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
    2017-11-28T04:50:39+00:00

    File History will backup any files that are "available offline", because those are actually stored on your hard drive.  

    I actually do the exact same thing. I own several devices: a Surface Pro, a 8'' Dell tablet, and a home PC.  Plus a company-owned PC at work.

    I have close to 260 GB of data in my OneDrive, but only 15GB of that I keep on my Surface.  But my home computer keeps all files synced down to the C: drive, plus it is my File History computer (it's the one that has the 3TB western digital drive plugged into it for File History).

    I used to have all my computers send File History info over to that drive over the network, but I realized that was a bit too much overkill for my needs.  The computer with the drive is always on and already makes a copy of changed files every 30 minutes, I don't need redundant copies from the tablet coming over there to that drive too.

    OneDrive really isn't a backup tool, but this really meets my needs. I have that File History drive, plus the same files on the internal drive of that home PC.  Plus the copy in the cloud. Plus a couple 'cold' backups of truly old/won't touch again for years stuff.

    I do the exact same thing with two different areas of my "work" files. I've got my "OneDrive for Business" of private files, and then the OneDrive sync system also handles giving me easy access to SharePoint and Office/Outlook group files without having to reach for a browser. And like OneDrive, those can be available offline selectively however you want, but you can always see all the files. Those "Files on Demand" placeholders are my favorite thing.

    My biggest desire right now is for everyone on my team to get to be using these. Brining up all these file shares up to the navigation pane makes my workflow so much easier, and I never have to mess with a browser to upload/download files to online storage, yet all the files make it there.

    But short story: as far as File History or any other program cares, any files that are "available offline" are just regular files. They are pretty agnostic to the fact that OneDrive is making copies of the files (would be the same for DropBox or Google Drive, I think Amazon has their own service for this now).

    OneDrive.com also has file versioning so you can go back to what a file looked like previously, but I am fairly sure it only does that for Office file types, not things like pictures or data.

    PS. I blogged about this at cmdrkeene.com/the-bare-minimum-backup-strategy if you'd like a bit more coherent look.

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  2. Anonymous
    2017-11-28T12:16:35+00:00

    Thank you - very helpful response

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  3. Anonymous
    2018-01-09T23:43:39+00:00

    And if I got offline, could I still see and access the folder "C:\Users\Tony"?

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