OneDrive backupĪt some point in your interaction with OneDrive, you’re “offered” the option to back up your Documents, Desktop, and Pictures folders. Because that folder is not within OneDrive, the backup feature gets… creative. OneDrive includes a special backup feature called “folder backup” that attempts to help you back up the contents of your computer’s native Documents folder (C:\Users\ \Documents, as we illustrated above). That’s a very useful feature that makes complete sense as a part of your overall backup strategy. Assuming you’re signed in to your Microsoft account, OneDrive then dutifully uploads those files to the cloud. Using OneDrive as part of your personal backup strategy means nothing more than placing files anywhere within the OneDrive folder on your computer. Backup versus backupīefore we proceed, though, we need to clarify what we mean by backup. That’s where the OneDrive backup feature starts to make a mess of things. OneDrive documents folder synchronization.īut OneDrive operates only on what’s inside the OneDrive folder on your computer and nowhere else.In the diagram above, only the Documents folder within your OneDrive folder is synchronized with your account online. This is OneDrive’s core functionality: to replicate what’s in the OneDrive folder on your computer to the cloud and vice-versa. Document automatically uploaded to OneDrive online. Similarly, if, when signed into your Microsoft Account at, you add, change, or remove a file online, the OneDrive app notices and reflects those changes in the OneDrive folder on your computer.Ībove, we added “document-originally-in-onedrive-documents.txt” to our OneDrive Documents folder, and sure enough, a few seconds later, it appears in our Documents folder online. If you change or delete the file, those changes are reflected online. If you add a file anywhere within your computer’s OneDrive folder, it’s uploaded to OneDrive online. The OneDrive app’s job is to notice changes anywhere within the OneDrive folder on your computer (C:\Users\ \OneDrive) or your OneDrive cloud storage online. In the case of my account, I have the default 5 gigabytes (GB). With your Microsoft account, you have some amount of free cloud storage at. That file lives on my computer… but here’s where OneDrive kicks in. Two separate and unrelated Documents folders.Ĭ:\Users\ \OneDrive\Documents\document-originally-in-onedrive-documents.txt This folder is within the OneDrive folder, and the other is not.Īre two completely separate and (so far) unrelated folders. This is a completely separate folder from the Documents folder we talked about above. You’ll find a Documents folder here as well: In Windows File Explorer, the shortcut “Leo-Personal” with the OneDrive cloud icon near the top of the left hand column, is a shortcut to this folder. This is the folder - in fact, the only folder - that the OneDrive app pays attention to. Then came OneDriveĪfter that clean setup, you’ll also find another folder on your machine: That file lives only on my computer and only in my computer’s Documents folder. These are all just files and folders on your computer.Ĭ:\Users\ \Documents\file-originally-in-computer-documents.txt \Documents - the Documents folder specific to your user account.If you have multiple different users who can sign in to your machine, each will have their own folder. For example, I’ve signed into this machine using a Microsoft account and the username generated is “askle”. ![]() \ - A folder named using the username that is unique to your Windows sign-in.C: - Your system disk drive, usually the C: drive.For example, here’s what the path above indicates. I’ll be referring to specific locations throughout this article, so it’s important to understand what they are. The specific location on your hard disk is: These are shortcuts to the same Documents folder on your machine. ![]() 1 In the right-hand pane, there’s also a Documents folder with the added annotation “Stored locally”. In the left-hand column’s “Quick Access” section, we have something called Documents. Windows File Explorer running in its default configuration. Setting up a brand new Windows 11 machine from scratch, we run Windows File Explorer and find the following. In order to make sense of this situation, we need to review a little of how OneDrive, Windows, and your Documents folder work. Turning the feature off isn’t enough to undo the damage. This can cause you to exceed your OneDrive storage limits. The “Manage folder backup” option in OneDrive moves the contents of your Documents (and Desktop and Pictures) folder into the OneDrive folder.
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