Using One Drive to automatically back up My Documents folder

Anonymous

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

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@CmdrKeene 90,631 Volunteer Moderator

Perhaps the easiest way is to set the Documents folder to be saved inside your OneDrive folder.

If you don't already have one there, create a folder named "Documents" inside your OneDrive folder.
Right-click the original Documents folder (not the one created in step 1), and choose Properties
On the Location tab, click Move, and choose the Documents folder you created in step 1.
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 Volunteer Moderator

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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@CmdrKeene 90,631 Reputation points Volunteer Moderator

2016-08-01T13:16:33+00:00

I am assuming from what you stated in your response (#3) that I still need to go into the Documents (or any other folder that I'm currently syncing not under Documents) properties and change the location to One Drive Documents folder before I start syncing... just as I did for the original setup on my current PC.

Absolutely correct.

Concerning folders which are not already under Windows by default - will One Drive create them on my HDD and sync when I start the One Drive process? Specifically folders and files that I have under the "Public" folder on the Cloud.

Right on as well. When sync begins it will create all the folder structure first, so almost right away you'll see a bunch of what appears to be empty folders, then it will start syncing down copies of the files.
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Anonymous

2016-08-01T04:37:42+00:00

Shawn,

Thank you!

Excellent idea concerning delaying any synchronization until things have settled down.

I am assuming from what you stated in your response (#3) that I still need to go into the Documents (or any other folder that I'm currently syncing not under Documents) properties and change the location to One Drive Documents folder before I start syncing... just as I did for the original setup on my current PC.

Concerning folders which are not already under Windows by default - will One Drive create them on my HDD and sync when I start the One Drive process? Specifically folders and files that I have under the "Public" folder on the Cloud.

Again, thanks for the very appropriate suggestions in your first response.

Regards,

John
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@CmdrKeene 90,631 Reputation points Volunteer Moderator

2016-08-01T02:51:18+00:00
Ugh I just typed half my response, accidentally clicked "backspace" on the keyboard and went back a page and lost everything I typed. Here goes take 2....

You are correct that there's nothing really special you need to do on your new computer. It will sync down a copy of everything in OneDrive as soon as you sign into OneDrive. Really even the order doesn't matter, but to keep it from beginning download to the "wrong" location, I'd do the following...
1. I'd recommend when you first boot your new clean install, that you just create a local "Windows 7 style" user account on the computer. It will encourage you to login with your Microsoft Account, but just decline by clicking the links at the bottom for "do this later", "I don't have sign-in info", and/or "login without a Microsoft Account". Essentially, just don't give it an email address and it will let you create a regular username/password. This has a few benefits:
  
  it means it won't start syncing anything until you're good and ready
  
  you can go to Settings/Accounts and choose "sign in with a Microsoft Account" whenever you are ready
  
  bonus: the folder for your user account inside C:\Users will actually have the name of the user account instead of something ugly like "shawnkee-001" or whatever gets generated when you login with an MSA at first.
2. Setup/configure everything how you like. Move the Documents folder to another drive or whatever you so choose (remember to include the folder name in the location property, so that you don't inadvertently set the entire root folder of a drive as your "documents" folder, which is a common accident I see). Optionally, go ahead and configure anything else you care to. Other programs, your backup schedule, whatever. Of course this can be done later if you want (I typically create a system image after everything is "just right" too).
3. Go ahead and set your account to login with a Microsoft Account, then up OneDrive and set the folders you want it to sync (or everything) and now they should go directly to their proper home, whatever you had set in step 2. That way you don't have to worry about moving or setting it after things have started downloading (which depending on how much you have in your OneDrive could be a while).
The only other thing I'd like to point out, which is really only somewhat related, is that Windows 10 does a ton of work post-install, and initially a fresh install will be slow. In addition to OneDrive syncing (or computing hashes for existing files), the Defender is doing a first-time scan, the Windows Modules Installer service is wrapping up driver install for anything that had initially only used a generic class driver, Cortana (if enabled) is processing your calendar/email and such. There's a lot of room for bottlenecks and your CPU will be pegged for a while. My advise (as I've written here) is to set your power options to "do not sleep when plugged in" and give it a few hours to finish all that junk so performance will return to normal.
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