# OneDrive **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [September 10, 2019, 2:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/onedrive/839982 "2019-09-10T14:29:44Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 13\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![TRC4941](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/trc4941/32/6792_2.png) [@TRC4941](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TRC4941)\ **Post date:** [September 10, 2019, 2:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/onedrive/839982/1 "2019-09-10T14:29:44Z")
Every day for the last few months, when I log onto my desktop computer I get a message saying: OneDrive isn’t signed in. Please enter your info to start syncing again. It’s also an icon on the bottom toolbar on the far right where my speakers, etc. are. It has a red X on the icon and when I put my mouse on it, it says - OneDrive you’re not signed in. I have no idea what OneDrive is used for. I never installed it or uninstalled it. Am I supposed to be signed in?!😕 ---
**Author:** ![Nava](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/da6949/32.png) [@Nava](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nava)\ **Post date:** [September 10, 2019, 2:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/onedrive/839982/2 "2019-09-10T14:37:35Z")
OMMMMMM. My crystal ball says your computer is running Windows. OneDrive is the Microsoft version of “place in the Cloud where you can keep Stuff”. Microsoft wants you to create a Microsoft account and use it to log in to OneDrive, and to MSOffice, and to Skype, and to anything and everything they can think of making you log in to. If you use Windows, the program which synchronizes any files you’ve marked for it with your OneDrive is one of the many programs that come preinstalled. I kicked it to the curb along with a bunch of other stuff, the computer still runs swimmingly and it cries less often; it’s stopped trying to get me to sign on to stuff I’m not interested in signing on to, but it took a while. ---
**Author:** ![BubbaDog](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bubbadog/32/333_2.png) [@BubbaDog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BubbaDog)\ **Post date:** [September 10, 2019, 2:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/onedrive/839982/3 "2019-09-10T14:38:50Z")
It’s Microsoft’s attempt to get you to use cloud storage. If you have a Microsoft account you get some free storage space. You can access it after you create a free account or you can happily ignore it like I do. ---
**Author:** ![slash2k](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/439d5e/32.png) [@slash2k](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/slash2k)\ **Post date:** [September 10, 2019, 4:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/onedrive/839982/4 "2019-09-10T16:12:59Z")
If you have the subscription version of Microsoft Office (Office 365), OneDrive gets installed as part of that. ---
**Author:** ![Cabin\_Fever\_1](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cabin_fever_1/32/2908_2.png) [@Cabin\_Fever\_1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cabin_Fever_1)\ **Post date:** [September 10, 2019, 4:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/onedrive/839982/5 "2019-09-10T16:28:19Z")
All of the above is true. I have a MS account that I never use, yet OneDrive keeps uploading files until repeatedly reminding me that I am out of “free” space. I have been too lazy to remove this POS from my laptop, so it is my own fault for letting this continue as a minor annoyance. ---
**Author:** ![Tim\_T-Bonham.net](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/46a35a/32.png) [@Tim\_T-Bonham.net](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tim_T-Bonham.net)\ **Post date:** [September 10, 2019, 7:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/onedrive/839982/6 "2019-09-10T19:31:14Z")
Search “remove onedrive from computer” on the web and you’ll see many sites explaining how to kill this annoyance. (But I know f many people who use it as a cheap (free) online backup. The only cost is having Microsoft know all your data, and thus able to send you more targeted advertisements, or sell your info to others to do this.) ---
**Author:** ![Cabin\_Fever\_1](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cabin_fever_1/32/2908_2.png) [@Cabin\_Fever\_1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cabin_Fever_1)\ **Post date:** [September 10, 2019, 7:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/onedrive/839982/7 "2019-09-10T19:41:31Z")
> [@Tim\_T-Bonham.net](#): > > Search “remove onedrive from computer” on the web and you’ll see many sites explaining how to kill this annoyance. > > (But I know f many people who use it as a cheap (free) online backup. The only cost is having Microsoft know all your data, and thus able to send you more targeted advertisements, or sell your info to others to do this.) LOL. I know how, but reference the term “lazy” that I used to describe myself. OneDrive from Microsoft, Googles’ cloud, Yahoo, [insert EveryoneElse here], Even the AWS cloud is going to monetize your metadata/habits/etc. ---
**Author:** ![CookingWithGas](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cookingwithgas/32/485_2.png) [@CookingWithGas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CookingWithGas)\ **Post date:** [September 10, 2019, 8:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/onedrive/839982/8 "2019-09-10T20:36:58Z")
When my company got Exchange with SharePoint, it included OneDrive. I tried using OneDrive and found it clunky and slow and unusable, but that was at least a couple of years ago. Now it seems to be part of Windows. I hate Microsoft trying to force things down our throats. IMHO Dropbox does the same thing and does it 10 times better, and also has a free version. ---
**Author:** ![DPRK](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/4491bb/32.png) [@DPRK](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DPRK)\ **Post date:** [September 10, 2019, 8:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/onedrive/839982/9 "2019-09-10T20:39:41Z")
[Tron](https://www.reddit.com/r/TronScript/) will automatically wipe it out. ---
**Author:** ![TRC4941](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/trc4941/32/6792_2.png) [@TRC4941](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TRC4941)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2019, 3:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/onedrive/839982/10 "2019-09-11T15:00:44Z")
Thanks, everybody! I will probably just continue to click on the X every time it rears up. ---
**Author:** ![Tangent](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tangent/32/3098_2.png) [@Tangent](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tangent)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2019, 4:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/onedrive/839982/11 "2019-09-11T16:31:51Z")
> [@CookingWithGas](#): > > When my company got Exchange with SharePoint, it included OneDrive. I tried using OneDrive and found it clunky and slow and unusable, but that was at least a couple of years ago. Now it seems to be part of Windows. I hate Microsoft trying to force things down our throats. > > IMHO Dropbox does the same thing and does it 10 times better, and also has a free version. I have used OneDrive for years (since it was ‘SkyDrive’), and I do think it has improved a lot. I also have Dropbox and, for work, Google Drive (which has been ‘misfiring’ a bit for me lately). OneDrive works just fine and I get 1 TB of storage with my Office 365 subscription. I like Dropbox, but their free storage is pretty minimal (only a couple of GB), and their subscription prices are more than I’d want to pay. ---
**Author:** ![Novelty\_Bobble](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/a3d4f5/32.png) [@Novelty\_Bobble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Novelty_Bobble)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2019, 5:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/onedrive/839982/12 "2019-09-11T17:59:19Z")
> [@Tangent](#): > > I have used OneDrive for years (since it was ‘SkyDrive’), and I do think it has improved a lot. I also have Dropbox and, for work, Google Drive (which has been ‘misfiring’ a bit for me lately). OneDrive works just fine and I get 1 TB of storage with my Office 365 subscription. I like Dropbox, but their free storage is pretty minimal (only a couple of GB), and their subscription prices are more than I’d want to pay. ditto, works well for me and 1TB is not to be sniffed at. ---
**Author:** ![EinsteinsHund](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/einsteinshund/32/8400_2.png) [@EinsteinsHund](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EinsteinsHund)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2019, 8:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/onedrive/839982/13 "2019-09-11T20:06:03Z")
I have stopped counting how many cloud spaces I have, let me think…dropbox (voluntarily, I needed it for work a long time ago and subscribed, and it’s still the best I use the most), OneDrive, google drive,amazon drive, t-online cloud…That must be all…Wait, I got a flickr account that came only with a yahoo mail account, add that. I only really use dropbox and google drive, but I’m a bit surprised (but only a tiny little bit) to learn in this thread that the companies analyse meta data from my files. Do they all do it?