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
    2023-09-22T07:40:58+00:00

    Same here, my MSI is now in a position where, like yours. Unknown to me OneDrive has an unbreakable link with a lot of my files. If you delete it in one drive it deletes it on my PC hard drive. I never asked Microsoft for this I never authorised Microsoft on my pc to do this.

    And now conveniently I can't use my emails anymore and to do so I have to upgrade to a paid plan, otherwise nothing works. That is why Microsoft have done this, so they can dictatorially extract money from people, otherwise your pc is useless and not your own. I too will be seeking GDPR guidance on this.

    This is the problem with letting Microsoft get too big, they literally think they can do what they want, just look at the Bethesda and Activision so called acquisitions, as bent and corrupt as it gets.

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  2. Anonymous
    2023-08-14T03:14:57+00:00

    Why isn't this on by default? Please explain your reasoning. Like the original poster said its an invasive practice and causes unnecessary problems. I just reset me computer and I didn't see an option during setup to stop this from happening. Do the developers even look at feedback or does it all go into a folder that gets deleted by default every 24 hours?

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  3. Anonymous
    2023-06-12T14:57:27+00:00

    Same problem. Put My Pictures and My Documents where Onedrive can't reach them. The map C, computer. Create a new My Picture outside Onedrive. Download the content of my pucture from C to this new map.

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  4. Craig Long 18,550 Reputation points
    2023-02-13T19:19:37+00:00

    When sync is turned off I cannot open some documents. There was an entire folder I could not open. This makes no sense, and Microsoft's complete lack of meaningful support is appalling. Onedrive is insidious.

    Right click the file or folder and select "Always keep on this device". If the file or folder has a blue cloud icon it will need to download in order to open.

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