikely), that you would have to go set the Documents folder path correct in the registry, but even that is actually pretty quick and easy if you needed to.

In the registry, this value controls which folder is considered the "documents" folder.  It's under HKEY_Current_User\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\User Shell Folders

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  1. Anonymous
    2017-11-28T02:27:22+00:00

    I use File History to keep previous versions of files on a 3TB external drive ( in case I need to restore them after making mistakes in editing or corruption).  This works great and has saved me on several occasions.

    If I accidently delete or corrupt a file, I simply restore a previous but correct version from this file history.

    Thus need to make sure this “file history” will work with the “documents” or “pictures” now on one-drive local storage.  Do I need to reconfigure or re-direct “file history” to use these fines now on one-drive local storage?  Not sure how to do this if needed.

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  2. @CmdrKeene 90,631 Reputation points Volunteer Moderator
    2017-11-27T22:03:46+00:00

    It's fine to allow the redirection, don't let the "you can't undo this" message scare you.  And it can be undone, just not with the folder options box.

    All the files will stay on your computer and also copy up to the OneDrive.com online storage.  So it will be in both places.  There is an option to only keep the files online and not take up local hard drive space, but that is not the default setting, so you can just ignore it unless you want to save space.  I personally keep everything local so I have a redundant backup (even though OneDrive isn't a true "backup service").

    You'll still be able to work with the files like normal, copying them to USB thumb drives and stuff, because they will still be just regular files.

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  3. Anonymous
    2014-05-30T20:36:03+00:00

    HI Shaun,

    I started to implement the solution you have suggested and got a warning just as I was about to proceed saying that I would not be able to restore the default settings for the location of My Documents if I proceeded. Is that the case ? What happens if I want to stop using OneDrive in the future ? 

    Tony

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