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
    2023-10-10T13:31:06+00:00

    For you and for anyone else that thinks one drive is meant to backup your documents, it's not it's a means for Microsoft to keep a copy of your data entirely.

    Not only does the file take up space in your OneDrive, but it also takes up space in your actual computer.

    So once you deleted from your computer, you no longer have access to those files.

    Its nothing more but fancy way to monitor and keep track of you, it's a completely pointless software.

    Save yourself some aggravation and just deal with an external drive or some other means that actually back up data that you can delete from your computer and have in another storage location.

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  2. Anonymous
    2023-10-02T23:10:43+00:00

    One Drive is among the worst rubbish created by MS. It is just unbeleable how bad it is and you have to pay for.. lol. But my org got trapped in this MS tech stack (stuck) lol

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  3. Anonymous
    2023-10-02T14:23:58+00:00

    So happy to hear you got your stuff back. Clear instructions, warnings and options have all been left out of Windows 11. I had initially thought clicking "always keep on this device" would mean just that, but if you delete something from the cloud it also comes off the PC. I had to wrap my head around the fact that onedrive is more of a mirror of the PC and not a normal backup.

    Good luck to everyone with this awful system.

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  4. Craig Long 18,630 Reputation points
    2023-10-02T07:02:42+00:00

    The "manila" icon folders you put at *C:\Users\username* cannot go to OneDrive.

    Thanks Craig! Appreciate the recommendation and I’ll be doing this!

    You're welcome.

    These are the folders that will sync to OneDrive when the sync is enabled at OneDrive Settings > Sync and backup > Manage backup.

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