Why is One Drive deleting files on my local computer and how can they be recovered?

Patrick O'Harris 15 Reputation points
2024-01-27T16:02:40.1+00:00

I recently replaced my hard drive and was trying to use One Drive as a back up ONLY, but I have noticed numerous files being deleted by ONE DRIVE and I can't find or access them - what gives???

Windows Server Backup
Windows Server Backup
Windows Server: A family of Microsoft server operating systems that support enterprise-level management, data storage, applications, and communications.Backup: A duplicate copy of a program, a disk, or data, made either for archiving purposes or for safeguarding valuable files from loss should the active copy be damaged or destroyed.
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  1. Alisher Alikulov 20 Reputation points
    2024-03-31T19:45:47.3833333+00:00

    And MS OneDrive deletes all synchronized FILES!!!!!! That is ugly! If i chose to deselect any folder from OneDrive (MS you are ugliest ever!!!) then this piece of an icecream app deletes all the files from my PC!!!!!!!! And there is no!!! MFB!!!!! options to undo or configure somehow that kind of piece of shi!!!!!!

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  3. Sir Acha 0 Reputation points
    2024-07-21T04:08:05.9033333+00:00

    The AI generated response is not true. I never synced up my Onedrive, I never configured settings for Onedrive other than to uninstall it from my device. Upon uninstalling the Onedrive folder remains. It is also the default directory for saving any file (again didnt configure that). When I delete the folder, all of the local files that I manually save on my local computer are no longer in their correct directories. I am unable to locate them at all, but as soon as I restore the Onedrive folder all of my files get restored too. Looking at my disk space nothing seems to change. I am about to switch to a Linux OS, Microsoft is just one headache after another with the products they force down our throats!

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  4. GSS 0 Reputation points
    2024-07-29T06:22:45.38+00:00

    I could rant about the annoying nature of this problem happening in the first place but that's been done enough. After lots of scrolling through the internet for answers I stumbled across a solution to my similar problem.

    I too was very annoyed to discover when i wasn't able to connect to the internet that I was unable to access most of my files. Ridiculous that this could happent without a VERY clear warning .... but back to the solution.

    This might not work for other people but when I was back online I was just looking at the One Drive folders... Pictures, Work etc and when i right clicked on a folder it had the option of "Always keep on this device" There was a transfer moment that didn't take too long, suggesting the files were always somewhere on my computer to begin with, and now there is a copy back on my hard drive.

    Hope this fixes the problem for at least some people. If not, can't help you any more, just blind luck I found this out at all.

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