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
    2017-06-29T17:14:57+00:00

    Thanks a ton.  Your picture didn't come through (this forum needs you to upload a picture using the text box toolbar, rather than just pasting it in), but that's okay, I don't think it's super necessary to see it.

    That error isn't because of any OneDrive limitation itself (you can upload .exe, .zip, and other file types to OneDrive without restriction), but it usually means either you have a filename somewhere in there that is longer than 255 characters or an extension that is too long.  Also the entire path and filename together, the limit is 260 characters.

    What might help is to setup the redirection first, then drag the files into the new location.

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  2. Anonymous
    2017-08-02T22:19:51+00:00

    I have been following this thread for a long time and I finally implemented the suggestion to link the ThisPC\Documents folder to OneDrive. After doing so, I now have four Documents folders, the original one under ThisPC, one under OneDrive, and two under Users\MyName. But only one folder, one of the ones under Users\MyName, is being updated with the most recent file version of Quicken or other data files. All of the other Documents folders still have the Quicken file status as of the linking change. And none are being synced with OneDrive on the cloud (web access).

    When I first set this up, OneDrive did seem to be working correctly and did sync everything, as well as providing offline copies of everything in OneDrive on my pc. OneDrive still shows as if it is functioning when I check it out on task bar.

    In addition, after I implemented this change, the other two computers on my network can no longer access the PC where I made this change, nor can they access the network attached storage, WDMyCloud device. They can only see each other.

    I am running Windows 10 1703, Creators Update, on the main PC and on one other (a laptop). The third one hasn't had 1703 installed yet.

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  3. Anonymous
    2017-09-10T09:49:38+00:00

    Shawn, I have also implemented this change to the location of My Documents. It is a great tool. However, I have noticed that once the folders in the offline copy of my OneDrive were created, the My Documents folders on This PC don't appear to be syncing with the OneDrive files. I did change the location for storage of This PC My Documents, but after the copying and uploading, the path for it remains C:\Users\username\documents rather than the C:\Users\username\OneDrive\documents. During the change of location step, the Properties window seems to freeze and even though the copying and uploading carries on, the location changes don't seem to "stick".

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