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
    2023-09-22T22:04:26+00:00

    I got help from a Microsoft representative. He spent about 3 hours over 2 days moving all my files back out of the one drive and onto my pc. I bought a 2tb SSD for my pc to make sure I had enough space.

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  2. 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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  3. Anonymous
    2023-09-07T13:18:56+00:00

    This is the point. There should be a straightforward way to choose what you do and do not want on onedrive.

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  4. Anonymous
    2023-08-30T02:34:38+00:00

    Poor, unhelpful and somewhat nonsenical answer. You do not have to scour very far to see it does not work for many many people, it is (or should be) illegal for microsoft to steal peoples personal files, and make it next to impossible for normal people to even know it is happening let alone stop it from happening.

    It is predatory, invasive, downright creepy and orwellian for microsoft to embed this so deeply into win 11 and give no easy way for people to opt out before having their files stolen.

    I hope a class action happens and microsoft get sued - they clearly have short memories and have forgotten the nonsense they tried with internet explorer not so long ago.

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