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
    2023-09-22T19:29:24+00:00

    This week's Windows 11 problem was that file explorer would not search my portable drive. But it did not say that, it just said nothing was found. I had to click on the file icon, click the three dots, click options, click search, and click include system directories. Why would someone not want search to work on a portable drive? It makes no sense just like onedrive and everything else MS does.

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  2. Craig Long 18,630 Reputation points
    2023-09-22T19:25:06+00:00

    Use an external drive or put your folders at C:\Users{username}\YourFoldersHere

    Keep the files to a minimum in the folders that OneDrive may sync by default.

    OneDrive can only touch your Desktop, Pictures, Documents, Music, and Videos folders. It won't touch any manila folders unless you put them into your OneDrive folder or into one of those folders I mentioned.

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  3. Anonymous
    2023-09-22T10:03:34+00:00

    Onedrive is frankly just a horrible cloud service. I always remove it completely as one of the very first things when I get a new system or help friends/family setup their new systems.

    I suggest looking for an alternative as there are many that does the job way better.

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  4. 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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