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
    2016-08-16T00:33:26+00:00

    Shawn,

    Thank you.. it kind of threw me off since they all had different icons.

    Since they are shortcuts, there should be no problems with deleting them.

    John

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  2. @CmdrKeene 90,631 Reputation points Volunteer Moderator
    2016-08-16T13:19:32+00:00

    The ones in the "This PC" folder can't be deleted by normal means.  I just collapse the group, but there's more forceful means if you really want to nuke them.  Just because of my use pattern they still have some use to me (if I want to really peek inside the local "This PC" documents instead of my OneDrive documents, that gives an entry point.  But if you redirect the local into the OneDrive where they're both the same, then I can understand the want to remove the duplicity.

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  3. @CmdrKeene 90,631 Reputation points Volunteer Moderator
    2016-08-16T13:21:04+00:00

    Adrian, if your local drive has less free space than the amount of files stored in your OneDrive documents folder, then you'll have to pick and choose what folder(s) are saved for offline access, since it all won't fit.

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