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Dear Microsoft Support,
I am experiencing an issue where many of my recently used files on OneDrive have reverted to older versions over the past few months. It is only today that I have discovered this issue. I access OneDrive on two PCs, my phone, and frequently online at work.
Typically, I notice a file has been overwritten with an older version when I check the version history and see two entries with the exact same date and time. Often, the overwritten version’s file size matches that of an older version from a few entries back on the list. There is no consistency in the dates and times when this issue occurs. It seems to be happening randomly. I've found that this has occurred with hundred's of my files.
This problem has been very frustrating and has significantly undermined my confidence in OneDrive. Could you please advise me if you're aware of any such issues and if you're working to resolve them. Also, can you please advise me as to how I can prevent this from happening in the future?
Thank you for your assistance.
Regards,
Michael
Edit: Further to the above, I've also discovered that OneDrive doesn't sync automatically between my PC and Laptop when I make changes to files. I have to quit and then re-start OneDrive on the other computer in order for it to sync and receive the updated file. It also doesn't automatically sync when I attempt to restore to a previous version. In order for it to update the file back to the pervious version I have to quit and re-start OneDrive (or possibly just pause and resume syncing, which I never tried).
A Microsoft file hosting and synchronization service.
Locked Question. This question was migrated from the Microsoft Support Community. You can vote on whether it's helpful, but you can't add comments or replies or follow the question.
Use Version History to restore the files:
Is this a reply from a bot? I stated this above: "And version history was no help--it showed no versions with data newer than October, even though I update two of the files every week."
Is this a reply from a bot? I stated this above: "And version history was no help--it showed no versions with data newer than October, even though I update two of the files every week."
OK, I believe that booting up a PC containing old OneDrive versions has been overwriting the newer versions in OneDrive. It's my understanding that OneDrive does not keep versions older than one month. So, are you sure you were syncing from October onward? The newer versions should have been recoverable from this overwriting incident.
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.
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?
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.