OneDrive deleted local files and started syncing old files !

Anonymous
2020-04-03T18:14:49+00:00

Hi,

OneDrive has suddenly deleted files in local folders that was not synced with OneDrive.

I installed OneDrive a while ago on my work computer and copied a lot of different files including Visual Studio projects to the OneDriver folder.

Later found out that OneDrive was causing problems for the Visual Studio projects and even though I had marked all folders to also be kept locally it wasn't working correctly.

So I moved all of the Visual Studio projects and several other folders back to the original location to make sure I had them locally.

Time goes by, and today when I turn on my computer I notice a lot of old files have been synced to my Desktop which is synced using OneDrive.

Then I also realize that the files that I moved out of the OneDrive synced folders have suddenly appeared again and old versions from back when I initially copied the folders are being synced again.

When I look at the local folder that is NOT synced with OneDrive, many of the files are gone - just like that - GONE.

There is no way to get the files back and all my recent work is lost.

I have looked in the online Recycle Bin and the Second stage recycle bin and none of the files are there (since they were never in OneDrive but only locally).

It seems like OneDrive has reverted the old actions of when I moved the files to the local folder and now old versions from back then are being synced.

This is completely unacceptable.

I have lost all my recent work.

How do I get my local files that has now been deleted by OneDrive but which was not synced with OneDrive back?

Microsoft 365 and Office | OneDrive | For home | Windows

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  1. Anonymous
    2021-08-11T12:27:41+00:00

    I found a solution.

    1. Disable One Drive.
    2. Unlink your computer from One Drive.
    3. Uninstall One Drive.
    4. Check after every update to make sure it's not automatically reactivated.
    5. If reactivated go back to step 1.

    https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/office/turn-off-disable-or-uninstall-onedrive-f32a17ce-3336-40fe-9c38-6efb09f944b0

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  2. Anonymous
    2021-08-11T12:27:46+00:00

    TRW444 to unsubscribe from this thread go up to the question, click on Subscribe and then you will see Unsubscribe - click on that. You will no longer get email notifications.

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  3. Anonymous
    2021-08-11T12:38:18+00:00

    Still happening. Had just edited my little modding project, delete previous backups, made a new backup. One Drive asked me if I wanted to remove my file. I checked my work folder. Everything was listed as synced. So, I think... Yeah? I just removed a huge chunk of backup files so I guess it was asking me to confirm that.

    Nope, the damn thing thought I want to remove my latest work and restore a version from 2 days ago. All of them. The damn thing doesn't even have the decency to backup my latest work in the file history. Those were synced, damnit.

    After having lost all my files and being told it was my fault I have been watching this thread since in hopes that may be there would be an answer or a solution. I agree at this point in time that MS wont do anything about this. Their ethics as a company have eroded into nothing.

    My answer to MS over this issue was to fire them. I cancelled my subscription.

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  4. Anonymous
    2021-08-11T14:17:23+00:00

    The main problem here is that our antitrust authorities dont do their job.

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  5. Anonymous
    2021-08-26T01:47:31+00:00

    Same happened to me!
    All my local files were simply deleted from the main local folder "Documents" right after I enabled the automatic backup and sync with onedrive. Before I was just creating docs in the local "Documents" folder and copying into onedrive. But the moment I included the local "Documents" folder into syncing and backup, all my documents in that folder were gone and just old ones showed up in onedrive online, being them in duplicates.

    I tried to contact assistance but without success, nobody to help and they cannot retrieve the documents.

    Too bad cloud and customer service. I will not use it anymore.

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