This is a most excellent place for technology news and articles.
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.
Poor design and shit software
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.
Adding "cloud capabilities" during the slow death of capitalism wasn't the best idea. There are a lot of opportunists out there!
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.
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)
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.
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.
OneDrive is for syncing files across devices. It's not a backup.
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?
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.
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.
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.
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!
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.
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.
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.
Years ago Microsoft had its OneNote Notebooks as proper files, you could move and copy them and such. Now it’s nearly impossible to get your hands on a “tangible” file using this software.
During that transition- from usable to shit, I made the mistake of uploading my notebook, with all of my uears of course studies (college, professional certifications, etc) into onedrive. That way it could be backed up! A year later I moved my files again into a different system, moving away from OD. They were MY files after all.
What I didn’t know was that Microsoft had moved my Notebook somewhere else into their cloud, on my behalf, and changed my Notebook file to a shortcut/pointer object. There was no indication it was a shortcut as with other documents (the little arrow) on windows. It looked just exactly like the original file.
Well when I tried to open this “file” I got the rudest awakening: Microsoft couldn’t find the “linked” notebook. “What fucking linked notebook?” Apparently, when I moved my “file” (shortcut) out of overdrive, they saw that as a deletion and DELETED the now referenced file they helpfully moved for me.
All of this without ever a single notification; Microsoft deleted years of critical notes with no recourse for recovery. It was just gone.
Ass holes.
That sucks, I'm sorry. I've been frustrated by OneDrive, but thankfully not to nearly the same extent.
Firstly, I did discover that it's not a setting you can just turn off, because that will suddenly remove all the personal files and folders that were backed up, until you turn it back on. I knew I could work around it, but dragged my feet. Still, it was the first big push that eventually convinced me to use Linux.
Secondly... it'll also do the inverse. I play Tabletop Simulator with my friends, and it backs up files to a OneDrive-covered folder. It quickly took up too much space, and to avoid all the warning signs designed to irritate me into subscribing for more storage, I tried to delete it. Turns out, that doesn't work, because OneDrive will assume it was an error and put those files back, and maintaining all those super helpful warnings about storage space.
So, whether you want to keep a file or get rid of it, don't worry, OneDrive can and will find a way to fuck it up.
Seeing all the horror stories in here makes me glad that I recoiled in horror the first time MS offered the idea of me putting my files on their computers instead of mine.
Happened to me at work where they force us to use Windows 11. I had turned on the autosave feature on a Word document I was working on. Little did I know this meant it stopped saving the changes locally and started saving them on a OneDrive copy. I then worked all day on that file.
The next day I notice the file on OD, find it odd that it is there so I delete it because I want nothing to do with OD. I then open the local word file and realize that none of the work I did the day prior was saved.
I figured out what happened and fortunately the file was still in the recycle bin. But fuck that whole system to begin with. It won't even let me use the autosave feature locally.
Its been years since being able to save files on my laptop hard drive for work. Its all onedrive. The company uses it as protection - if the laptop is stolen theres no proprietary data on the drive. It also ensures if my laptop breaks all my work is intact.
The autosave feature is also linked to allowing several people to work on documents simultaneously. This is probably related to forcing onedrive use. You can share links to the files, and being able to edit simultaneously is useful. If you turn off autosave like I tend to do sometimes then when others open the file at the same time you all end up with your own version and cant see what the others are doing.
At home I use linux. I got fed up ages ago with MS stealing my files.
Wait, this is ... news?
Hasn't this been happening like, constantly, since they rolled out OneDrive?
No.
Oh I mean... it has, because the UX and UI are fucking awful and confusing and changing all the time.
That was a rhetorical question.
I dont want to jump to conclusions since techspot is a dogshit outlet for information. Can anyone give me an example of onedrive users losing their files? I checked out a few reddit posts and tech fourm posts and none of the users seem to have actually lost files due to one drive. It seemed that users were getting confused at the onedrive file path overriding their default home path or unhappy that their onedrive hit a storage limit. Like most of the posts are about things that very clearly cant happen with onedrive.
Oh no it’s far worse than that. Essentially what happens is One Drive takes over your entire home holder, and then makes the copy in OneDrive the original. People try to disable OneDrive and then delete the copies in the cloud, only to find out OneDrive will then delete the local copies from your computer.
It is a syncing app, not a backup.
I think it may have happened to me. I had a file saved to my documents at work, I go to check on it and it's got a red X and won't open.
I also sync the documents directory to gdrive and because onedrive deleted it, so did gdrive.
It's unimportant work stuff though on a work machine so it doesn't bother me that much.
