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I am in panic - cannot figure out how to prevent OneDrive from sending files to Recycle Bin, it keeps deleting files from OneDrive and sends them to Recycle Bin. I keep clicking restore, and OneDrive keeps sending back to Recycle Bin. I do not understand all these settings in OneDrive - what to backup and what not to back up to OneDrive - where to keep files Windows 10 locally, Windows 11 locally, OneDrive, or combination of these three storage locations - this is VERY confusing, and OneDrive keeps deleting files. What a nightmare setup from hell. I need to share files between Windows 10 and Windows 11, and I also have OneDrive app installed on iPhone, but the settings are extremely confusing. I need this for Screenshots, Video screencapture, Word, Excel,
A Microsoft file hosting and synchronization service.
If you back up your Desktop, Documents, Pictures, Music, and Videos folders, they are included in OneDrive. You will see them within the OneDrive folder at C:\Users\username\OneDrive. Removing files from OneDrive or the backed-up Desktop, Documents, Pictures, Music, and Videos folders will delete them and send them to the recycle bin.
Craig, Does Microsoft offer support for newly purchase Windows 11, meaning official support from Microsoft? I purchased this computer about 2 months ago. Also, I have MS 365 subscription. The nightmare with OneDrive started 6 hours ago, when I accidentally selected something wrong. OneDrive started deleting everything from computer. I attempted to pause and restart both PCs, this did not help. The "deletion" process continued. Then I went to OneDrive.com, went into "OneDrice.com Recycle Bin" and selected "Restore [all]". Then OneDrive started uploading something and deleting something at the same time. Now I have 2452 in Recycle Bin in Windows 11, about 700 files in Recycle Bin on Windows 10, and whooping 11000+ files in Recycle Bin in OneDrive.com (see attached screenshot). Not only that, OneDrive also created some duplicates of files (added dash followed by Copy, i.e. "- Copy" to file names) in "restored" folders. Trying to restore from local (PC-based Recycle Bin) does not remove items from local (PCs) Recycle Bins. I am hesitant to request it restore 11000+ files from OneDrive.com Recycle Bin. Also, my OneDrive bloated from 3GB to now 52GB after all these files "Deletion" and "Restore" from Recycle Bins (I attempted restore from all three Recycle Bins, local in Windows 10 and Windows 11, and from OneDrive.Com Recycle Bin). An obvious question here: 1) how do I properly "restore" items from Recycle Bins, 2) How do I remove duplicates ( -Copy files) without doing it manually?
Review pasted screenshots - the one with dark background shows duplicates created automatically by OneDrive during "restore" operation. The one with light background shows items in Recycle Bin online, in OneDrive.com.
You can contact support here: https://support.microsoft.com/contactus
All my OneDrive files are On-Demand now, which pretty much eliminates duplicate files. On-Demand files are cloud-only; they download to your computer only when you access them in File Explorer.
Duplicate files are sometimes created when you keep local copies of files on more than one device instead of keeping a single copy in the cloud. Duplicates are created when OneDrive mistakenly merges all your OneDrive files on all your devices. Files On-Demand pretty much eliminates that problem.
See these helpful videos:
You can remove duplicate files by searching for files with the "- copy" extension and then deleting them.
Deleting or removing files from OneDrive will send them to the recycle bin. OneDrive should not delete files if you keep them all backed up. If you have a Microsoft 365 Personal or Family subscription, I suggest you back up everything on your PC.
Go to the Manage Backup settings shown in this video and toggle all folders to ON: https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/office/back-up-your-folders-with-onedrive-d61a7930-a6fb-4b95-b28a-6552e77c3057
Then everything on your Desktop and in your Documents and Pictures folders will automatically get backed up. If you see the Music and Videos folders available for backup, you can back them up as well. Just make sure the amount of data you want to back up doesn't exceed your quota.
See the amount of storage available for each plan here: https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-365/onedrive/onedrive-plans-and-pricing
If you don't want to back up specific folders to OneDrive, you can toggle them OFF in Manage Backup.
Are OneDrive settings set in one location? And if yes, why I am having all these issues with files forcefully being deleted? I keep clicking restore from Recycle Bin and OneDrive keep deleting them. What a nightmare.
Provide detail screenshots how to set up settings correctly. This is VERY confusing. I am not clear what exactly is wrong with settings. This is a very bad experience.
To prevent OneDrive from continuously deleting files and sending them to the Recycle Bin, you may want to check the following settings:
If the issues persist, you might consider reaching out to Microsoft support for more tailored assistance regarding your specific setup and issues with OneDrive.
References: