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

Locked Question. This question was migrated from the Microsoft Support Community. You can vote on whether it's helpful, but you can't add comments or replies or follow the question.

0 comments
Answer accepted by question author
@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).

Was this answer helpful?

100+ people found this answer helpful.
0 comments
Answer accepted by question author
@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

Was this answer helpful?

10+ people found this answer helpful.
0 comments

156 additional answers

Sort by: Oldest
Most helpful Newest Oldest
  1. @CmdrKeene 90,631 Reputation points Volunteer Moderator
    2014-10-29T02:34:20+00:00

    You don't want to store an Outlook sync file (like an outlook PST or OST file) on a synced service, it will corrupt the file and ruin your email database. Use OneDrive for "user accessible files" (like documents, presentations, pictures, files, etc.) but not for system type files such as databases, DLLs, INIs, or other "non-human-readable" files).

    Was this answer helpful?

    0 comments
  2. Anonymous
    2014-10-29T15:38:00+00:00

    Thanks so much!

    Was this answer helpful?

    0 comments
  3. Anonymous
    2015-04-13T21:00:39+00:00

    This is old thread, but apparently a common problem. Why isn't this a simple option in PC settings? Maybe someone can shed some more light on the subject.

    There is already a Documents folder inside my OneDrive folder (C:\Users\Richard\OneDrive\Documents, put there by Windows 8.1, not me) which has some of my document folders and files. Those have been copied to the cloud, but they are old versions.

    Yet there is another Documents folder (C:\Users\Richard\Documents) that has recent file versions that I only recently discovered have not been copied to the cloud. I don't know how that folder got there - perhaps I did it. When I first found that this folder was not synced to the cloud, I thought I would just copy the data from that folder to the Documents folder in OneDrive. But then how would my applications/programs find them?

    Instead, if I now set up the redirect as suggested, will I have two Documents folders in OneDrive (with the same name?) or will the two Documents folders be merged into one folder. If merged, then how are the duplicate files and folders handled?

    Further, does the redirect get recognized by applications so that those apps are able to find their data files when needed without redoing pathways within those programs?

    I have used Windows for many years (since before Windows 3), so I have spent a lot of time with the file manager (windows explorer), but in recent times I am finding all of the folder aliasing/redirecting/repurposing very confusing.

    Was this answer helpful?

    0 comments