So I accidentally trusted Microsoft and am suffering for it. On my new computer, I got a popup about activating OneDrive backup, and I clicked it (foolish me). Now I thought backup meant “backup” - copy my files and put them into a safe place. But no. It means “move them to a place where I can only access them through the Internet, destroy their original location, and break any links to their original location and leave no clue as to how to reverse the process.” Waiting for user help to get back to me…
Dang, what weird settings did you use? That is not default behavior.
I dunno, i had all sorts of problems with one drive, until my subscription finally expired or something. In theory, files are mirrored on your hard drive and the cloud, but in practice, they prioritize the cloud and if you have bad connectivity, sometimes your can’t get at things when the connection is down.
How to undo OneDrive
Thanks for that. I don’t have it sync’d on one of my desktops and I get a popup every time I boot up asking me to log into OneDrive so it can do its thing.
On the machines it is functioning, if I go to delete a file on that machine I get a warning popup that the file will be deleted everywhere. Very annoying if I only want to remive the file from one machine.
We all were put on OneDrive at work. Half of us have had no issues with it, but the other half had no end of problems with it for the reasons you and the OP describe, and had it removed (myself included). There are still remnants of it floating around that keep trying to worm their way back in like a bad computer virus.
I had it at work and it was fine. Honestly, it worked fine when i was home, too. But i had weirdness on my personal account sometimes when i was traveling and had bad connectivity. And I’d never asked for it (for my personal account) and was pretty annoyed. So when i got a lot of warning messages about how it was going away, i just said, “can’t be soon enough”.
The way it’s intended to be used is that you only have one desktop, and that is mirrored on any machine you log onto. So you don’t ever need to remember whether a file was on this machine or that machine.
I talked to a GeekSquader who assured me that after the lengthy synching process is complete, things will be more normal. But it’s definitely not working right now (I did find my local drive but it doesn’t have my files in it yet). Fortunately I have a recent independent backup if needed
Googling, it’s possible to configure OneDrive so that the files are available offline and, presumably, sync with the server when you’re back online. I have multiple personal computers and like that OneDrive lets me access the files on any of the PCs.
I hope to get to that condition
I’ve never trusted “available offline”, for anything cloud-based. What if I enable that on more than one computer, then the network goes out on both of them, and then I make different edits of the file on the two computers?
OneDrive is smart enough to identify the clash and save both versions.
I think it’s up to you to remember that you already edited the file on another computer.
Nope, it will save one version with an alternate name
That’s how it’s configured for me. I have two different computers with my files synchronized and at least one of them is frequently offline, but I can get to the files just fine there.
My solution is to just use Backblaze. Pay the $9 per month for unlimited storage (per PC). It actually backs up the files: I do not access that backup when I use my computer at all. You use and store all your files locally. You just have a backup that in a cloud server that you can access if you need it. In fact, it keeps all versions up to a year.
I use Dropbox (free to individual users.)
I’ve had no problems in many years of use.
My problem is restoring my old configuration- files are still missing locally and OneDrive is now creating duplicate files (filename-Copy) for itself. It’ll gone mad. Disabling OneDrive doesn’t bring back the missing files. Yikes
Okay. That is definitely not how it’s supposed to work. I have no idea what went wrong in your case.
Di you have a recent backup you can fakl back on?