OneDrive replaces newer versions of files with old versions

One more short description of how it happened to me, just in case someone in Microsoft wants to fix the problem.

Edited a file on my laptop for weeks, saving periodically. Apparently OneDrive didn't get any of these versions because the file was still open in the editor. Then, looked at the file on my Android phone. Didn't edit or save. Then checked on laptop, was told unable to sync file due to being open in the editor. So I saved the file & closed the editor. Immediately OneDrive overwrote the newest version (on the laptop).

Now if I *had* edited the file on my phone, that file would be the newest version, and this would be right (if I'd not later saved on the laptop, which I did).

However: (1) OneDrive should be backing up my saves of the file, whether the editor was closed or not, (2) At the instant I closed the editor, the (just) saved version was currently the newest, even though OneDrive may have been confused about the mod time on the version it had sent to my phone, & had planned to overwrite the one on my laptop when it could, IT SHOULD HAVE CHECKED THE MOD TIME on the laptop file before overwriting, discovered which was newer, and backed up the new one.

My guess is that this behavior is completely replicable. No excuse to not get a fix.

Your messages make it seem you don't understand what is going on.

For me, I tried to look at a document (that I'd been editing and saving on my laptop for weeks) on my phone using OneDrive. OneDrive showed me a file from before I opened the editor, weeks ago. On checking the OneDrive app on the laptop, it said that the file couldn't be sync'd because it was open in the editor. I saved and closed the editor. Immediately, OneDrive overwrite the file on my laptop with the old version.

Clearly it saw me opening the OLD version on my phone as "editing" even though I didn't change or save there, decided that this was now the NEWEST version, and spread it to my laptop. The multiple saved versions did not show up in OneDrive because it thought that it shouldn't accept the newer versions while the editor was still open (maybe? ).

Seems also not in the recycle bin as it was never deleted, only overwritten many times by my editor and finally by OneDrive.

Telling people that they should do funny renaming things (what only on files we don't want OneDrive to oldOverwrite?) isn't helpful.

It seems to me that the fundamental operation OneDrive is doing wrong is overwriting files without first uploading and saving the old version. I can see how in my example, it may have been difficult to know that my phone hadn't edited the file, so the new version was still on the laptop than the (later timestamped) version it had just sent to my phone. But overwriting without keeping the previous version as a backup is inexcusable.

You absolutely must have OneDrive running, syncing, and up to date before working on a file. You should make sure all files have synced and are up to date before shutting down the PC. Are you saying this may not have happened?

Indeed, the answers are not about fixing the problem. We want OneDrive not to overwrite newer files with older files, we don't want workarounds or to be inconvenienced by having to figure out we're actually working on an older version and go into file history to find which version was the latest.

My wife has two laptops, one that she doesn't use much but they both sync to OneDrive. And when she boots up the second less used laptop she hasn't used for a few weeks, boom, the newer files that she just saved a few days ago got overwritten and they weren't even saved manually on the old laptop. I'm guessing she may have opened the file not realizing it hadn't synced from the newer version, and then it autosaved on close, overwriting the new file.

I mean, do not keep any local versions on your hard drive. After you work on files, use "Free up space" to turn them back into cloud files, which you know are the latest versions because they were uploaded, and only one version exists.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UzIA9uykIhE