OneDrive deleted local files and started syncing old files !

In case anyone was curious, this is still happening in December 2020. Bought a new laptop, everything uploaded over just fine, then 1 week later my one drive has reset to what it was a month ago. Hours of work lost. I cant believe this has been happening for 6 months, with no response or fix from Microsoft.

I raised this problem on April 3rd 2020. Following days of downloading & uploading, re-installation, and the location and deletion of multiple copies that OneDrive generated, my own system now seems stable. 🤞 However, given that other users, such as Aiden7 today, are still newly encountering these same problems, it seems that I could be plunged into a similar crisis at any time in the future.

As I've said before, most of the world doesn't have the kind of data speeds available to Microsoft employees.  I must say I was very fortunate in my decision to use OneDrive ONLY as a location for multiple backups and long-term storage. It does create difficulties. e.g. many tools and daily actions, such as Windows "File Open", go to the OneDrive directory first. Microsoft think that OneDrive should be the main data repository, I suspect because this would generate more revenue. 

In my own case, my C drive is an SSD so I was using my D drive to hold all my documents, including the OneDrive folder.  I am wondering if that could have something to do with it. Windows and OneDrive seems to want to keep trying to default to C drive and it's really quite difficult to change this. It shouldn't be difficult. After all, the vast majority of Microsoft customers know as much about the inner workings of a computer as they do about Astrophysics, and many will have (much smaller) SSDs as their C drive.

In any case, it's about time the OneDrive team had a proper look at what is being reported in this (and other "closed" threads), rather than insisting that OneDrive doesn't delete files without authorisation. I worked in IT for many years and I'm well aware of the temptation for IT pros to say, "That's impossible!" when users report a fault.

PS Wouldn't it be wonderful if OneDrive used easily searchable text to flag copies it had made. At the moment, it adds " - copy" to the file name. Has anyone ever tried to search for that term? The presence of spaces makes it even worse. Why not add something utterly unique like"-OneXDrive", also without any spaces?

It's the same with me. I connected my device to my OneDrive. I have backed up my desktop a month ago so my updated files are the ones on my local. When it synced, the files on the cloud replaced the files on my local and the updated versions don't show up on version history (because they're not history! they're more recent!) so there's no way to restore them. It's also not available on the trash bin of either OneDrive and local desktop.

Someone fix this! Happened to me twice. Wish there was simply no sync option if it's not working right

Always Save everything on a separate hard-drive.

I've had related problems with OneDrive... including files being deleted/moved mysteriously, files from more than one computer being merged into the same folder (a big problem when trying to figure out what to restore), syncing freezing, no warning messages or onscreen explanations about what OneDrive is doing.

This past New Year's Eve OneDrive, long story short, created quite a mess on my main laptop (I have several, plus multiple desktop systems). Although I have backups, even with that, it took me much time over what was supposed to be a holiday weekend to undo the mess resulting from OneDrive.

The tech support from Microsoft has been inadequate, to put it kindly. No phone support, just slow response asynchronous emailing where it's clear the agent doesn't grasp the problem, and an online chat discussion that was problematic for other reasons. The online version of OneDrive is also a mess in and of itself

• it doesn't provide enough information for using it to restore and its way of downloading is primitive.  And, having OneDrive move the Desktop folder on my laptop to its own version folder and then having my desktop screen lose display of ALL of its icons, files, folders and shortcuts just added to the aggravation - all that was left onscreen was the task bar, trash can and a "Where are my files" icon, and no explanation of what happened or why. I finally figured it out. Bad product design.

This OneDrive product indeed isn't mature. It's confusing to use because of its design. I'm a seasoned user of computers going back to mainframe days, DOS, all versions of Windows and a very large variety of programs and apps.  OneDrive isn't intuitive in many of its operations. I've also used other syncing products for years. Dropbox is far superior, easier to understand for most users, and I've never had significant issues with its operations nor has it ever lost my files.

I regret using OneDrive and will be unlinking it from my numerous computers. It's not trustworthy enough. Microsoft should consider instituting a fire drill with its OneDrive development team to fix this situation.