When Windows users suddenly discover that their files have vanished from their desktops after interacting with OneDrive, the issue often stems from how Microsoft’s cloud service integrates with the operating system. The automatic, near-invisible shift to cloud-based storage has triggered strong reactions from users who find the feature unintuitive and, in some cases, destructive to their local files.
This only happens if you use Windows with an online account. Poor souls were probably forced to do this.
It was a PITA to get my files to save locally and to stop auto saving to OneDrive
UBUNTU!!! I am a professional sound engineer forced to use W11 (or iOS if I had more money) but the SECOND my hardware has Linux support I’m gone. God I HATE MicroSCUM with their onedrive vomit account pukiness (sorry, I could not control myself just now)
I heard its microslop now, their CEO loves it.
Poor design and shit software
We’ve tried nothing and we are all out of ideas dot gif
I still don’t know how it works. I have files from 2015 there I don’t remember about.
I thought I was going insane. I have been losing files frequently, but have a detailed file tree and I’m diligent about naming and saving versions.
I have uninstalled One Drive and enabled a system policy that supposedly sets the default save location to c:\user\documents, and after every single fucking update it defaults back to one drive, hangs for 30 seconds until the stupid ass system realizes that there’s no such thing present, and then it opens a “save as” dialogue with some arbitrary path in %user_apps/appdata/onedrive.
GNARF.
A better fix would be uninstalling Windows
You know that’s a novel and insightful musing that no one’s ever thought to share before.
It’s brave of you to go on Lemmy and suggest the solution to a Windows problem is to uninstall it.
So let me get this straight. Microsoft is taking your local files, without their consent, onto their platform where they can delete them for “terms of use” violations, alongside tracking what you do on your own computer.
Sounds like they don’t want you to use your computer in a way they don’t want you to.
They’re scooping up all the data for AI. They rebranded Office to just being AI.
Who said it was your computer.
Their persistence in wanting to download my files is my number one problem with Windows, and it’s a huge one.
Adding “cloud capabilities” during the slow death of capitalism wasn’t the best idea. There are a lot of opportunists out there!
How are people connecting this to politics? Like, I scroll down and find people saying that this is a capitalist idea and shit. Please chill guys not everything is politics you don’t have to think about them all the time
Capitalism isn’t a political system. It’s an economic system.
And I think it’s totally fair to point out how “a company making a product worse because they make more money off the worse product” is one of the flaws of a capitalist economy.
Happened to me, too. Now I just ignore OneDrive entirely. I don’t think Microsoft understands what cloud storage is supposed to be used for. If I delete something from the cloud, I should still have it locally on my PC. The fact that this isn’t the case means essentially, that OneDrive isn’t actually a cloud service. They’re trying to get you to pay a subscription fee to use your own hard drive. You know, the one you’re already using for free. I wonder why that isn’t taking off? 🤔
This is what made me stop using Google Photos and start self hosting Immich. I lost a video from my house construction that showed where the cables were exactly laid.
onedrive is even more intrusive than google drive.
I still haven’t forgiven google for hijacking the g:/ drive letter. I was using that letter already!
Not that it matters to me anymore since I use Linux now, but still.
Sorry, that makes no sense to me. These cloud sync apps are setup for mirroring. If you change one side, it’s reflected on the other. This is just user error (or poor UI, lack of explanation on what delete does in the cloud)
If that’s the case, then OneDrive shouldn’t bitch at me about storage limits. What does it want me to do? Delete my shit again?
Don’t point out people are misunderstanding the product, we’re here to shit on the product for anything and everything
To be fair when it’s a product a person didn’t ask for and the OS forced it on them, it’s not unreasonable that they may not understand how it works and make mistakes.
Yeah, you can’t yell at someone to RTFM when they didn’t opt to use the product, and the “manual” is just a barrage of question on a Microsoft support forum where every answer goes to a Microsoft.learn page that hasn’t been updated since 8.1.
It is unreasonable to assume you can delete a file from a sync app’s cloud dashboard and not expect that the deletion would be synced to the device.
I get that OneDrive is a mediocre product that gets forced on end users, but so many people turn their brains off and just try to kill it with fire instead of thinking through their actions before making rash decisions. Deleting it from the OneDrive directory is marginally less rash, but again, people delete files without validating the original is where they thought it was.
It is unreasonable to expect users to understand.
It is unreasonable to expect users to understand.
Or read, be it app popups or error messages. Or learn how to use tools that have been in place for years. Or take basic responsibility for their inability or unwillingness to learn and understand.
At some point, saying “it’s unreasonable to expect the user to understand something” is itself unreasonable. Maybe it’s because I’ve been in IT for like 20 years, but I have minimal sympathy for people who choose not to understand the basic utilities that they have to interact with for their jobs that have been in place for a long time. At the very least, you should know how file management works if you’re making files as part of your job, and that you don’t just delete files from your system, especially important business files…
OneDrive is for syncing files across devices. It’s not a backup.
Then it shouldn’t bitch at me about storage limits. Does it expect me to delete my shit again? All I’m hearing is OneDrive is better off being ignored entirely.
The problem isn’t one drive’s purpose, it’s that it’s so shoveled into windows that people that have no idea what it is use it accidentally then see files disappearing. It’s unintuitive shovelware with terrible UX, a dreadful combination.
Oh. So it should be called Onesync?
So like syncthing but you have to pay for it and requires a server. Seems useless…
If you want to sync while not all devices are online, just spend 50$ or something and get a RPI and put syncthing on it.
I disagree, it can easily be both. I pay for Google drive and don’t have the client on any of my devices except for my phone, and it’s replicated to my NAS. I use as a form of remote backup and not to sync files.
Right, so how many files you have on your laptop do you also need on your phone? How many desktop does Microslop think the average person has? If cloud storage is actually only cloud syncing, is there a market?
Most of them. I use my files across my Windows laptop, desktop, tablet, and Windows 10 Mobile. The syncing allows me to have access no mater what device I am on. Just because you don’t use this feature, does not mean it isn’t useful.
I often wonder what Microsoft thinks their users do. I’m offline on my computer all the time, whether it’s a plane flight or at a place without good WiFi, there’s no replacing offline capabilities. Even when I am online, I don’t live in silicon valley where there’s fiber optic everywhere, and most Comcast users still live with a data cap, I don’t want to offload everything onto my internet connection. OneDrive is supposed to be a tool to make switching computers and traveling easier, but the result of how they manage it is the opposite.
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I’ve never lost a single file on OneDrive. That’s because I do not use OneDrive.
Eat shit, Microsoft.
This is the only way
Fuck those cock wombles at MS, they’ll likely be using your data for “training purposes” too.
Yeah I wasn’t thrilled when I saw they added it and tried to force it, so I disabled it. Very glad I did!
Most don’t realize they have it, or that they have a choice. It truly sucks is how few non savvy users realize that Microslop has removed their files and placed them on OneDrive instead (read “stolen.”) Between that and unannounced silent Bitlocker encryption, Windows has become more dangerous and destructive than any ransomware out there.
I have also never lost a file on Onedrive and that is because I am not a moron. Been using Onedrive since it was Skydrive on all my devices including Windows 10 Mobile. All of my clients in my business use Onedrive as well as my clients business. It sounds like you don’t know how the tech works.
OneDrive is the most aggressively stupid and evil file sync service I’ve ever used. Constantly upselling, actively re-enabling terrible defaults to maximize storage and bandwidth used, terrible at sync resolution when used with multiple systems, and punitive data loss when you try to disable excessive backups.
It’s one of the main reasons I stopped using Windows at home outside a VM.
I have a personal vendetta against OneDrive because it literally holds your files hostage. It uploads your data without your consent and then threatens to cut off access to your own files unless you pay up. It actively fights you when you try to regain control, up to and including reinstalling itself once you finally manage to uninstall it.
It’s the main reason I finally got serious about switching to Linux (which I have and it has been amazing)
I’m still mad though, fuck Microsoft. Evil assholes.









