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
    2016-07-14T02:48:13+00:00

    I have done the steps outlined in the thread, yet the documents folder in "This Pc" is still linked to the onedrive folder. How do I swap that to the local documents folder? (Computer illiterate :) )

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  2. @CmdrKeene 90,631 Reputation points Volunteer Moderator
    2016-07-12T15:19:21+00:00

    Hey Nathan, the first two "answers" marked on page 1 of this discussion (here) will guide you perfectly, the steps are exactly the same on Windows 10.

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  3. Anonymous
    2016-07-12T01:35:45+00:00

    Hey Shawn

    I have recently set up my new laptop with onedrive as default storage as discussed in the feed. I have managed to set it up and it all works, however I'm not too keen on it. I have tried to undo the changes but to no avail, as i think windows 10 might be a bit different.

    Any help would be much appreciated.

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