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. @CmdrKeene 90,631 Reputation points Volunteer Moderator
    2016-08-01T02:51:18+00:00

    Ugh I just typed half my response, accidentally clicked "backspace" on the keyboard and went back a page and lost everything I typed.  Here goes take 2....

    You are correct that there's nothing really special you need to do on your new computer. It will sync down a copy of everything in OneDrive as soon as you sign into OneDrive.  Really even the order doesn't matter, but to keep it from beginning download to the "wrong" location, I'd do the following...

    1. I'd recommend when you first boot your new clean install, that you just create a local "Windows 7 style" user account on the computer. It will encourage you to login with your Microsoft Account, but just decline by clicking the links at the bottom for "do this later", "I don't have sign-in info", and/or "login without a Microsoft Account".  Essentially, just don't give it an email address and it will let you create a regular username/password.  This has a few benefits:
      • it means it won't start syncing anything until you're good and ready
      • you can go to Settings/Accounts and choose "sign in with a Microsoft Account" whenever you are ready
      • bonus: the folder for your user account inside C:\Users will actually have the name of the user account instead of something ugly like "shawnkee-001" or whatever gets generated when you login with an MSA at first.
    2. Setup/configure everything how you like.  Move the Documents folder to another drive or whatever you so choose (remember to include the folder name in the location property, so that you don't inadvertently set the entire root folder of a drive as your "documents" folder, which is a common accident I see).  Optionally, go ahead and configure anything else you care to. Other programs, your backup schedule, whatever. Of course this can be done later if you want (I typically create a system image after everything is "just right" too).
    3. Go ahead and set your account to login with a Microsoft Account, then up OneDrive and set the folders you want it to sync (or everything) and now they should go directly to their proper home, whatever you had set in step 2.  That way you don't have to worry about moving or setting it after things have started downloading (which depending on how much you have in your OneDrive could be a while).

    The only other thing I'd like to point out, which is really only somewhat related, is that Windows 10 does a ton of work post-install, and initially a fresh install will be slow.  In addition to OneDrive syncing (or computing hashes for existing files), the Defender is doing a first-time scan, the Windows Modules Installer service is wrapping up driver install for anything that had initially only used a generic class driver, Cortana (if enabled) is processing your calendar/email and such.  There's a lot of room for bottlenecks and your CPU will be pegged for a while. My advise (as I've written here) is to set your power options to "do not sleep when plugged in" and give it a few hours to finish all that junk so performance will return to normal.

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  2. Anonymous
    2016-08-01T01:40:09+00:00

    Shawn,

    I greatly appreciate your help and have not been disappointed with the results in using One Drive.

    My question goes a little beyond this topic but is related in that it has to to with One Drive... I am in the final stages of building a new PC and need to know if there is anything specific that I would need to do with One Drive in relation to moving to the new PC.

    Currently I have One Drive set to retain a "mirror" of my Cloud One Drive on my current HDD so any changes are synced both ways.

    I will be doing a clean install of Windows 10 Pro OEM on a 1TB WD HDD.

    Will I need to "re-map" the location of my Documents folder on the new PC? Are there any steps I should take prior to this or a specific order I should do things to facilitate the move?

    It seems to me that it should be a pretty straight forward task since everything will already be on the Cloud and all I have to do is connect One Drive to the new PC.

    Looking forward to any recommendations that you may have to help me out here.

    Thank you and kind regards,

    John

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  3. Anonymous
    2016-07-16T19:53:15+00:00

    I should have known this.. don't know what I was thinking when I went searching

    Makes my  "OCD" much easier on file organization.

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