Microsoft should be sued class action by users for copying and deleting all files from local computer without notifying the user!!

Mia,

You are either lying or have been lied too. I made the HUGE I made mistake of signing up for 365 in March 2023 and did not set it to sync and a few days later ad I turned on my computer and my desktop was completely blank and I have been trying to get Microsoft to help me get my files back. I called and asked for my money back and they refused not only that but even though I have never used 365 it is still taking my photos for over a year. Microsoft deserves to be sued!!!! I hate 365 and am a retired Computer Network Technician and I know what I am talking about. They released that **** before it was ready. You need to get your facts straight.

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To John, If you hear of a lawsuit, I am in!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!11

Dear respected John,

I'm sorry to hear that you've had a negative experience with OneDrive. However, Microsoft does not delete files from a user's local computer without their permission. It is possible that you may have accidentally enabled the OneDrive feature that automatically backs up your files to the cloud. For reference: Sync files with OneDrive in Windows - Microsoft Support

If you would like to restore your files back to your local hard drive, you can do so by downloading or directly copy them from the OneDrive sync folder showing in left bar on the File Explorer and saving them to your computer.

I appreciate your patience and understanding and thank you for your time and cooperation.

Sincerely,

Mia | Microsoft Moderator

I've been fighting this battle for over a year. YES, Microsoft OneDrive does AUTOMATICALLY MOVES FILES WITHOUT PERMISSON. It did not do this previously. I have had OneDrive for years and had only a few folders and 15-20 photos placed there back when it was a manual process, those files were fine there and showed up in explorer after one update as being in the OneDrive folder. Only the files I chose and manually moved to OneDrive were kept there.

But now, some random update automatically syncs ALL files to OneDrive. What is worse, the process doesn't properly organize those files. I have so many important personal and work-related empty folders on my hard drive now, with some only having one or two of the original documents that were there. The ones that OneDrive grabbed (hundreds of documents) are not in the proper folders. Since I had separate drives for specific purposes, OneDrive combined documents and photos from each of them into one area and placed them in the wrong folders.

My experience has been that once they are moved, they are disorganized and not in the same named folder as they were on my computer, and I have lost hundreds of files that can no longer be found.

I work from home and teach online for a State University - nearly every course I have has had files removed from their folders and moved to OneDrive, which previously was not used for Work. The whole process is destroying my coursework and documents that are needed for students. To top it off, now, if you move a file by "moving" it back from OneDrive to the designated external hard drive for Work, Home, or Personal, or try downloading it from OneDrive to a folder on my specifically chosen hard drives designated for Work, School, Home, and Personal filing, - it says you have DELETED the file. If you don't restore it, IT DELETES the files from your hard drive —there is even a warning stating that You have deleted the "XYZ" file, and it cannot be retrieved. If you try the "Stop Using OneDrive," you are effectively removing everything, and the files do NOT return to the original location. So You LOSE files.

I have over 20 years of Geneology files that have been upended and are no longer organized by surname.

My Master's thesis files are obliterated, and one of my programmed online portfolios no longer works because the files can not be located and synced from their original path. To complicate matters even further, Adobe Acrobat started a cloud system that automatically moved PDFs to its cloud, so several of those were moved from my hard drives, while others were moved from OneDrive. Fortunately, I caught that quickly and could retrieve and stop the Adobe auto uploads, but there is no acceptable resolution for OneDrive - it just keeps on going.

The ONLY FIX I have found is to PAUSE OneDrive every 24 Hours to stop the syncing process. Even that is flawed—you have to restart syncing to immediately re-pause it. If you miss the time to restart OneDrive to immediately Pause it again, any new files or the files you downloaded or transferred back to your hard drives will be RE-SYNCED to OneDrive AGAIN!!! It is ridiculous.

To the OP, John, I am ready to join the fight against the invasion of privacy, removal of very personal documentation, and lack of management tools for customer preferences regarding Microsoft's OneDrive.

It is not at all trivial. My laptop was blank when I opened around the third day after I decided to buy MS 365. I had some experience as a tech so I was able to bring it back the desktop on my computer but called Microsoft for assistance because the files that are normally under the tree on the left-hand side when you open "My Computer" - on your desktop - all the files that used to be below "This PC" in the tree were no longer there; desktop, documents, pictures, music, videos. They made a shortcut under Home and Gallery. That is when I tried to get my $99.99 back which was like 3 days after I made the HUGE mistake of buying this mess of "uncooked stew", they said no and would not help me break the link. Finally, I got a woman who was helpful stopping the link and at least putting a desktop in the tree where I could actually use on my computer. However it was still taking my pictures, which are private. I had tried to find an older copy of Office or buy a new one from them before I gave in and bought 365. I finally found one and installed it but they removed that too. Well my "Year of Microsoft Hell" is finally over and I had to figure out what was done and download my files myself because I could never get to talk to an agent. There online mess would take me to a link to talk to an agent it said but just kept throwing things at me to tell me how to fix it myself. I just hope I got it all right, since they can't even have the decency to help me. So, I paid $99.99 for a year of stress and total annoyance and didn't even use their **** office. I have used every tool I know of as a computer tech to try to repair, but I am still seeing some things that are not where they are supposed to be. When I get time I will need to rebuild my computer. I do not understand the coldness that I received from Microsoft. Frankly, I am considering buying a MAC. I used to love Microsoft but they are not even trying to be better. That does not move me to buy their computers anymore.

One Drive is the most god awful invention of the M$ nonsense to date. Perfectly formed to abscond with people's private data. What on earth can we do as a community to put an end to this? STOP PAYING FOR ANYTHING MICROSOFT!!! Use Linux, no matter the learning curve, lets get these guys a reality check on what just isn't going to fly anymore!

I agree. I also 'somehow' enabled OneDrive - and it moved all of my documents and photos to the cloud. I'm pretty careful about file management - so I think this happened as part of Office 365 install and setup - but I sure as hell do not recall seeing any notification that this would MOVE my files to the cloud so they would only be available when I am online.

I'm trying to restore them locally - but the software interface is far from intuitive and the help is more than a little confusing - and I'm a software professional with over 40 years experience.

I would certainly support a class action suit against MS for basically hijacking user files without proper notification. The entire OneDrive application is designed to be obscure to end users.

This is the worse POS software I have encountered in some time.