OneDrive - Keeping documents folder on my PC and backing up to Onedrive on Partitioned Hard Drive

As I am sometimes in a place without internet I like to keep my documents folder on my PC but I also like it to be in the OneDrive cloud so I can access documents on my Galaxy mobile phone. But even though I have followed exactly the steps that I have been given by a guru - and managed to get the documents folder in d:\users\name\documents as soon as I included documents in the Onedrive backup it went back to D:\users\Onedrive\documents and i have so many copies of every file and the D:\users\name\Documents folder is empty. And the worst thing many of the folders in Onedrive are now also empty. Fortunately I do a Filehistory backup to an external harddrive, so not all lost. The other problem is that the documents folder and a few folders in it have a red cross next to them . Checking forums etc this is apparently due to syncing issues or full Onedrive. I have 800gb available in the cloud - so not full- and these same files were all syncing fine until I tried to move documents to D drive and back them up to Onedrive. I have many folders ticked to stay on this PC but not all of them and did try 'setting the whole documents folder that way but it seems I need to pick specific files. Apologies for rather long winded explanation but trying to avoid getting advice I have already tried. Thanks to anyone can help me.

Memsahib said:

managed to get the documents folder in d:\users\name\documents as soon as I included documents in the Onedrive backup it went back to D:\users\Onedrive\documents and i have so many copies of every file and the D:\users\name\Documents folder is empty

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It's how Onedrive works. It's a trap that OneDrive’s Known Folder Move (KFM) creates. OneDrive’s KFM does not like custom folder locations.
Once you successfully got your documents folder locally onto your D: drive, your error was then choosing to backup that folder to Onedrive.
The moment you clicked “Back up Documents,” in OneDrive, the folder was moved, D:\Documents emptied, duplicates got created, and you started getting the red X sync errors.
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@Memsahib I think this would be the only way to do what you want to do, but I need @Brink's help here.
Brink, old buddy, ol' pal HELP!
Would the only way to do what he wants be to turn off backup for his Documents folder and use either a symbolic link or junction point to D:/Documents to sync that folder to Onedrive?

I'm thinking he would have to again move the default location of Documents back to D:\Documents (if it's been changed) and manually copy his files into this folder.

Once EVERYTHING is safely in this folder and stored locally, in Onedrive online would he remove his mess of files before creating his link or junction point or would he leave them? If he leaves them I believe he would end up with more dupllicates.

Then, create a symbolic link or junction point (I'm not sure which it would be) so that the files in that folder would sync to Onedrive.
You woud need to tell us how to properly do this.
At this point, how will this affect his other devices that are syncing to Onedrive using KFM or would it affect them at all.?

@glasskuter

You can keep folders on hard drive but sync to onedrive.

@cereberus Yes, that was what I said in my post, but there still questions about the proper sequence to handle the procedure since is onedrive is so messed up.

@glasskuter
If you deleted some files on OneDrive online, then emptied the Recycle Bin online, would you loose the local files as well?

Edwin said:

@glasskuter
If you deleted some files on OneDrive online, then emptied the Recycle Bin online, would you loose the local files as well?

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@Edwin, @glasskuter
It kind of depends on situation but normally if a file is synced from the local onedrive folders to online and you delete the file online, its corresponding local file is deleted.

To avoid this, copy files online to new folder first.

PS just tested this to make sure.

However if you use a symlink from a directory outside onedrive folder, pretty sure the local file being symlinked to onedrive folder is not deleted. Not tested it though for a while, so I advise doing a test first.

cereberus said:

It kind of depends on situation but normally if a file is synced from the local onedrive folders to online and you delete the file online, its corresponding local file is deleted.

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That's nuts!!!
I still can't wrap my head around this confusion!!!
So, if you wanted to use OneDrive online strictly as a backup solution, don't install OneDrive on your PC, and just manually upload items via a browser, right?

I just tested this kind of scenario with Proton.
Proton lets you choose a folder..., I synced everything completely, then Deleted and Permanently Deleted items online..., my stuff is still there locally...
(I even permanently deleted the Proton Sync folder itself online)



Then, I willy-nilly Revo'd Proton Drive from my PC..., my stuff is still there.

@glasskuter

What Edwin posted should work.

Guys, In a normal scenario I know that one can sync any folder to Onedrive using a junction point, and if this user had done that for his documents after he managed to get his files onto D:, his onedrive folder wouldn't be so messed up.
It also appears instead of moving documents/desktop/pictures/videos folders to his D: drive, he moved his entire user folder which includes his onedrive folder. That will have a bearing on this as well.

@Memsahib I didn't get all my answers but I will take a stab at this anyway. As you will see after reading this there ARE some caveats to what you are trying to do if you sync multiple devices to Onedrive and if you use Office 365, which it appears you do going by the amount of onedrive storage you have.

1. Turn off documents folder backup in Oneddrive settings. You WILL NOT turn this back on.
OneDrive → Settings → Sync and Backup → Manage Backup → Turn OFF Documents.

2. Manually Copy your files from File History into the documents folder on D: drive. Go to Onedrive Online and copy any files that are missing in file history and put those in the folder too.
At this point I strongly suggest you copy this folder to external media to protect yourself just in case this all goes south.

3. Inside D:\users\Onedrive folder, create the folder that will hold the cloud copy. This must be a new folder name that isn't already in your OneDrive folder such as DocumentsBackup

4. Open command prompt as administrator and enter
mklink /J "D:\Users\<youruserame>\OneDrive\DocumentsBackup" "D:\Users\<yourusername>\Documents"
reference Sync Any Folder to OneDrive in Windows 10
Onedrive should now sync your local folder to the new folder you created, but Windows still sees Documents in its correct location.

Note: If you turned sync back on for any of your other user folders, you will have to deal with them this same way.

Once you verify you have everything working, Go into Onedrive Online and clean up all the duplicate files.

Keep in mind, if you have other devices syncing to Onedrive(KFM enabled) that those devices will continue to use the folders already in Onedrive rather than the new folder you created in step 3 so don't delete the folders, just the duplicated files. Changes made in this new folder will sync to only this device. However, other devices can still access the folder using Onedrive Online.

Also know that if you use Office365, 365 saves to Onedrive by default. If you want files created in 365 to save locally by default on this device, you will have to open each 365 app that you use, select options,save, check 'save to computer by default' and select the folder path to be D:\Users\<yourusername>\Documents.
Autosave will no longer work once you do this. Files have to be saved to onedrive for autosave to work.

Please let me know if this works.

Memsahib said:

it went back to D:\users\Onedrive\documents

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Do not fight OneDrive, it will always win, make it happy, move folders into OneDrive.
Create - D:\OneDrive - Unlink This PC - Link it to - D:\OneDrive - copy files there.
Additionally move Documents or any system folders directly into OneDrive.



Note that OneDrive is not a backup, it is a sync, mirroring. If files are removed from PC, they are removed from OneDrive and vice versa. Make sure to backup files manually via copy/paste or by using some backup software. I paid for my misplaced trust.

Edwin said:

That's nuts!!!
I still can't wrap my head around this confusion!!!
So, if you wanted to use OneDrive online strictly as a backup solution, don't install OneDrive on your PC, and just manually upload items via a browser, right?

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How is it nuts?

It is a syncing app not a backup app. All syncing apps work like that.

There is nothing stopping you manually uploading files to onedrive and you set which folders you wish to sync to pc.

You can choose to not sync any folders if you wish - it is not rocket science.

I suggest people experiment with throwaway files to work out how to use it.

How do you think I and many others on this forum have learnt how to use onedrive effectively?

It is not as complicated as people think!

TairikuOkami said:

Do not fight OneDrive,

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So true. If one wants to use it, they better learn it, backwards, forwards, and sideways and follow its rules to the letter, or they will have a grim awakening like this user and a lot more out there who made the wrong move.

I don't fight it. I just don't use it. I take that back, I'll drop a file I want to share on this forum into onedrive on the web. That's it. No syncing.
If I want to access files between systems on my network I use sharing or remote desktop. I never have to access files when away from home but if I did, I'd use a NAS..

I do synce a few sub-folders to Google Drive which lets me select any folder located anywhere that I want to sync in a straightforward manner, the way that Onedrive should be but isn't. OD offered selective folder sync at one time and it worked well. But MS and their infinite wisdom decided to remove the feature.

glasskuter said:

I don't fight it. I just don't use it. I take that back, I'll drop a file I want to share on this forum into onedrive on the web. That's it. No syncing.

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Yeah, that is one way to do it. I have accepted that MS wants us, forces us to use OneDrive.
I myself use IceDrive the way you do, then I use USBs and external SSDs. OneDrive just exists.
My fingers tend to remove folders at random, OneDrive removes them, IceDrive keeps them safe.

glasskuter said:

I do synce a few sub-folders to Google Drive which lets me select any folder located anywhere that I want to sync in a straightforward manner, the way that Onedrive should be but isn't. OD offered selective folder sync at one time and it worked well. But MS and their infinite wisdom decided to remove the feature.

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Huh - you can select which folders to sync which are under the onedrive folder.

You have never been able to sync folders outside Onedrive since it was first introduced.

Maybe it was possible in skydrive the precursor to onedrive but I do not recollect being able to synce any folders.

The only truly significant change since onedrive was first released was Files On Demand.

Of course, it is easy to sync folders outside onedrive folder with symlinks anyway. I am proud to have inspired the tenforums tutorial on that.

Thanks everyone , thanks for all the information By the way I am a her ( some may know that Memsahib' is swahili for lady/madam). I have been busy with other stuff and also had advice from elsewhere but still seem to have lost many folders - I am assured they will be somewhere - have unlinked my laptop from Onedrive but when I visit https://onedrive.live.com I see todays date -apparently files that I have used today - but not updated. So how am I connected? I cannot believe that the folders that were being backed up to Onedrive are no longer there , not even in the online Onedrive recycle bin ( lo s of files but not in folders) . There is an option to restore Onedrive but I am concernd that to do that I may have to link to Onedrive and may lose even more. This has all seemed to have occurred since the most recent update.

A couple of weeks ago I began wondering about whether I should have an additional local copy of my OneDrive folder which is currently syncing to the cloud. (As background, I had installed and begun using FreeFileSync last year for other things on my PC.)

So, with a little help from Copilot, I created a scheduled task that launches a script in FreeFileSync each day to Mirror my OneDrive local folder to another drive on my PC. I also learned that as long as I only mirror (copy from) my local OneDrive folder, I will not harm my files or cloud sync at all.
I learned that I do NOT want to execute a two-way sync as that causes all sorts of problems.

For myself, this methodology (Mirroring) has worked quite well and has caused no problems.

This thread has convinced me to focus on using Google Drive for syncing my files. Since it already does so with my Samsung Android photos, the learning curve for syncing files from my P.C. should be less steep than learning the One Drive system. Thanks everyone.

AllenChicago said:

he learning curve for syncing files from my P.C. should be less steep

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It's so easy.

Again have been busy and to be honest the issues I have had are thanks to asking Copilot how to keep my documents folder on my PC but to also have it backedup in Onedrive so I can access it on my smasung mobile which has Onedrive on it. The instructions i received is what caused the issue and since then I have been sharing my issues with Copilt but we are going round in circles and I have now lost my D:\users\name\documents folder and it doesn't exsist on OneDrive any more which I have unlinked. There are blue icon document folders which have some of my folders but some are empty. Apparently my D:\users\name\documents folder still exists as we ( Copilot and I ) found a folder from it which has the right path but doesn't show when I go to D drive right click go to users and there is only the blue icon name which is incomplete. Hope that ll makes sense to someone!