Microsoft Onedrive- what clown thought this up?

[inactionman]

Just sorting my tax returns and getting screwed by onedrive. Onedrive is out of space and throwing a load of exceptions, and now - quite unforgivably- a number of my files are not visible in my windows explorer. So I can't copy the works of fiction I claimed for last year.

It appears that 'my documents' is a path to a cloud drive, and not physically on my machine. I want 'my document's top be physically my machine. It is unacceptable to me that this is not, by default, my machine.

I'm a generally computer savvy person, but it's far from obvious to me what onedrive is doing here, or why it would confuse a physical drive (owned by the user) with a virtual one (owned by Microsoft). I utterly utterly despise any system that makes what it is doing opaque to the user.

It ahs also filled up the onedrive allocation on drivel, such as application autosaves, which I'm less than inclined to go rounds manually sorting. This seems to have caused the problem - onedrive is now claiming it is full and won't let me access my files. Utterly, utterly unacceptable.

anyway, rant over - for those who know quite what Microsoft had in mind here, can anyone let me know how I change the 'my documents' folder to my PC hard drive and - the main part of my question- make sure all files held on this onedrive are located in this physical drive? I'd also like to kill onedrive (and everyone associated with this abortion, but one step at a time)

I already back up to separate machines, I don't need Microsoft trying to upsell me more storage.

[laurent]

They will sell your soul next.

Any cloud based service should not be relied on. (or Saas / subscription software are in same boat)

[inactionman]

They will sell your soul next.

Any cloud based service should not be relied on. (or Saas / subscription software are in same boat)

I agree

My real cause of aggravation is I was labouring under the misapprehension my files were, well, my files, on my machine.

[Biffer]

I don't know anyone who uses 'My Documents' within windows. Microsoft are cunts and will eventually fuck around with whatever standard set up they have in place for their own benefit. So I don't use their drive structures or anything like that.

There's a broader thing here about our entire culture leaving no records behind. There will be an information dark age for future historians to look back at because everything we do is recorded virtually rather than physically.

[Paddington Bear]

I don't know anyone who uses 'My Documents' within windows. Microsoft are cunts and will eventually fuck around with whatever standard set up they have in place for their own benefit. So I don't use their drive structures or anything like that.

There's a broader thing here about our entire culture leaving no records behind. There will be an information dark age for future historians to look back at because everything we do is recorded virtually rather than physically.

Yeah it’s really concerning - how far away are we from say a floppy disk being completely unusable?
The Government are looking at digitising loads of historic wills, thin end of a shitty wedge if they go ahead

[inactionman]

I don't know anyone who uses 'My Documents' within windows. Microsoft are cunts and will eventually fuck around with whatever standard set up they have in place for their own benefit. So I don't use their drive structures or anything like that.

There's a broader thing here about our entire culture leaving no records behind. There will be an information dark age for future historians to look back at because everything we do is recorded virtually rather than physically.

I do, seeing as this is what it is for. Maybe not after this debacle.

In terms of information dark age, bear in mind virtual to the consumer is still physical somewhere or other - noting, of course, a cloud provider will recycle drives and not keep them in a cady tucked into a bottom drawer. I'd say the issue historians will have is too much information, too weakly organised - they'll go blind sorting the wood from the trees.

(eta: apols, you mean physical in the sense of tangible pen and ink - confusing when we're talking about physical and virtual computer systems)

[Biffer]

I don't know anyone who uses 'My Documents' within windows. Microsoft are cunts and will eventually fuck around with whatever standard set up they have in place for their own benefit. So I don't use their drive structures or anything like that.

There's a broader thing here about our entire culture leaving no records behind. There will be an information dark age for future historians to look back at because everything we do is recorded virtually rather than physically.

Yeah it’s really concerning - how far away are we from say a floppy disk being completely unusable?
The Government are looking at digitising loads of historic wills, thin end of a shitty wedge if they go ahead

Look at Windrush. Physical records scrapped, and people's lives ruined.

[inactionman]

I don't know anyone who uses 'My Documents' within windows. Microsoft are cunts and will eventually fuck around with whatever standard set up they have in place for their own benefit. So I don't use their drive structures or anything like that.

There's a broader thing here about our entire culture leaving no records behind. There will be an information dark age for future historians to look back at because everything we do is recorded virtually rather than physically.

Yeah it’s really concerning - how far away are we from say a floppy disk being completely unusable?
The Government are looking at digitising loads of historic wills, thin end of a shitty wedge if they go ahead

Physical system and standards obsolescence are less of an issue now than they were in the early 2000s -everyone then was terrified of how to get information off of old vax systems, for example, when they'd junked the consoles and anyone who knew it had long since retired.

There's a school of thought that says that anything of value will be migrated and curated across systems and formats, but this of course depends upon its value being recognised at the time and on resource being available to do this migration.

I was involved in a research project that investigated the long-term retention of engineering information in circa 2006. A real issue that companies faced was the (mistaken) assumption that we could get rid of our archivists, librarians and associated clerical staff as the wonderful new world of computers will allow everything to be stored and kept safe for everyone and we'd nor have to pay anyone to store records in duty boxes or shelves. It's apparent we need these archivists and librarians more than ever.

[Dinsdale Piranha]

I don't know anyone who uses 'My Documents' within windows. Microsoft are cunts and will eventually fuck around with whatever standard set up they have in place for their own benefit. So I don't use their drive structures or anything like that.

There's a broader thing here about our entire culture leaving no records behind. There will be an information dark age for future historians to look back at because everything we do is recorded virtually rather than physically.

Yeah it’s really concerning - how far away are we from say a floppy disk being completely unusable?
The Government are looking at digitising loads of historic wills, thin end of a shitty wedge if they go ahead

Physical system and standards obsolescence are less of an issue now than they were in the early 2000s -everyone then was terrified of how to get information off of old vax systems, for example, when they'd junked the consoles and anyone who knew it had long since retired.

There's a school of thought that says that anything of value will be migrated and curated across systems and formats, but this of course depends upon its value being recognised at the time and on resource being available to do this migration.

I was involved in a research project that investigated the long-term retention of engineering information in circa 2006. A real issue that companies faced was the (mistaken) assumption that we could get rid of our archivists, librarians and associated clerical staff as the wonderful new world of computers will allow everything to be stored and kept safe for everyone and we'd nor have to pay anyone to store records in duty boxes or shelves. It's apparent we need these archivists and librarians more than ever.

TL;DR don't trust scumbag companies with your data.

This is not a technical problem, it's a business problem. Keeping multiple copies of data securely is a well trodden path but it does take time and money. The companies who are trying to vacuum up all your data for their own purposes (I'm looking at you, Microsoft, Apple, Google) are deliberately trying to blur the lines between local and cloud storage. (iTunes is bad for this) and they aren't providing much in the way of guarantees of data security.

I have disabled OneDrive on my PC (quickly checks PC again)

[Paddington Bear]

Yeah it’s really concerning - how far away are we from say a floppy disk being completely unusable?
The Government are looking at digitising loads of historic wills, thin end of a shitty wedge if they go ahead

Physical system and standards obsolescence are less of an issue now than they were in the early 2000s -everyone then was terrified of how to get information off of old vax systems, for example, when they'd junked the consoles and anyone who knew it had long since retired.

There's a school of thought that says that anything of value will be migrated and curated across systems and formats, but this of course depends upon its value being recognised at the time and on resource being available to do this migration.

I was involved in a research project that investigated the long-term retention of engineering information in circa 2006. A real issue that companies faced was the (mistaken) assumption that we could get rid of our archivists, librarians and associated clerical staff as the wonderful new world of computers will allow everything to be stored and kept safe for everyone and we'd nor have to pay anyone to store records in duty boxes or shelves. It's apparent we need these archivists and librarians more than ever.

TL;DR don't trust scumbag companies with your data.

This is not a technical problem, it's a business problem. Keeping multiple copies of data securely is a well trodden path but it does take time and money. The companies who are trying to vacuum up all your data for their own purposes (I'm looking at you, Microsoft, Apple, Google) are deliberately trying to blur the lines between local and cloud storage. (iTunes is bad for this) and they aren't providing much in the way of guarantees of data security.

I have disabled OneDrive on my PC (quickly checks PC again)

Call me a crank but I’ve seen too many documents ‘disappear’ when issues occur, so I get a physical copy of everything. Needless to say it drives Mrs PB mad.

[Sandstorm]

Just sorting my tax returns and getting screwed by onedrive. Onedrive is out of space and throwing a load of exceptions, and now - quite unforgivably- a number of my files are not visible in my windows explorer. So I can't copy the works of fiction I claimed for last year.

It appears that 'my documents' is a path to a cloud drive, and not physically on my machine. I want 'my document's top be physically my machine. It is unacceptable to me that this is not, by default, my machine.

I'm a generally computer savvy person, but it's far from obvious to me what onedrive is doing here, or why it would confuse a physical drive (owned by the user) with a virtual one (owned by Microsoft). I utterly utterly despise any system that makes what it is doing opaque to the user.

It ahs also filled up the onedrive allocation on drivel, such as application autosaves, which I'm less than inclined to go rounds manually sorting. This seems to have caused the problem - onedrive is now claiming it is full and won't let me access my files. Utterly, utterly unacceptable.

anyway, rant over - for those who know quite what Microsoft had in mind here, can anyone let me know how I change the 'my documents' folder to my PC hard drive and - the main part of my question- make sure all files held on this onedrive are located in this physical drive? I'd also like to kill onedrive (and everyone associated with this abortion, but one step at a time)

I already back up to separate machines, I don't need Microsoft trying to upsell me more storage.

Can you access your file s through a browser login rather than Windows Explorer?

[sockwithaticket]

Yeah it’s really concerning - how far away are we from say a floppy disk being completely unusable?
The Government are looking at digitising loads of historic wills, thin end of a shitty wedge if they go ahead

Physical system and standards obsolescence are less of an issue now than they were in the early 2000s -everyone then was terrified of how to get information off of old vax systems, for example, when they'd junked the consoles and anyone who knew it had long since retired.

There's a school of thought that says that anything of value will be migrated and curated across systems and formats, but this of course depends upon its value being recognised at the time and on resource being available to do this migration.

I was involved in a research project that investigated the long-term retention of engineering information in circa 2006. A real issue that companies faced was the (mistaken) assumption that we could get rid of our archivists, librarians and associated clerical staff as the wonderful new world of computers will allow everything to be stored and kept safe for everyone and we'd nor have to pay anyone to store records in duty boxes or shelves. It's apparent we need these archivists and librarians more than ever.

TL;DR don't trust scumbag companies with your data.

This is not a technical problem, it's a business problem. Keeping multiple copies of data securely is a well trodden path but it does take time and money. The companies who are trying to vacuum up all your data for their own purposes (I'm looking at you, Microsoft, Apple, Google) are deliberately trying to blur the lines between local and cloud storage. (iTunes is bad for this) and they aren't providing much in the way of guarantees of data security.

I have disabled OneDrive on my PC (quickly checks PC again)

There's obviously some wailing and gnashing of teeth at the moment about decisions by the likes of Best Buy to stop selling physical media and simultaneously various streaming services are just culling stuff from their catalogues potentially to never be seen again (Hush on Netflix, for example, a very good home invasion horror/thriller that never had a physical release). It's always been wild to me that people can buy things via Amazon music or iTunes and just have it taken away. I gather some Playstation users have just seen games they've purchases removed from their libraries without warning.

I purchase a fair amount of music digitally, but I only do so from places that allow me to download the files onto my local drive. That is ownership, purchasing something and have it live on a platform from which it can still be purged without your say is just another form of rental.

[weegie01]

I am similar.

I bought a new PC recently. On my old PC I had been saving documents in a 'documents' folder, photos in a 'photos' folder etc all of which were in the file structure in the version of Windows installed when I bought it. They were all on my hard drive.

Everything on my new PC is going into the folders with the same names, but they turn out to be on Onedrive not my PC. I only found this out when they started suggesting I buy more space. I have moved everything over to the PC and my techie son will get rid of Onedrive for me.

When I mentioned this he was perplexed I'd want to as he uses the Cloud for everything. But the difference is he is miles more techie than I am, understands what is going on so tailors things for his needs. I just can't beothered learning it all now and would rather just keep doing my regular back ups to a physical external drive. As he points out, if the house burns down we are stuffed, but I suspect we'll have bigger worries.

[weegie01]

I purchase a fair amount of music digitally, but I only do so from places that allow me to download the files onto my local drive. That is ownership, purchasing something and have it live on a platform from which it can still be purged without your say is just another form of rental.

I am sure I recall a case where someone famous had spent a massive amount on thousands of items of digital music, but when he died it turned out his children could not inherit as he had effectively bought a life time rental the way the contract was structured.

[laurent]

I am similar.

I bought a new PC recently. On my old PC I had been saving documents in a 'documents' folder, photos in a 'photos' folder etc all of which were in the file structure in the version of Windows installed when I bought it. They were all on my hard drive.

Everything on my new PC is going into the folders with the same names, but they turn out to be on Onedrive not my PC. I only found this out when they started suggesting I buy more space. I have moved everything over to the PC and my techie son will get rid of Onedrive for me.

When I mentioned this he was perplexed I'd want to as he uses the Cloud for everything. But the difference is he is miles more techie than I am, understands what is going on so tailors things for his needs. I just can't beothered learning it all now and would rather just keep doing my regular back ups to a physical external drive. As he points out, if the house burns down we are stuffed, but I suspect we'll have bigger worries.

Very much a geek here as I am on Linux for over 20 years. I don't trust software companies to do things for me reliably. (I worked/work for them).

Cloud is all about dispossession, you do not own the software (though you pay for it) you do not own the data (most like facebook will appropriate all data / images you put there).

it goes on and on.

[weegie01]

My children find my lack of IT related knowledge hilarious as I headed a team in Accenture's Advanced Systems Group some 30 plus years ago. We were at the bleeding edge of technology back then and I regularly flew round the world dealing with clients.

I need to get my children to sort various things out for me now. They have grown up in an interconnected world that I did not. Things that they have absorbed as they grew up have never been part of my life, and whilst I can sit down and work it out, it's just too much effort.

My children just assume that everyone has a similar level of knowledge to them. I see this as part of the problem as one of my children and several of his chums are the people putting together the systems we all use. With the arrogance / blindness of the young, they just don't account for people without the background knowledge they have.

[Sandstorm]

My children find my lack of IT related knowledge hilarious as I headed a team in Accenture's Advanced Systems Group some 30 plus years ago. We were at the bleeding edge of technology back then and I regularly flew round the world dealing with clients.

I need to get my children to sort various things out for me now. They have grown up in an interconnected world that I did not. Things that they have absorbed as they grew up have never been part of my life, and whilst I can sit down and work it out, it's just too much effort.

My children just assume that everyone has a similar level of knowledge to them. I see this as part of the problem as one of my children and several of his chums are the people putting together the systems we all use. With the arrogance / blindness of the young, they just don't account for people without the background knowledge they have.

And woe betide anyone who questions what they have built!!!

[Biffer]

I am similar.

I bought a new PC recently. On my old PC I had been saving documents in a 'documents' folder, photos in a 'photos' folder etc all of which were in the file structure in the version of Windows installed when I bought it. They were all on my hard drive.

Everything on my new PC is going into the folders with the same names, but they turn out to be on Onedrive not my PC. I only found this out when they started suggesting I buy more space. I have moved everything over to the PC and my techie son will get rid of Onedrive for me.

When I mentioned this he was perplexed I'd want to as he uses the Cloud for everything. But the difference is he is miles more techie than I am, understands what is going on so tailors things for his needs. I just can't beothered learning it all now and would rather just keep doing my regular back ups to a physical external drive. As he points out, if the house burns down we are stuffed, but I suspect we'll have bigger worries.

Very much a geek here as I am on Linux for over 20 years. I don't trust software companies to do things for me reliably. (I worked/work for them).

Cloud is all about dispossession, you do not own the software (though you pay for it) you do not own the data (most like facebook will appropriate all data / images you put there).

it goes on and on.

It's happening all across multiple sectors. People never buy a car any more, they effectively lease it, 4 year deal £300/ month and you still owe £10k if you want to keep it at the end of the deal. We lease music and video, where we used to own them. Some of the copyright and licensing rights around cloud storage is fucking crazy. Fundamentally this has an economic root to it; Assets make you rich. If you work out a system where people pay you for something but you still keep the asset, that's the best way to get or stay rich.

[Ovals]

Having read the opening post, and having just got a new laptop running Windows 11 - I just checked where the documents are, that I have created since Xmas and saved in 'my documents'. They are all on the C drive and show as stored locally !!

[fishfoodie]

From a trusted source

[inactionman]

Just sorting my tax returns and getting screwed by onedrive. Onedrive is out of space and throwing a load of exceptions, and now - quite unforgivably- a number of my files are not visible in my windows explorer. So I can't copy the works of fiction I claimed for last year.

It appears that 'my documents' is a path to a cloud drive, and not physically on my machine. I want 'my document's top be physically my machine. It is unacceptable to me that this is not, by default, my machine.

I'm a generally computer savvy person, but it's far from obvious to me what onedrive is doing here, or why it would confuse a physical drive (owned by the user) with a virtual one (owned by Microsoft). I utterly utterly despise any system that makes what it is doing opaque to the user.

It ahs also filled up the onedrive allocation on drivel, such as application autosaves, which I'm less than inclined to go rounds manually sorting. This seems to have caused the problem - onedrive is now claiming it is full and won't let me access my files. Utterly, utterly unacceptable.

anyway, rant over - for those who know quite what Microsoft had in mind here, can anyone let me know how I change the 'my documents' folder to my PC hard drive and - the main part of my question- make sure all files held on this onedrive are located in this physical drive? I'd also like to kill onedrive (and everyone associated with this abortion, but one step at a time)

I already back up to separate machines, I don't need Microsoft trying to upsell me more storage.

Can you access your file s through a browser login rather than Windows Explorer?

Yep, logged into onedrive via the web and copied the errant files back across to my hard drive.

They remain my files, removed from my machine without my say-so. Utterly abominable.

[inactionman]

I am similar.

I bought a new PC recently. On my old PC I had been saving documents in a 'documents' folder, photos in a 'photos' folder etc all of which were in the file structure in the version of Windows installed when I bought it. They were all on my hard drive.

Everything on my new PC is going into the folders with the same names, but they turn out to be on Onedrive not my PC. I only found this out when they started suggesting I buy more space. I have moved everything over to the PC and my techie son will get rid of Onedrive for me.

When I mentioned this he was perplexed I'd want to as he uses the Cloud for everything. But the difference is he is miles more techie than I am, understands what is going on so tailors things for his needs. I just can't beothered learning it all now and would rather just keep doing my regular back ups to a physical external drive. As he points out, if the house burns down we are stuffed, but I suspect we'll have bigger worries.

This is real the crux of it. I thought the folder was on my machine, with onedrive simply taking a backup - there's nothing to indicate this is not the case.

[ASMO]

It works brilliantly if you set it up correctly you IT illiterate palestines.

[Ymx]

It works brilliantly if you set it up correctly you IT illiterate palestines.

Yeah, I have no issues.

Set it up, then link the locations, and the files are both there physically and synced to cloud and any other computer in that account,

Just did it a couple of days ago as upgraded my laptop.

Not quite sure why the op has it set up as virtual folders, that’s definitely not the default.

[inactionman]

It works brilliantly if you set it up correctly you IT illiterate palestines.

I'm not debating whether it technically works. My main bone of contention is the obfuscation and the sheer pisstake of controlling my documents which breaks a lot of user experience principles - to slightly bend the principle of 'don't make me think', it's more 'don't make me think it's doing one thing when it's doing another'.

The pisstake is in removing - actually removing- files from my local machine when my onedrive is full and onedrive gets arsey. That is utterly unacceptable in any context.

The iconography is exactly the same as for the local documents as for the virtual folders (in W10, at least). As stated by others on here, the cynic might think it's to get users to put things into cloud to help push them towards Office 365 and a lovely subscription model.

[laurent]

It works brilliantly if you set it up correctly you IT illiterate palestines.

Don't use MS Shit is a start :p

I"ll go back to my antique PII and Suse setup shortly.

as an aside here is some advice: DO NOT setup windows with a MS account.

[troglodiet]

Very much a geek here as I am on Linux for over 20 years. I don't trust software companies to do things for me reliably. (I worked/work for them).

Cloud is all about dispossession, you do not own the software (though you pay for it) you do not own the data (most like facebook will appropriate all data / images you put there).

I might not be a computer nerd like some of you, but this is summary of my take on it too.

I've been using a dual boot (kubuntu + Win10) for a very long time. The only reason I still have Windows on it is because I can't get my...ahem...borrowed copy of Photoshop suite to work through wine. But since I stopped taking photos, I have no reason to work in Windows anymore....at home that is. Everyday at work where I have to use Windows, I realise why I stopped using it.

And call my a conspiracy theorist if you want, but I don't trust the likes of MS, Google or Meta with my data, and I do not store anything in the cloud. I just use more external hard drives, for every external hd, I also have another external hd as backup. And yes they are stored at different locations.

[OomStruisbaai]

I am a bit PC disabled. I use My Drive to get basic docs like IDs ,Gmail exct on my phone which is very helpfull. We have One Drive at work and personal. Do it cost extra if I want use it on my phone?

[Sandstorm]

I am a bit PC disabled. I use My Drive to get basic docs like IDs ,Gmail exct on my phone which is very helpfull. We have One Drive at work and personal. Do it cost extra if I want use it on my phone?

No

[OomStruisbaai]

I am a bit PC disabled. I use My Drive to get basic docs like IDs ,Gmail exct on my phone which is very helpfull. We have One Drive at work and personal. Do it cost extra if I want use it on my phone?

No

Thats very helpful from the Soutie.

[mat the expat]

Download something like Synctoy and run it to replicate your files (Contribute only) to a few external HDDs and rotate them offsite

All the Cloud services are explicit in mentioning you are responsible for your data.

Read the fine print

[Flockwitt]

It works brilliantly if you set it up correctly you IT illiterate palestines.

Yeah, I have no issues.

Set it up, then link the locations, and the files are both there physically and synced to cloud and any other computer in that account,

Just did it a couple of days ago as upgraded my laptop.

Not quite sure why the op has it set up as virtual folders, that’s definitely not the default.

I've got mine setup as virtual folders. Having to work through it now.

[Flockwitt]

The thing's a complete mess. Somehow it's done some sort of automatic update and completely screwed things up. I've got two cloud icons now showing one of which I never made and has a completely random old folder name with no information in it. And everything is synced into the cloud.

[Slick]

Hi geeks.

Thought this thread was as good as any.... any ideas why I am getting the spinning blue thing on the end of my cursor constantly? I've tried everything I know (turned off and on) but it's still there.

[laurent]

Hi geeks.

Thought this thread was as good as any.... any ideas why I am getting the spinning blue thing on the end of my cursor constantly? I've tried everything I know (turned off and on) but it's still there.

Microsoft wants you to buy a new computer.

(just install linux on it )

[Sandstorm]

Hi geeks.

Thought this thread was as good as any.... any ideas why I am getting the spinning blue thing on the end of my cursor constantly? I've tried everything I know (turned off and on) but it's still there.

Your processor may be going crazy thru an App that is running or a Process in the background.

Press CTRL + ALT + DEL - ---> Task Manager.
See if any App is running very high CPU or Memory %. End that task (right click on it). See if it helps.

[Slick]

Hi geeks.

Thought this thread was as good as any.... any ideas why I am getting the spinning blue thing on the end of my cursor constantly? I've tried everything I know (turned off and on) but it's still there.

Your processor may be going crazy thru an App that is running or a Process in the background.

Press CTRL + ALT + DEL - ---> Task Manager.
See if any App is running very high CPU or Memory %. End that task (right click on it). See if it helps.

Nice one! Think it was the anti-virus stuff. Geek.

[Ymx]

Hi geeks.

Thought this thread was as good as any.... any ideas why I am getting the spinning blue thing on the end of my cursor constantly? I've tried everything I know (turned off and on) but it's still there.

Your processor may be going crazy thru an App that is running or a Process in the background.

Press CTRL + ALT + DEL - ---> Task Manager.
See if any App is running very high CPU or Memory %. End that task (right click on it). See if it helps.

Nice one! Think it was the anti-virus stuff. Geek.

Probably a virus pretending to be an antivirus using your machine to do bad things.

Throw it in an ice lake to be sure.