Urgent: Files Reverting to Older Versions on OneDrive

Seven months on and this issue is still happening. I'm constantly running 24 hours behind despite the fact my one drive tells me the file was synced, and within a few hours of closing the file the file reverts to the one from the day before. In addition Onedrive persistently keeps restoring deleted folders. This only began after the latest update to Windows 11 so either this still isn't fixed and MS aren't taking this issue as seriously as they should or the latest update broke something again. There is no point in using Onedrive when Onedrive is a liability, this issue needs to be fixed.

I do have OneDrive installed on multiple devices and this is what happened, OneDrive used the old files on another device to update the cloud, which is unacceptable! That means OneDrive only works if you have it installed on one device. This is 2025 and most people have more than one device. I hope Microsoft pays attention to this thread, especially since people have been flagging the issue for at least 5 years at this point.

Thanks, this is very helpful. I have a confession to make. Despite what I said above about only having one PC connected to OneDrive, I do realise now that I had also added my OneDrive to another machine, so I have to concede there is a possibility that the second machine sent a sync that was months out of date.
The thing is though, the Version History had duplicate entries something like this:
timestamp and filename from day before - months old version of the file
timestamp and filename from day before - the version I saved the day before
If the second machine had sent a sync that was months out of date, then it must have substituted-in the latest timestamp.

I've come to the conclusion that it doesn't really matter what happened, or who's fault it is. If it isn't transparent and reliable then it's useless. As you say, it fails in its primary task of keeping files safe. For the last three months I've been adding lines to my documents like "This is the last change I made on 20 Jan" and then keeping a note on a piece of paper of the dates I last edited files. It's crazy that I have to do this.

For the last couple of years I've slowly been migrating files from my home server to OneDrive. Thank goodness I never completed that task, now I'm reversing-out of that, moving my files back to the server.

MasterZymeth's and CraigLong's replies above could be on to something. While searching the web to see if this is a wide-spread problem (it is, and I found reports as far back as 2020), I stumbled upon this Reddit thread. Several users with this issue mention that they have other machines they don't use regularly anymore, and that what seems to have happened for them is that this machine uploaded its outdated copies instead of downloading the newer versions.

This made me realise that I completely forgot about an old desktop computer I still have at my parents' house. I turn this on maybe every couple of months when visiting them. I wouldn't have expected that I already had used OneDrive on that machine, but it seems to have been there, and with full local sync, as well. The frequency with which I turn on that machine would absolutely be consistent with the timespan of the change reversal I saw in my files.

I seem to have disabled syncing on that machine sometime last year, and I'm at least not aware of it having happened again since then. Fingers crossed. Perhaps some of you have infrequently used, maybe even forgotten OneDrive clients somewhere, as well?

What this boils down to is that apparently, the OneDrive software fails at one of the most basic requirements of a backup/sync tool by being unable to tell which copy of a diverged file is newer, and then proceeding to sync in the wrong direction. This is a serious case of "you had one job…" and will probably spell the end of my working relationship with OneDrive.

To lighten the mood, here's a bit I found in one of the other discussions of this issue that I found hilarious 😄

User: Save the file.
OneDrive: Got it!
User: Where?
OneDrive: What?

I think I solved the problem I was having with this issue. This is probably just specific to me, but I'll mention it here in case it helps someone else.

I was having the problem where my newer files were being overwritten daily by older versions. For me, it turned out to be OneNote on my Kindle Fire. When I opened OneNote on the Fire, I noticed there were duplicates of the files with the same names. I don't understand how that's possible, but there they were. So, I removed OneNote from my Kindle Fire and deleted its data. Since then, I've no longer had the problem.