Why is OneDrive so terrible?

Anonymous
2024-03-30T14:40:28+00:00

Why would MS think that anyone would want the entire contents of their personal hard drive to be uploaded to a cloud? And further, why would it make sense to delete the local files if someone deleted them from the cloud? In what world does this make sense. It is a poorly designed system and it's a huge violation of privacy of your customers. I have nearly lost all my files because I "deleted" them from OneDrive. I guess I stupidly thought that my local files were safe, as I did not try to delete them. OneDrive, in its ineptitude, decided for me that since I didn't want them on some server somewhere, that I must not need them at all.

Please move to an opt-in model instead of the current opt-out model. And upon opting in, there should be a tutorial of the functionality of the software. A tutorial that an idiot can understand. And it should default to sharing a single folder, not the entirety of a computer.

If it was designed this way to artificially increase "usage" of the terrible software, you did a great job. But you increased usage to impress whoever at the cost of your customers' happiness and at the cost of their privacy. As a basic rule, people don't like their personal possessions (including data) being taken without their knowledge or consent. If you are going to steal our data anyway, at least be sneakier about it.

Microsoft 365 and Office | OneDrive | For home | Windows

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  1. Anonymous
    2024-12-18T19:10:48+00:00

    I know this post is from 9 months ago but I want to also share how much I detest OneDrive. This is my first time having this. I had my last computer for 10 years with Windows XP and finally got a new one 4 years ago. When I got this new laptop, I was not clear on what OneDrive was and still am not. I thought it was just backup cloud storage but apparently, it's not? I thought quitting OneDrive would stop the syncing and just save on my computer. Now I can't see the thumbnails for my files and I hate it because I work with a lot of photos so I would like to see a preview before opening just it always was. My OneDrive is full so it can't even sync. I wish this was an option from the beginning with clear instructions on what it actually is. Also, a manual version would be better so we can choose what we want on the cloud. Nobody wants their entire computer on the cloud.

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  2. Craig Long 18,630 Reputation points
    2024-12-18T21:40:33+00:00

    "A manual version would be better so we can choose what we want on the cloud. Nobody wants their entire computer on the cloud."

    Turn off the backup at Manage Backup. That will stop all files from backing up to OneDrive. Then, you can copy files and paste them into the OneDrive folder.

    Back up your folders with OneDrive

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0xyywXnQpCU

    If that isn't sufficient, then consider avoiding the Windows Standard Folders: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3yXgyrsqraE

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  3. Anonymous
    2024-12-23T21:50:08+00:00

    I couldn't agree more! I am just setting up a new computer. It's the first time I'm using windows 11 and I didn't realize every freaking thing was going into one drive by default! Now I have a big mess on my hands. I un-installed one drive and I thought I had all of my files on the local drive, but suddenly One Drive reared its ugly head out of nowhere. Who wants this devil drive?? I can see I have a lot of work to do to get rid of it.

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  4. Craig Long 18,630 Reputation points
    2024-12-23T22:59:36+00:00

    The OneDrive folder is at C>Users>YourUsername>OneDrive where OneDrive files are kept.

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  5. Anonymous
    2025-01-02T22:07:00+00:00

    I could not agree more with the opening statement on this thread.

    Unfortunately it has grabbed all my photo files and it feels like a lifetime work ahead to download .

    Until I unlinked the photo folders from one drive my laptop had its cpu consumed on uploading files and I couldn’t get on with the rest of my work .

    Poorly designed , poorly explained and a danger to file security.

    JUST AWFUL

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