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How do I ensure I will never lose my OneDrive Files? Is "Always Keep on this device" enough?

Anonymous
2025-05-17T17:16:00+00:00

As question suggests, I want to ensure I always have access to all my files. I ticked "always keep on this device". Does this mean if my one drive account is terminated (i.e. school account closes after graduation) that my files are still safe on my device? I have a lot of course documents I want to keep for future review later on.

ESPECIALLY my one note files. There's a lot of inserted PDF files and I worry that if I lost the one drive it wouldnt load things like PDFs inserted even IF i clicked "keep on this device" for the one note books.

Microsoft 365 and Office | OneDrive | For business | Windows

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  1. Anonymous
    2025-05-17T17:31:07+00:00

    Dear Dan, 

    Thank you for reaching out and sharing your concern. Regarding the issue you're facing, here’s a detailed explanation: 

    The "Always Keep on this device" feature helps you download your OneDrive files and store them locally on your device, ensuring that you always have access to them, even when you’re offline. However, if your OneDrive account is terminated (for example, if your school account is closed after graduation), OneDrive will no longer sync the data. This means your files will no longer be updated or synced with the cloud service. 

    To ensure that your files, especially OneNote files and PDFs inserted into them, remain safe and accessible after your OneDrive account is closed, please follow these steps: 

    1. Ensure that files are fully downloaded: Make sure all your important files are fully downloaded and stored locally on your device. You can confirm this by checking the OneDrive app on your computer to ensure the files have a green checkmark next to them.
    2. Store OneNote files locally: For your OneNote notebooks, you can export your files as local .one files to keep them safe on your computer. This will help protect your important documents, even if OneDrive is no longer operational.
    3. Backup: To ensure the long-term safety of your important documents, I recommend backing up these files to another storage device (such as an external hard drive or a different cloud service) to prevent data loss.

    I hope this information is helpful. If you have any additional details or updates regarding this issue, feel free to share. Your feedback is greatly appreciated. If you found my answer helpful, marking it as an answer would benefit others facing similar situations. 

    Sincerely, 
    Dustin-TP-MSFT | Microsoft Community Support Specialist

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  2. Anonymous
    2025-05-21T22:37:51+00:00

    Dear Dan,

    I just wanted to check and see if the above information was helpful to you. If you have any updates on this topic, feel free to share them. And if you find my answer helpful, you can mark it as an answer so that others can easily refer to it as well. Thank you very much.

    Dustin-TP-MSFT | Microsoft Community Support Specialist

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  3. Anonymous
    2025-05-17T17:52:34+00:00

    Hi Dan, just to add one little tip to Dustin's substantive advice. If you for example you know that your school account will be closed shortly do as Dustin suggest, but then Unlink OneDrive>Click on OneDrive on the taskbar>Settings>Settings>Account>Unlink this PC. Then again follow Dustin's advice to Backup to an external hard drive.

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