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
    2020-08-07T17:31:02+00:00

    That error message doesn't even make sense.  A file is either online-only or on the PC.

    I'm getting this error message trying to remove what I think are redundant files copied to one-drive as backup, but this is something my employer forced on us, and I don't want all my desktop files backed up on one drive where other people might be able to access them, for all I know.

    So, if I'm deleting a file that's "online only" why would it remove them from my PC?!?

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  2. Anonymous
    2020-08-07T17:50:45+00:00

    That is the big-brother-est, "I'm sorry Dave, I can't do that" sounding response.  We are customers, who you make money off of.  Your product can't screw up our work with no accountability.  I'm glad I don't own any Microsoft stock (even in my mutual funds) because I sense a class action lawsuit a-brewin'.

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  3. Anonymous
    2020-08-09T21:05:55+00:00

    Hi

    I have a brand new PC today.

    I discovered I was not allowed to save any of my files to my local hard-drive=  a major problem and makes working offline very difficult if you have forgotten to get permission from One drive for that particular file and there is no internet connection...

    • this used to be very simple. .

    Luckily I have a separate physical hard drive containing all the files from my old PC. However when I moved some of these files into Local documents on my new PC, it was then I discovered they were all very, very, very slowly being uploaded to one drive. So I deleted them only to discover  they were being uploaded endlessly again. There is no way to stop uploading files to one drive once they have appeared on my PC and I cannot delete them from one drive because they just start uploading again...  ! Something is wrong here...!

    Why can I not  delete files from One drive and keep them on my own PC? Why are 'files that I have  'deleted' from my PC documents folder being automatically uploaded again to Onedrive after they have been deleted? They are no longer shown in my documents folder,  I have had the message 'do you want to delete these totally' and I agreed to it (because I have all the files safely on my external drive). Does One drive have a memory that is incapable of registering a deleted item? Are all the files I ever delete now going to held in a huge collection on One drive?  Its a very inefficient way of filing documents, trying to locate the right document and it is a waste of space.

    I don't want my files in One Drive. I want my files stored locally so I can view them offline without having to get One drive to give me permission to do that. These are my files, not Microsofts…

    There is also something very, very badly wrong with this software as Onedrive  uploads files again and again even after they've been deleted from my documents folder. What is going on here? At present it is uploading 4955 files that were deleted about 4 hours ago... I cannot stop it from syncing with deleted files....

    Microsoft needs to provide a solution to this problem. There's enough people having problems with it!

    How can we permanently delete files from One drive and ensure that they are not then automatically uploaded again and again to Onedrive after deletion

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  4. Anonymous
    2020-08-09T23:30:01+00:00

    I'm having similar problems with files disappearing. I saved the file I was working on in Word, but when I went to send it to someone it disappeared. I couldn't find it anywhere on my mac, in word, onedrive, the Icloud--gone!  

    It also made my updates to new files into old files. The August/July files gone! 

    I started playing around with files that aren't important--a couple of Shakespeare sonnets 1, 2, 3 etc. The same thing happened. I was able to save one or two files, but when I did a rewrite or added something and saved, they disappeared. Bizarre. These are my personal files, but it's happening at work too for lots of people. Some co-workers are having their entire files and data disappear.

    I'm thinking of ditching Microsoft and Onedrive for something else, but not sure what.

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  5. Anonymous
    2020-08-10T00:16:49+00:00

    No one at Microsoft is listening.

    Definately no one is listening at OneDrive. Last time I tried to talk to them I ended up having to talk to Microsoft tech support instead, who told me that there was no way to talk to OneDrive team. Email only. I tried that too. It really was comical and a colossal waste of my time.

    My solution now is to back up my OneDrive local folder to a USB connected drive that I pulled from an older laptop. Silly, really: we should not have to be in this position. 

    OneDrive today is a sad remnant of what once was a good solution. In typical Microsoft fashion they managed to ruin that too.

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