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
    2017-05-30T00:15:53+00:00

    Enormously informative thread Shawn.  I have performed the location change on my Pictures shell folder to try out the syncing for these files.  Because my Documents shell currently includes a folder containing archive and current Outlook .pst files and one of your comments earlier recommended against OneDrive synchronization for this type of file, do you have a recommended solution for .pst backup?  I think I set the Outlook Files folder there to save me digging for it when I was doing manual copy/paste backups with my Passport USB drive.

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  2. @CmdrKeene 90,631 Reputation points Volunteer Moderator
    2017-05-30T00:58:42+00:00

    You could move the Outlook PST file, Outlook doesn't mind where you keep it.  But quite honestly you're not very likely to suffer any heartburn even if you did just leave it there.  The sync engine won't sync the file while it's in-use.  The real reason you may not want to let it sync in OneDrive is if two computers are both running Outlook and both are trying to use that file location to store a copy of your email. 

    That being said, with most email server types (Exchange, Outlook.com/Hotmail/Live, and even most IMAP configurations), your email is already backed up on the server ready to sync down to any email program, so you may not want a redundant backup (the PST file) taking up space in your OneDrive storage.  Moving it is really straightforward: just drag it to a new place, then when you restart Outlook it will prompt you to choose where the new location is. Microsoft's official instructions for it are here.

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  3. Anonymous
    2017-06-17T22:09:36+00:00

    Thanks Shawn!  Agreed that the .pst files are best not actively synchronized in OneDrive, especially if you close Outlook and go back in before OD has a chance to finish.  I plan to do a one time archive save of my historic .pst files and rely on the ISP (POP) mail server as a back up for the current mail.  Moving the Documents, Pictures, Music, etc shell folders was successful and OD does not get in the way.  Happy camper!

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