New Surface. All my Onedrive files/folders show up in Documents. Arrrgh!

I recently got a Surface Pro 8. When I clicked on the Documents folder, all my Onedrive files/folders show up. I keep specific documents and other files in my documents folder folder, not cloud stuff. How do I prevent onedrive content from showing up there?

Are you syncing your personal folders with onedrive? Click on onedrive icon in system tray-gear icon-settings-backup tab. Click manage backup. Uncheck any folder you don't want to backup to onedrive. Also on the backup tab, uncheck photos, videos, and screenshots if you do not want them to automatically go to onedrive.

Verify the location of each of your personal folders. In file explorer, right click on each folder and select properties, location tab. The location SHOULD show C:\Users\yourusername\foldername. (As an example, your documents location should be C:\Users\yourusername\Documents)
If it proves that your personal folders show a location of onedrive, report back here.

As you do, I keep only certain things in onedrive and others on my PC. I always name my folder in onedrive something different than my personal folder, such as instead of 'documents' I name it 'My Documents' or 'Docs'

Great Tip Glasskuter,

Never thought of doing that. It might be a hack to solve my Onedrive default backup problem(s).

I find it keeps things in perspective. My Docs folder in onedrive are files that are in onedrive and no place else. The Documents folder in onedrive is synced to the Documents folder in my user account. Then on my PC on my secondary drive, I have another folder called Archived Documents that are old files I saved in case I ever need them again....and my recipes.

glasskuter said:

My Docs folder in onedrive are files that are in onedrive and no place else. The Documents folder in onedrive is synced to the Documents folder in my user account. Then on my PC on my secondary drive, I have another folder called Archived Documents that are old files I saved.

Click to expand...

Since SkyDrive and small C:\ boot drives I have re-located my system folders, Documents, etc., to a bigger second HDD and left OneDrive on C:\Users\OneDrive. I have a 115GB OneDrive cloud account storing 81GB. Microsoft warns me I'm running out of space. Naturally it wants to sell me more space. 115GB is fine for my needs.

As Windows and my computers progress I blindly follow this practice on all computers. On some computers I have a 6TB 2nd HDD that stores TB's of pictures, videos, documents and data files. My computers also serve as local backup for each other. The newer auto backup default messes this up. It also, makes my cloud provider's backup/restore easier when moving to a newer machine. I use the same Microsoft user account on all my computers since I'm the only user on each. Yes, I keep the older ones way too long.

Maybe it's time to re-think my use of default system folders and my 2nd drive files. Open for Discussion. Perhaps I should start another post for this.

glasskuter said:

Also on the backup tab, uncheck photos, videos, and screenshots if you do not want them to automatically go to onedrive.

Click to expand...

I still don't understand the distinction, if any, between adding folders in the default Windows Documents folder to OneDrive to sync them and enabling the OneDrive backup feature for Documents. Is there any difference in the way these two (OneDrive sync v. OneDrive
backup) work for folders in the Windows default Documents folder?

DeeDee said:

Is there any difference

Click to expand...

Best I can tell the settings under the backup tab set up what syncs so they're one and the same. The setting under account-choose folders are the files you want be available on demand and will show up in your onedrive folder on your PC (and will also be on C drive). IMO that would be kind of redundant for files that are on your C: drive in the first place so the only time I could see that being of benefit is if one has files in onedrive that are not on the PC in one of the synced folders in the first place.

I've always thought that Onedrive is much more convaluted than Google Drive and GD is much more efficient at handling files than onedrive in that I can sync folders from anywhere on my PC, no matter where they are located. As an example, I have certain folders on my storage drive that I sync to Google Drive because I can't to onedrive. I wouldn't use Onedrive at all except I have a lot more free space there than I do in Google Drive.

The photos,videos, and screenshots come into play if for example you hook a camera to the computer. If that setting is set, photos and videos would go to onedrive bypassing your personal folder. Screenshots would automatically go to onedrive as soon as you make them.

I know this explanation is as clear as mud...but then so is onedrive.

chockfullof546 said:

Perhaps I should start another post for this

Click to expand...

Feel free to ask questions here if you wish since this thread is about onedrive storage and local folders.

Each person's storage requirements are different. IMO the key is efficiently managing the storage you already have. Rather than buying more cloud storage you might look into using a NAS drive, either attaching an external drive to your router if it has a usb port or turning one of your computers into a home server. I plan on attaching an external drive which stores all the movies I've saved over the years to the new router I purchased recently so I can access them with my Amazon Firesticks. I just haven't gotten around to doing it yet. With a NAS drive, the same principal would apply as all files on the NAS would be readily available between computers on your network.

The advantage of having a NAS drive from your router rather than using a computer as a server is you don't have to have the computer on all the time to be able to access the files.

I've never purchased any external drives in my life. I had all these old hard drives lying around so I bought cheap hard drive enclosures and made my own. I'll bet you have some lying around, too. They mainly serve as backup drives for my computers' C: drive.

There are all kinds of ways to manage storage without having a lot of redundancy.

chockfullof546 said:

Yes, I keep the older ones way too long.

Click to expand...

Cleaning out stuff you no longer need helps too.

I'm a longtime OneDrive user. I find OneDrive simple and straightforward to use.

I subscribe to Microsoft 365. For $69/year I get all of Microsoft Office and 1 Terabyte of OneDrive cloud storage. I find this to be an incredible value.

The size of my local drive is 1 Terabyte. I keep all my data and all my photos in my local OneDrive folder. I do not use OneDrive's option of "Files On Demand". Not using "Files On Demand" results in a real-time mirror backup of all my data in my 1 Terabyte of cloud OneDrive. It's simple and there's nothing more to do. OneDrive is built into the operating system and just works reliably.

Of course, OneDrive isn't my only backup. I keep several local backups.

I love it when I get a new computer and all I have to do is log in to Windows and all my data and photos are instantly there!