Dragging files from OneDrive explorer now copies them?

I think you're better off having the files copied instead of moved. If something goes wrong when moving a file or folder it could get corrupted and be lost forever. The original file or folder can be deleted after you know the file copied without any problems.

TraderGary said:

Experiment as I outlined in my post. OneDrive drag and drop works differently from anywhere else in Windows. If OneDrive is not active, drag and drop works the same as everywhere. Click and drag moves what you click on from one place to the other. If OneDrive is active, click and drag always just copies, both in your local OneDrive folder and cloud OneDrive. However, if you click and drag from within the OneDrive folder or within cloud OneDrive, you can actually move the file inside OneDrive. Is that possibly what you were experiencing?

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Sorry but I'm still confused what you are trying to point out. What do you mean with OneDrive being active?

What I'm experiencing is the following. When dragging a file from the OneDrive folder to e.g. your Desktop (thus dragging it outside the OneDrive folder), it would always move the file, it didn't copy it. So the file got removed from the OneDrive folder and it appeared on my Desktop. After deleting and reinstalling OneDrive, it copies the file to the Desktop instead even though I'm doing the same action.

Are you saying that after the reinstallation of OneDrive, it somehow became "active"? How was it then "inactive" before reinstallation if I was able to use the OneDrive folder and move files to my local drive by dragging them?

I'm now curious what happens in your case when doing the same action.

Winuser said:

I think you're better off having the files copied instead of moved. If something goes wrong when moving a file or folder it could get corrupted and be lost forever. The original file or folder can be deleted after you know the file copied without any problems.

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I guess you can look at it that way, but I got used to just dragging files to remove them from OneDrive and copy them manually if I wanted to. I am merely wondering if this is something that happens for everyone else recently.

glasskuter said:

All you gotta do is use the tutorial I listed early in the thread to make drag and drop default action EVERYWHERE to move by default.

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Does this also move files when dragging them to an external harddrive? Because I don't want that. I'm just wondering if I can have the normal behaviour back what I got used to and whether this is normal OneDrive behaviour for everyone recently.

@JohnnyGui

By "active" is when OneDrive actively keeps files up to date in real-time between the local OneDrive folder and cloud OneDrive.

Active means that OneDrive cloud and the local OneDrive folder are linked. Look at OneDrive Settings:

Click on the Cloud Icon in the tray. Choose Settings > Account > Unlink this PC

If you were to click on "Unlink this PC", OneDrive would no longer be active and cloud OneDrive would become nothing more than cloud storage that behaves like any other storage drive.

If you Uninstall the OneDrive Application, you also Unlink the local OneDrive folder from cloud OneDrive.

You will always have at least a default size, 5GB, cloud OneDrive. If you delete the OneDrive app, the only way you can see your cloud OneDrive is to enter "onedrive.live.com" in your browser. OneDrive cloud cannot be deleted and will always be there. Whether you use it or not is up to you.

JohnnyGui said:

I guess you can look at it that way, but I got used to just dragging files to remove them from OneDrive and copy them manually if I wanted to. I am merely wondering if this is something that happens for everyone else recently.

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I just tried it on my computer and the files were copied and not moved so I'm going to say that it's how MS has it setup. If you want to move files and folders instead of copying them you can hold the Shift key when you drag them.

JohnnyGui said:

What I'm experiencing is the following. When dragging a file from the OneDrive folder to e.g. your Desktop (thus dragging it outside the OneDrive folder), it would always move the file, it didn't copy it. So the file got removed from the OneDrive folder and it appeared on my Desktop. After deleting and reinstalling OneDrive, it copies the file to the Desktop instead even though I'm doing the same action.

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Go look at OneDrive in File Explorer. You will find that the Desktop is actually located inside of the OneDrive folder! That explains what you are seeing!

idgat said:

Who can keep up with Microsoft's OneDrive machinations .....? Mind you, who would want to keep up with anything OneDrive ....

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I love One Drive, it suits my needs extremely well. All of my families cell phones back up to their personal OneDrive accounts, so pictures and videos are never lost....even if they break, or lose the phone.

With my family subscription to Office365, with my company discount of 30%, I get 6 users, and 6TB of space for $69.99. And if I have any interest, I can install Office on my PC's, my Mac's, and other devices.

pparks1 said:

I love One Drive, it suits my needs extremely well. All of my families cell phones back up to their personal OneDrive accounts, so pictures and videos are never lost....even if they break, or lose the phone.

With my family subscription to Office365, with my company discount of 30%, I get 6 users, and 6TB of space for $69.99. And if I have any interest, I can install Office on my PC's, my Mac's, and other devices.

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It too love OneDrive. I love it for the same reasons. I've loved OneDrive for over 15 years now. I too subscribe to Microsoft 365 and get all of the latest Microsoft Office AND 1 Terabyte of cloud OneDrive for myself and an additional 1 Terabyte of OneDrive for each family member!

@TraderGary Thanks for explaining. But the thing is that OneDrive has always been linked to my PC. It's also linked after reinstalling OneDrive. And yet the behaviour of dragging files has changed.

Winuser said:

I just tried it on my computer and the files were copied and not moved so I'm going to say that it's how MS has it setup. If you want to move files and folders instead of copying them you can hold the Shift key when you drag them.

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Just to make sure, so dragging a file from the OneDrive explorer window (not the web version of OneDrive) to your local drive actually copies the file?

TraderGary said:

Go look at OneDrive in File Explorer. You will find that the Desktop is actually located inside of the OneDrive folder! That explains what you are seeing!

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Not in my case. I have disabled the backup feature of OneDrive.

JohnnyGui said:

Just to make sure, so dragging a file from the OneDrive explorer window (not the web version of OneDrive) to your local drive actually copies the file?

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Yes, the files were copied when I dragged them from my local OneDrive folder to my drive D. When I held the shift key the files were moved.

Winuser said:

Yes, the files were copied when I dragged them from my local OneDrive folder to my drive D. When I held the shift key the files were moved.

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Simply dragging files from a drive to another drive copies, dragging from a folder on a drive to another folder on the same drive moves the files. I like to use the Copy to folder... and Move to folder... addition to the right-click menu in File Explorer [change to the Registry in Tutorials].

Berton said:

Simply dragging files from a drive to another drive copies, dragging from a folder on a drive to another folder on the same drive moves the files. I like to use the Copy to folder... and Move to folder... addition to the right-click menu in File Explorer [change to the Registry in Tutorials].

View attachment 100850

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I prefer to copy my files instead of moving them. I have in the past lost files using the move option because of unexpected problems happening.

JohnnyGui said:

@TraderGary Thanks for explaining. But the thing is that OneDrive has always been linked to my PC. It's also linked after reinstalling OneDrive. And yet the behaviour of dragging files has changed.



Just to make sure, so dragging a file from the OneDrive explorer window (not the web version of OneDrive) to your local drive actually copies the file?



Not in my case. I have disabled the backup feature of OneDrive.

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Yes, I too disabled the backup feature of OneDrive. I totally disagree with Microsoft's decision to make that the default. I also turn OFF "Files On Demand" as I have enough space on my PC to keep a total mirror copy of all files on both my PC and the cloud. With "Files On Demand" turned OFF, when I do an image of my C: Drive, I get all my data and all my photos in my image.

Disabling the backup feature does not effect Desktop being in the OneDrive Folder. You have to be aware that having disabled the backup feature, dragging files from directories username/Documents, username/Desktop, username/Pictures behave normally, unlike username/onedrive/Documents, username/onedrive/Desktop, username/onedrive/Pictures. The difference is whether those folders are inside the OneDrive folder or not.

And yes, dragging a file from the OneDrive folder to a folder outside of the OneDrive folder always copies the file. However, if you drag a file to another folder staying inside the OneDrive folder, the file will then actually be moved.

Berton said:

Simply dragging files from a drive to another drive copies, dragging from a folder on a drive to another folder on the same drive moves the files.

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TraderGary said:

And yes, dragging a file from the OneDrive folder to a folder outside of the OneDrive folder always copies the file.

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This was not the case for me regarding OneDrive until recently as I pointed out; it always moved the file for me. But I guess this got changed since people here are mentioning the copy behaviour. That change somehow only took effect when I reinstalled OneDrive.

JohnnyGui said:

This was not the case for me regarding OneDrive until recently as I pointed out; it always moved the file for me. But I guess this got changed since people here are mentioning the copy behaviour. That change somehow only took effect when I reinstalled OneDrive.

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As long as OneDrive is working for you, that's all that matters.