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

Locked Question. This question was migrated from the Microsoft Support Community. You can vote on whether it's helpful, but you can't add comments or replies or follow the question.

0 comments No comments
Answer accepted by question author
@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).

Was this answer helpful?

100+ people found this answer helpful.
0 comments No comments
Answer accepted by question author
@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

Was this answer helpful?

10+ people found this answer helpful.
0 comments No comments

156 additional answers

Sort by: Newest
  1. Anonymous
    2017-05-10T01:46:07+00:00

    I had the same thought last night while backing up some files to OneDrive. Further, I cannot tell you how often I accdently edit a document on OneDrive when I meant to edit the file in Documents on my PC.  Other cloud backups are intuitive, but it seems that OneDrive has two copies on my PC and a third in the cloud and the sync timing is confusing and automation even more uncertain.

    Was this answer helpful?

    0 comments No comments
  2. Anonymous
    2017-05-09T23:56:08+00:00

    After reading through 3 years worth of these posts I still have some confusion. Am I correct that files can be stored on my PC or in OneDrive, but not both? And this is because PC documents and OneDrive documents are really the same thing accessed from different points? If that is the case, what is syncing, as every document is being saved to either the hard drive or to OneDrive?

    Was this answer helpful?

    0 comments No comments
  3. @CmdrKeene 90,631 Reputation points Volunteer Moderator
    2017-02-21T20:20:03+00:00

    Technically nothing stops you from setting your "OneDrive folder" to be the C:\ root folder, but I wouldn't recommend it.  As far as I know, no consumer file sync service offers what you're looking for.

    Was this answer helpful?

    0 comments No comments