Microsoft Account deleted

I recently enrolled an Acer on Entra, i deleted the local account that was previously there, and selected keep files with the expectation that it will save the profile files on the desktop, but the folder is empty. How do i retrieve the files?

KagisoIT said:

I recently enrolled an Acer on Entra, i deleted the local account that was previously there, and selected keep files with the expectation that it will save the profile files on the desktop, but the folder is empty. How do i retrieve the files?

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First: Go to https://onedrive.live.com/ and log in with your Microsoft account. Check there if the content of that folder is there....

You have to separate who things; a local account and an Microsoft account.
By default by installing Windows; Windows always ask you for a Microsoft account. If you did than MS give you the possibility to use OneDrive. Much of the things like all icons on your desktop are stored in that OneDrive map and uploaded to MS and synchronized on a regular basis. See: C:\Users\<Username>\OneDrive. If that map is empty then there was no data in the first place.

You can migrate from a Microsoft Account to a Local Account. That OneDrive functionality will keep on working.
If you made from the start a Local account this backup feature isn't there. You have to manage your own backups. Once deleted it's gone. I think that under a local account it is possible to turn on this OneDrive functionality. You have to enter a Microsoft account that will be using. But you have to turn this feature on. Windows will not do that for you.

If you did not do that and not used a Microsoft Account before or never used OneDrive then.... To bad. That data is now gone. In your case you should have made on a regular basis a copy of your C:\Users\<username> directory to an other drive. If you had done that; the recent backup copy of that directory would be still there on that backup location.

I would call deleting a local account a major change. I would have made a complete disk backup with e.a. Hasleo Backup Suite (free) (in order to get directory's and files back again if I have overlooked or forgot something) or copied that personal directory before the change. You always have a backup to go to.....

You can try this tutorial:

KagisoIT said:

I recently enrolled an Acer on Entra, i deleted the local account that was previously there, and selected keep files with the expectation that it will save the profile files on the desktop, but the folder is empty. How do i retrieve the files?

Click to expand...

ElevenForum is mostly a Windows enthusiast site, and not for IT admins. For an Entra environment, you're better asking this question at Spiceworks or another IT-focused website. The general answer is it depends on how your user provisioning is set up.