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
    2021-11-28T01:04:59+00:00

    Everything in my OneDrive has NOT been updated in a year even though I am constantly syncing!

    I advise anyone STOP using OneDrive as it is a serious data integrity risk. I have recently moved all my files to Google Drive, hopefully I can move away from issues that cause me days to fix.

    Recently I moved a very important folder from my local computer into OneDrive folder.

    There happened to be some problem with syncing, so I unlinked my computer and re-linked it.

    When the syncing finished, the ENTIRE FOLDER disappeared with all its content (more than 100GB of video) on my local computer. It wasn't in my recycle bin, and not in the OneDrive recycle bin too. I simply have no way to retrieve it.

    What's worse, OneDrive started downloading folders to my folder which I have deleted months ago. All of these folders have the folder structure intact but none have any files.

    This is just ridiculous.

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  2. Anonymous
    2021-01-13T20:35:49+00:00

    Exactly the same issue: OneDrive deletes files w/o being asked for

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  3. Anonymous
    2021-01-03T23:13:43+00:00

    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.

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  4. Anonymous
    2020-08-18T19:36:24+00:00

    Ok, I figured out that this was as simple as opening the "Recycle Bin" app. All my local files were there. WHY DID ONE DRIVE AUTOMATICALLY SYNC AND THEN MOVE MY FILES TO THE RECYCLE BIN. 

    If there is a setting for this, why is this the default setting?

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  5. 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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