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
    2023-10-01T00:03:57+00:00

    Microsoft is wants to compete with Google Drive for cloud storage and machine learning by scraping data. No doubt the company devised a plan to intentionally use the term “Back up” in order to lure people into OneDrive. To cover their tracks, the phrase “Sync and Back Up” is used in a pathway, however the next path is a button “Manage Back Up” Additionally, the software acts as RansomWare by withholding files after a certain storage limit is surpassed, until money is paid for a subscription. Microsoft is not worried about any fines or lawsuit. Their stock might dip temporarily and they might have to pay a fine or settlement, but it’s likely worth it to them.

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  2. Anonymous
    2023-10-01T00:08:34+00:00

    So sorry this happened to you. I turned off onedrive for several months and then decided to turn it back on and use portable drives for my work, which cannot be put in a cloud. The tech came back out to help me with this because it's so confusing. It sounds like you are much more computer savvy than I am. Using portable drives is inconvenient and would be unnecessary if MS simply let us choose what to put on onedrive.

    I was so stressed about it that I ended up using separate portable drives to back up my old and new computers and also backing stuff up to a laptop. I hope whatever has been deleted by onedrive will be backed up on the portables because I can't lose the family history research I've been working on for 10 years. The thing that saved me was paying the $200 for a year of Geek Squad when I bought the computer, but honestly even the techs are baffled by Windows 11 and onedrive. Initially I had thought there would be a logical fix for onedrive, and the actual MS techs gave me bad advice that led to everything being deleted off my desktop.

    Hope you can resolve the issues and get some sleep.

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  3. Craig Long 18,630 Reputation points
    2023-10-01T07:31:49+00:00

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

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  4. Anonymous
    2023-10-02T04:01:21+00:00

    Enerak - Thank you for your reply. I sincerely hope using separate portable drives solves your issues and your data is all recoverable.

    Amazingly enough, yesterday, as tired as I was, I decided to look at both computers again. To my astonishment, all my files turned back up on my old WIN10 PC, AND miraculously, had also synced to my new WIN11 PC. I swear I don’t know how it happened. On the new PC, I immediately started right clicking document & photo folders choosing “Always Keep on This Device”. All my years of photography, personal files, PST files, ancestry docs, backed up text messages, work files… everything seems to be there!! Hallelujah! It’s like being awake all night fretting about it, somehow willed OneDrive to return my digital life back to my hard drives.

    Good grief, what a stressful ordeal. I can’t imagine how many ordinary people around the world have had to deal with this annoying time-suck of an issue because of OneDrive. I find it extremely invasive, abusive and frightening to have things removed from my personal hard drive space. (Makes me wonder if everything’s been fed/copied into some massive AI fueled supercomputer.)

    OneDrive’s default setting should not be to automatically move things to the cloud, and there should be CLEAR INSTRUCTIONS and WARNINGS about it with the ability to OPT OUT. I deliberately bought a PC with three terabytes of HD so I wouldn’t run out of space and I don’t want anyone else to touch my personal files or hold my data hostage… end.of.story!

    We shouldn’t have to be IT level tech savvy to use Microsoft software and to understand how to keep our items on our computers. Best Buy almost lost a sale too because out of frustration, I was ready to factory reset & return the expensive new PC and go back to Apple for good.

    Anyway, good luck to everyone reading this thread. As you can see, if you’re having issues with OneDrive, you’re not alone!

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