OneDrive: Still the elephant in the room.

iCloud has been a part of Apple for over a decade, and they don’t force you to use it, which is a pleasant change.

jro11 said:

hi there, Redd! Just the perfect person to join this thread! My wife just noticed that iCloud seems to have invaded her phone (being a windows person doesn't prevent one from having an iPhone, only wondering why Microsoft hasn't invaded the android OS)...
...and seems to have appropriated a number of apps, including some containing files that she used to list her passwords...

After having read this thread, what do YOU believe Apple's purpose is in invading the AppleOS with its iCloud?

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Not real sure about the iPhone 13 or 14, but I logged out and deleted iCloud from my iPhone 12 - Suddenly the phone started saving locally, the .HEIC file extensions changed to .JPG file extensions. I don't use the App Store, FaceTime, Apple Pay, iCloud Keychain, Back to my Mac, Find my iPhone, or Game Center on my phone - Everything on the phone still works tho.

MacOS would have you believe that your whole existence resides in the cloud but it actually doesn't.
You log out of the "account" and the local machine takes over. (I might log into my Apple Acct if I ever happen to lose my phone, but that's about it ... everything stays on my local machine)

Microsoft can't invade Android because Google has it's own deal going on called Google Drive.

I don't particularly care for all of this cloud business (I store my stuff on my machine) but I know a lot of guys that thinks the Cloud is the Bees Knees and would never consider going without it and that's fine ... for them.

Short of just deleting the iCloud app on her phone, your wife could just log out of the Apple account and be free to use her other logins at will free from the cloud.

Edwin said:

Simply put:
If you appreciate OneDrive, and you need it, and understand how it's implemented and how it works..., it's an invaluable tool!
If you think the opposite of any of the above, it'll probably be a thorn in your side! Period!

Not even gonna touch on the privacy/trust thing!

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Exactly.

I am really bored with the inane comments from the anti-onedrive negativists.

Its just a freaking tool.

If you do not like what is (imo) actually the slickest of the mainstream cloud services, or cannot be arsed to learn how to use it properly, uninstall it and move on.

TechnoMage2021 said:

I've had to work on PC's where the only reasonable fix it to reinstall Windows. But first, I would do everything possible to find and save all the PC owner's data files. Documents would usually be in the My Documents folder, but pictures could be and quite often would be anywhere. Finding all of them could be a real time consuming chore.

For my own PC's, both desktop and laptop, I use a completely different filing system.
Setting up a new HD, I create two partitions, with the first one (C:) as my OS and program partition, and (D:) the second partition, will be my data storage partition. There are virtually NO data files anywhere on C: as they reside in five folders on D:.
D: can also be used for a quick Ghost backup of C:.

At least once a week, I run a batch file that copies all five of my data folders, to a 128GB Flash Drive.
That same backup process is duplicated, to a 1TB internal HD, and only files that are new or files that have changed are copied.
My weekly backup, typically takes only a few seconds.

So I really have no need for One Drive or any such cloud storage.
One Drive is one of the first things I DELETE from any new install of Windows.

Cheers Mates!
TM

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This must be the standard, old school approach and I never tire of using it. Once I confirm that the drive is so FUBAR it isn't worth all the time spent twiddling and tweaking, I sing a little praise to the inventors of SSDs and get on with the show.

Accessing the corrupt drive with another OS is easy enough. Dragging and dropping the personal files from the desktop, documents, photos etc. to another drive is also pretty straight forward. Once that is done it's reinstall windows time and this process doesn't nearly take as long as it did in the old days of mechanical klunk drives. Unless the corrupt drive is seriously worn or physically damaged it can be easily reformatted, brought back up to snuff, and it's bizzyness as usual. If the user insists all those personal files that were dragged and dropped to a separate drive can be transferred back to the drive "C" location again.

^^ That's the standard fix on FUBAR operating systems prior to factory reset or reinstalling the OS. Keeping personal data on a separate (non-drive "C") is a very prudent thing to do but we all know not all personal data can be handled this way without consequences.

For my own PC's I also use a completely different system. I don't rely on mere "backups" because backups are notorious for failing, consistently failing, and repeatedly failing. Plus, did I mention that backups fail? I make DRIVE IMAGES. I am not referring to Microsoft "System Images". No, I mean every single bit and byte of that data is duplicated onto a secondary drive to the extent that it is an exact duplicate of my drive "C", tucked away in a corner of a closet awaiting a rainy day. If operating system is acting all FUBAR I can just pull it and automatically replace it with an imaged drive of the same and if I need to move all those other personal files back onto "C" I can either pull them off the FUBAR drive via Disc Management, or, I can pull them off the alternative drive where I normally store my personal data.

My Scannerman Cloud works very well for me and I really wished I had never relied on Microsoft for data recovery ever because once I used One Drive it ignored all my other recovery options and destroyed all my other backups without my permission. Yup. It was my fault. I'm the idiot who trusted Microsoft.

Scannerman​

This must be the standard, old school approach and I never tire of using it. Once I confirm that the drive is so FUBAR it isn't worth all the time spent twiddling and tweaking

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Thank you! How sensible!
I'm currently trying to make sense of the 4 Macrium programs I just (Black Saturday) purchased--which is quite a trial to implement because it seems that what I thought was just a simple one-company software purchase is mediated through a 5-person/company set of Macrium-related entities represented by the following order-response emails: 1) Saul Painter (Thank you for Choosing Macrium); sales@macrium...Macrium Order Reference...; Cleverbridge Reference #; Paramount Soft... (no reply) Activate Account; Macrium Support; and Macrium Partners (the last two related to the ticket I created that has yet to be responded to). Your backup solution makes a lot of sense and may alleviate having to learn/implement the "image" hassle.
My filing system largely consists of arranging data related to the "Rooms" on my property: There's Room_LivingRoom; Room_Bedroom; Room_ComputerRoom; Room_Outdoors; Room_workshop; Room_Kitchen; Room_misc, etc. Each contains digital copies of the User manuals related to various equipment/appliances in the room as well as shortcuts to YouTubes relating to ways I've fixed that equipment. Computer programs I sort separately, placing them under larger categories: Search; Duplicates; Browsers; etc and containing shortcuts to the home page; to information relating to passwords and user names, etc, etc. Then there's a whole directory of books/technical doucments I'm interested in reading, etc.
It seems when OneDrive hit me some of these more deeply nested (you know they are deeply nested when you overrun the filename length) structures issued from the multi-directory set OneDrive insisted on appropriating...and never completely completed resulting in scores of partial files of different lengths; different dates; what's the word??? F U B A R. Today I talked with a developer friend I hadn't seen in a while who had bought a Win11 computer, who "Unknown to me it uploaded all my files and then told me I was over my data limit and need to pay them $$$ to continue using it. I bet you had the same stupid experience. I tried UN-installing it, disabling it, but still it would copy all my pics and docs."

I just bought a W11 desktop and I uninstalled OneDrive.

Last year, I bought a W11 laptop and I uninstalled OneDrive.

The uninstall process this year is quite different from the uninstall process last year ... referring to the title of this thread ... the elephant evolved!!

I don't understand what's wrong with uninstalling from control panel -> all programs and features?
I used to uninstall this way and it always worked fine.

However no longer because OneDrive is quite useful, just encrypt your files with public key and put them into OneDrive and nobody, not even MS will be able to read them, only you.
To encrypt files you can use Gpg4win - Secure email and file encryption with GnuPG for Windows

jro11 said:

or find a way to do away with it completely

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From my perspective the easiest and simplest solution:

Setup FTP access through LAN to for USB drive attached to router and for WAN ask Static IP from ISP?

zebal said:

I don't understand what's wrong with uninstalling from control panel -> all programs and features?
I used to uninstall this way and it always worked fine.

However no longer because OneDrive is quite useful, just encrypt your files with public key and put them into OneDrive and nobody, not even MS will be able to read them, only you.
To encrypt files you can use Gpg4win - Secure email and file encryption with GnuPG for Windows

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You need to first stop all OneDrive activities (stop sync, in particular) and eliminate all OneDrive manifestations (change all folder locations from cloud to local, in particular) before you the uninstall the OneDrive app and delete the OneDrive folders. MS made changes (in the one year that I have been able to observe) so no one process will work (perfectly) from one year to the next, because you need to meticulously clear a changing minefield Of course, that is best done with a new (empty) computer, I can't imagine what a mess it would be to do it with a populated computer

FWIW, I kept the OneDrive folder in my MS account, which I like as a USB stick in the cloud

Haydon said:

I just bought a W11 desktop and I uninstalled OneDrive.

Last year, I bought a W11 laptop and I uninstalled OneDrive.

The uninstall process this year is quite different from the uninstall process last year ... referring to the title of this thread ... the elephant evolved!!

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I've just posted a new thread:

Preparing to image my computer, need help​

When it gets to the time I need to rid myself of OneDrive, can you tell me how the process has changed? Thanks

jro11 said:

I've just posted a new thread:

Preparing to image my computer, need help​

When it gets to the time I need to rid myself of OneDrive, can you tell me how the process has changed? Thanks

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Read my post #289 in this thread.

In the other thread, @Ghot gave good advice too

In short:

DO > gather all your user data on an external medium > start with a cleaned up computer > populate the cleaned up computer with your user data and apps

do NOT > doctor your computer in its current state

Thanks. I'll get back to you.