Onedrive is horrible, invasive and impossible

Anonymous
2023-02-09T16:57:08+00:00

Without my knowledge or consent, when I plugged in my new Dell computer and signed in to my MS 365 account, all my files were put in a cloud including copies of driver's licenses, passports, and family medical records. I thought okay, I'll just take them out of the cloud, which as we now understand also deletes them from the desktop.

I have gone back and forth about a dozen times in emails with MS techs. Some of their advice caused all of my files to disappear from my computer. I asked repeatedly if there is a way to choose what to backup and got no answer from MS. I've had a tech at my home twice, and he finds there is no way to manually backup or choose what files to backup. We decided to quit onedrive. I now have duplicates of files and paths still pointing to onedrive, so I will have to get more help with this. Research that I have been working on for years has been convoluted and possibly lost due to multiple duplicates.

I've been working from home for over 30 years and have never had problems like this. I'm used to figuring out solutions, but this is beyond absurd. I simply bought a new computer to replace my 10-year-old machine and am now in this nightmare.

Microsoft 365 and Office | OneDrive | For home | Windows

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Anonymous
2023-11-01T06:34:15+00:00

Thanks for this, VJA142. I wish I had seen these before I turned on my new PC. After watching the video you suggested and Leo's The Problem with OneDrive Backup, I'm less confused and beginning to wrap my head around it. I don't use the "Documents" folder and have individual folders on my desktop where I save things, but I get the gist.

Good suggestion too about automatic updates. I have always paused updates for several weeks and do one computer at a time to manage the nasty surprises.

Hi Enerak, glad you found Leo’s YouTube videos Re OneDrive helpful, I know I sure did, the light finally came on for me. He also has a web page (ask Leo.com) where he posts articles with links to his videos. The replies to his OneDrive articles are like this forum, full of people (including some IT types) who are all experiencing issues with OneDrive.

What’s crazy is that we all PAID for this Microsoft software, with many of us having invested in new computer hardware, only to turn on our PC’s and have our digital lives literally scrambled and yanked inside out.

I’m glad we’ve had this forum to vent & share info!

Thanks, Vikki

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  1. Anonymous
    2023-10-31T19:04:10+00:00

    Thanks for this, VJA142. I wish I had seen these before I turned on my new PC. After watching the video you suggested and Leo's The Problem with OneDrive Backup, I'm less confused and beginning to wrap my head around it. I don't use the "Documents" folder and have individual folders on my desktop where I save things, but I get the gist.

    Good suggestion too about automatic updates. I have always paused updates for several weeks and do one computer at a time to manage the nasty surprises.

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  2. Craig Long 18,630 Reputation points
    2023-10-31T02:13:50+00:00

    I have really appreciated moderator Craig’s responses to my questions & help here, however he mostly directs to Microsoft’s tutorials which aren’t the most user friendly. I now better understand Craig’s recommendations to save files to User path instead to a OneDrive path and after watching a couple Ask Leo videos I finally get this. 🙏🏻

    Thank you so much! OneDrive is definitely pushed on you.

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  3. Anonymous
    2023-10-15T02:04:29+00:00

    Followed your instruction and files were copied from the cloud onto my hard drive.

    I am assuming that at this point the files will now Sync and also be Backed Up... Correct?

    I am also assuming that many people in this thread "only have the single files in the cloud and that's not a good thing", just as I just did.

    Thank you for your patience up to this point.

    In my opinion, Microsoft has a great opportunity to increase its >1% marketshare in the file sharing market if a team within the company would just focus on the UX.

    Microsoft's advantage of having Windows already on computers is also a disadvatage. The UX for OneDrive is not distinct enough from what users are used to normally seeing with their files.

    Perhaps a separate interface for OneDrive would be a better experience for users versus 'right clicking' to navigate the service.

    Anyhow. Progress alast.

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  4. Craig Long 18,630 Reputation points
    2023-10-15T01:32:08+00:00

    Normally, there are files on your computer in the OneDrive folder and copies of those files in the cloud. Right-click the OneDrive folder at C:\Users\username\OneDrive and select "Always keep on this device" to keep all files on your computer and copies in the cloud.

    If you don't have space on your computer and you use the "Free up space" option then you don't have a backup. You only have the single files in the cloud and that's not a good thing.

    You can select these options on a per-file basis also.

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