Deleting files from onedrive also deleted them from my PC?

Hello!

My name is David N. I am a Windows fan and advise people here with Windows questions. I will be happy to assist you with your issue.

The issue here is that you are confusing storage or backup with sync.

The purpose of sync is not to protect files from deletion. In fact, it is part of its job to ensure that files are deleted.

The purpose of sync is to ensure that the folders which are being synced are effectively the same folder everywhere sync is used. If you log into a Microsoft account when you use Windows, sync connects your folders, by default Desktop, Documents, and Pictures so that they have the same exact contents on OneDrive as on the computer that you logged into. If you use the same account to log into a second computer, its Desktop, Documents, and Photos have the same files.

Unfortunately, this means that if you delete a file from any of these folders, that file is deleted from all of them. This is how sync works and is by design.

To ensure that you keep files, you will want to store them in a non-synced location. This can be on your local drive, in OneDrive storage, or on another drive or cloud service. You can also set up backups, even backups of synced folders. The synced folders will be backed up, and since the backups are not synced their contents will not be deleted.

I hope this helps! Please let me know if this resolves your issue or if you require additional assistance.

Regards,

David N.

I extremely detest OneDrive. It made me almost loose a lot of very important data. I did exactly as someone suggested before. Restoring the lost files, then saving them to a new folder that wasn't synced and then turn off OneDrive sync and altogether uninstall that garbage app. Now every time I reinstall windows I start by turning off OneDrive sync and uninstall it so it doesn't accidentally turn on syncing somehow. OneDrive is a very Evil program that caused me more frustration than help.

So to my understanding, the important files would then be in 3 places - (1) on One Drive, (2) on the PC where one usually works them, and (3) where you store the 'PC's files backup', which, in my case would be another PC folder "unsynced'. The ONE Drive only 'mirrors' what you do on the PC . So if the PC goes dark, then you WILL have the files still on ONE DRIVE. All cloud drives work that way. Oh, actually there is a 4th place where you will find your files, and that is the 'One Drive folder' on your PC.. You can work the files from there but it is only an index of what is actually on the ONE DRIVE. As also a user of the Google Drive, one additional feature I find is that one can access the cloud files when OFFLINE unlike the One Drive where you must be ONLINE to access the files stored up there,

Excellent info. Thanks.

Can anyone tell Microsoft how important it is to allow people to CHOOSE to save files into their OneDrive.

There are ONLY so many files I need to share across devices.

WRONG & is a turn-off for Microsoft (all users are developing great RESENTMENT) having it done without choice AND then asking payment to use it.

This basically means Microsoft owns all your devices.

When we buy a device we pay for it's mechanics and part of that is storage. Microsoft is the other layer of mechanics but it is giving us no choice over the first mechanical tool we purchased, the computer / laptop / phone.

I will have to now purchase a separate external hard-drive for my personal accumulation of my personal history.

I understand the frustration. If one persists on using cloud services, they all basically will delete, move, rename, etc. mirror whatever you do on your PC. Should you want to keep a file or folder on the PC but remove (or need to remove) it from the cloud service, just first move it over to another PC folder that is not accessed by the cloud. One good feature on OneDrive is it's on-demand function. It allows one to set their preferred folders or files for syncing up to the cloud rather than allowing the system to sync up ALL main folders in the default action. This can be achieved in the original set-up. Please see my other responses below or above.