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
    2015-12-30T16:02:14+00:00
    1. Except for actions taken by the system (and apps working through the system), my "old" Documents folder has now become "moot".
    • Yes, mostly.  If you opt to store your documents into OneDrive by default, the Documents folder gets redirected into a folder inside the OneDrive folder.  The behavior is the same as if you had gone to the Documents folder properties and changed the location on the location tab (example), which is the old method of accomplishing the same thing (dating back to Windows 2000).
    1. My "new" Documents folder is now the C:\Users\John\OneDrive\Documents folder and all actions taken through my MS apps such as Word/Excel, etc. will use that as the go-to/save-to folder.
    • Yes.  Of course when you click "Save As" you can change the folder you're saving into to change it to somewhere else.
    1. With all files and folders selected to sync OneDrive files to this PC I will have access to all files and folders in OneDrive both in the "cloud" and "offline" on my PC.
    • Yes, if you've chosen to make that folder available offline. Which if you see it when you open your File Explorer, then it already is.  But you can also check by going to the OneDrive icon by the clock on the taskbar, settings, and then "choose folders" to pick which ones are kept in-sync.

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  2. Anonymous
    2015-12-29T21:25:52+00:00

    This is why windows is a beast!

    Well, I'll have to say that this is not the most helpful response I've seen but will somewhat agree to the comment. My feelings on MS OS's are that the only one that was worth paying the piper for was XP Pro... any and all others weren't worth the marketing costs.

    So, I ended up doing a copy/paste of my Documents folder to OneDrive and it "appears" to be attempting an upload... 30GB of 58GB so far (going on 16+ hours.

    After reading through this thread a couple of times now, this is my understanding of how OneDrive works.

    1. Except for actions taken by the system (and apps working through the system), my "old" Documents folder has now become "moot".
    2. My "new" Documents folder is now the C:\Users\John\OneDrive\Documents folder and all actions taken through my MS apps such as Word/Excel, etc. will use that as the go-to/save-to folder.
    3. With all files and folders selected to sync OneDrive files to this PC I will have access to all files and folders in OneDrive both in the "cloud" and "offline" on my PC.

    If I am mistaken in any of the above would someone please clue me in before I do something stupid like get rid of most the files/folders in my "old" Documents folder... btw I have them all backed up in another location anyway.

    Thanks, :j

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  3. Anonymous
    2015-12-29T11:07:38+00:00

    This is why windows is a beast!

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