OneDrive Automatic sync feature request

Question

Had to reinstall OneDrive on a machine I don't use often. I only want one folder to be synced. However, OneDrive is busy synching the entire directory now because there is no apparent choice when installing OneDrive - it syncs the entire OneDrive directory by default. Not sure how this major flaw got into production. Should be easy enough to install OneDrive, and have the user decide during or after installation to sync everything or select folders.

Answer 1

Yes, I know that OneDrive has a "choose folders" option. However, when linking an account, there is no option. You have to wait until all folders are synched before OneDrive allows you to unselect the folders that you don't want.

Answer 2

Hello,

Thank you for coming to the forum, and I will be happy to assist you.

I think I understand what you mean, you do not want all the folders in the cloud to be on the local computer.

OneDrive has Choose Folders which will let you select the files you want to have downloaded on the local computer

1. Open OneDrive settings (select the OneDrive cloud icon in your notification area, and then select the OneDrive Help and Settings icon then Settings.)
2. Go to the Account tab.
3. Select Choose folders. Then deselect the ones you do not want downloaded to the local computer.

Ref: https://support.office.com/article/62539dc7-bc9e-4091-8863-b6833cc2ee88

I kindly await a reply for a follow-up

Best Regards Fuad

Answer 3

Thanks.

My use case is to transfer files created on one machine (in the field) to another machine in my office. When I install OneDrive on the field machine, it gets busy synching 40,000 files to itself, and using up my cellular modem subscription. Would be great to specify the folder that I want to sync prior to OneDrive automatically syncing them all. After installation, I see all the folders in the directory in Windows Explorer on my field machine. This takes an hour each time.

Putting it another way, I'm linking to an existing cloud storage OneDrive account, and don't want the entire contents on my local machine.

Answer 4

OneDrive is not a backup, it’s a cloud location of your data.

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The default installation of Office 365 and its OneDrive component uploads all the contents of the PC  \My Documents\ folders to OneDrive, (syncs) and there will be a OneDrive folder in File Explorer containing all the OneDrive content. And in Word etc the default Save location is set to OneDrive.

No Docs/data is stored on the local PC