OneDrive Backup function and Folder Selection generating syncing conflicts

Question

Hello,

Quite some time ago, before the appearance of the "backup" function in OneDrive, I set up the "Desktop", "Documents", "Pictures", "Music", "Videos" folders of the PCs in my family to be synced in OneDrive, by symply changing their default paths to folders inside OneDrive's own folder.

The folder tree was (still is) organized like this:

OneDrive\John\Documents; Desktop...

OneDrive\Jane\Documents; Desktop...

OneDrive\David\Documents; Desktop...

Selecting which of the John, Jane or David folders needed to be kept (and synced) on which PC and which should be just ignored using the "folder selection", we had a backup for all the important files of the PCs in the family.

A short while after the introduction of the "backup" function in OneDrive we started noticing syncing errors and empty "Documents" folders showing up in the OneDrive root folder.

Since all the folders were already backed up "manually" in OneDrive, I chose to disable the additional backup of the "Desktop", "Documents", etc. folders, since they were already being backed up and, moreover, since I didn't ask for or enabled a second useless and potentially conflicting backup option, which was enabled (I assume) by default on one of the OneDrive updates.

Disabling the backup option moved for no apparent reason and without any prompts or messages, all the Desktop, Documents etc. folders in each PC to their Windows default locations, under C:\Users. This, in turn, meant I had to move each folder back again into their useful and already set up location and wait for them to re-sync into OneDrive.

All this could be avoided by just adding a prompt or a check on OneDrive for already synced folders.

Is this being experienced by other users too?

Should I expect this "backup" feature to be re-enabled willy-nilly by the next update that sneaks up on OneDrive?

How can I avoid it reproducing the kind of mayhem it did?

P.S.

The folders Documents, Desktop etc. are set up in a different position than the Windows default C:\Users\ in each PC, because C: is always a smaller (but faster) solid state drive where the system and the programs are locted. The D: drive, where the OneDrive root folder is located, along with the bulk of the data (like the Downloads and other misc folders) of each PC is a common magnetic-disk drive, which is larger and thus more apt at storing data without caring much for available space.

Answer 1

Hi, I'm Diane and I'm happy to help you today.

All this could be avoided by just adding a prompt or a check on OneDrive for already synced folders.

Easier would be to ask the user if they want their files backed up to OneDrive instead of automatically enabling it.

Should I expect this "backup" feature to be re-enabled willy-nilly by the next update that sneaks up on OneDrive?

How can I avoid it reproducing the kind of mayhem it did?

I haven't had a problem with the option to backup files enabling after updates. The only way to guarantee it is by setting a registry key - I'll see if I can find one that will do that.

Let us know how it goes, we're here to help you further if needed.

-- Diane

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