OneDrive replaces newer versions of files with old versions

This is what happened to me. There were previous versions but the newest showing also happened to be from last August and well out of date. Nothing in online recycling bin either.

I was lucky as I have three laptops that I work on, so fired one up without allowing it to connect to internet and managed to recover an almost up to date version. Had I not discovered the problem prior to booting the third machine I would have lost a lot of work.

Oh my goodness, I cannot thank you enough. I found my newer version in the OneDrive recycling bin! They renamed it as a "copy". I thought I was screwed since the version history didn't show anything except the August one. I think my freaking out caused me to overlook this detail. THANK YOU BOTH for your replies!!!

This happened to me today. I used a notebook that hadn't been turned on since last year and it synchronised 160,000 files in the wrong direction. Fortunately, most hadn't been changed, but some critical documents and spreadsheets were overwritten. I can find more recent versions in version history and restore them, but I can't remember every file that has been updated in the last three months, so I'm sure the consequences of this will be apparent for months.

This is staggering incompetence on Microsoft's part.

MICROSOFT WILL NOT FIX THIS ISSUE.. After a year of waiting for the solutions and having to double save files locally and upload to OneDrive, it is clear MS does not care about us and our issues, or the countless hours we have worked on files to watch them be overwritten by older files, causing you to waste time and effort. Then all you get from MS is "go hunt for the version you lost". Sync software is worthless if it cannot recognize a newer file over an older one. I don't care how long it has been since you used your laptop; the software compares the two files, and the newer one should ALWAYS win and overwrite the older one. I am told this is rudimentary to all sync software. A point that MS has obviously failed miserably at.

You must fix it yourself by:

1. Download all your files from your OneDrive web folder
2. Delete all folders in the OneDrive web folder
3. Delete the OneDrive App from your computer

a) First stop OneDrive, then quit OneDrive

b) Click on Windows, type Programs, and open Add or Remove Programs

c) Find OneDrive in the list and uninstall it

1)You may need to do this 2-3 times, as MS does not want this to happen, after you uninstall it, it magically just reappears in the list!

d) Find a safe, reputable, backup, and sync software to install on your system. I highly recommend Good Sync

e) For less than what you would pay monthly for upgraded MS OneDrive storage, you get robust sync software and cloud storage for your files that is effortless, and it WILL NOT SAVE OLDER VERSIONS OF FILES OVER NEWER ONES!!!

4. Then say out loud, "OneDrive, you are FIRED!!!"
5. Enjoy peace of mind again.

I have experienced this exact same issue.

I was working last night on a file on Computer A - and connected to the internet / OneDrive. The latest version of the file should have been from Computer A.

I started working on Computer B this morning. The file from Computer A was replaced by the pre-existing and older file on Computer B.

It was only because this file was very recent, that I immediately saw the problem. Going into version history, I was able to see the file from Computer A, and save it under a new file name. This has happened before, and I did not notice.

This bug completely defeats the purpose of OneDrive versioning and is incredibly frustrating. I will go back to my practice over the past 30 years of saving under new file names regularly.