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.
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.
dropbox and google drive have both erased data from me without copying it properly. these are not “backup” services they destroy your data
Dropbox has a policy about two years ago that all of your data will be shared with AI, no opt-outs.
I immediately cancelled my plan and dropped to the free service, which I use to backup photos of my poop.
Poor design and shit software
We’ve tried nothing and we are all out of ideas dot gif
Switching to Mint turns out to be quite a decision. Missing none of the fun.
Just wait until you actually need to restore using timeshift.
I’ve done that a few times now without issue. What’s wrong with it?
rolling back or restoring data from a cooked system?
Rolling back, sometimes because of file system corruption (had damaged RAM). Shouldn’t restoring be similar as long as the snapshot is intact?
Have seen similar comments on that specifically on mint before, does mint have a particular problem with it? I used timeshift to restore manjaro a couple of times and it was very confusing but I assumed it was just me.
Never used Mint, but Time Shift was a god send to me for about two years on EndeavourOS. My first two years on Linux. I was able to learn so much by not having to worry about breaking my install.
I rolled back more times than I can count without ever really encountering any issues.
Set it up to automatically take a snapshot before every update, and add the few most recent snapshots to grub. All automated and really easy to set up.
Having had to fix a friend’s installation because timeshift filled up the system drive, I would say one of the biggest problems of mint is that it comes with timeshift enabled by default (and with shitty settings). I recommend keeping manual backups, and not trying to restore a system, as opposed to setting it up from scratch.
I use [not arch, but] debian, btw - haven’t had the system break on me in > 10 years. At worst, some driver gets messed up temporarily, but nothing that ever rendered my system unusable.
I think its fine to have by default but issue is that when people run into critical problems its not easy to restore from the back up. Currently if you cook your system you need to put a live USB in and then run timeshift and restore.
I would consider it to be an easy to use backup tool if the timeshift backups are in the grub menu to be booted into if there is any issues with the main install. But I dont know if this is possible or not.
Well - to be fair, if you “cook your system”, you have a boiled system. It would be haphazardous to rely on the system booting for restoring a backup. It could be an option, I guess, as long as the system still boots.
I’ve never lost a single file on OneDrive. That’s because I do not use OneDrive.
Eat shit, Microsoft.
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.
I would guess it trys to “backup” them to onedrive and deletes the local copy but there is some problem that causes it not to actually add it to the onedrive, so result is no file anywhere. And it does this with its own permission of course, without informing user about anything.
It switches to storing files on Onedrive without warning.
Then if you disable Onedrive, you lose access to your files (on Onedrive) and their memory space is reused.
It doesn’t actually delete local storage, as the path is just switched.
I know why. Because they were using OneDrive.
Its because they are using it.
People often don’t know that they have a choice. It enables itself.
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.
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? 🤔
OneDrive is for syncing files across devices. It’s not a backup.
Edit:
Since there seems to be a lot of hate on my comment, allow me to explain.
Backup software has a schedule, it has monitoring, it has alerting (email, SMS, ticket submission, etc), and checksumming. OneDrive frequently just shits the bed for whatever reason, often goes unnoticed in the corner, and users frequently miss it and nobody, not even IT, know. Not to mention it’s riddled with bugs.
Yes, you are copying files from point A to point B but it is not the same. If you rely on onedrive as a “backup” you’re going to be disappointed at some point when you lose your files :)
If you delete a file over here, then it disappears from over there. That’s not a backup. On a real backup, if you delete files or lose them or whatever, you have days/weeks/months to go back on versions to restore.
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.
deleted by creator
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.
Garbage article, but I think what they are saying is if you don’t restore your files from backup before you disable your onedrive backup, then you lose your files.
This sounds like user error.
Confusing and bad UI/UX is… confusing and bad.
We’re all glad you’re a poweruser, anyway, can we maybe have an operating system that doesn’t actively hate and fight the user?
Linux welcomes all refugees
I moved one old laptop to Linux over about a year ago, and committed to an effort to actually make it do the things I wanted to do, like play games, and run Windows-only tools or find viable replacements. To say it went well is an understatement. Within a few months I had switched every computer I owned, and I’m never looking back again.
Granted, I was already quite familiar with Linux on the server side. This was not my first attempt to use Linux on the desktop, either. But it was my last, because I’m never going back to Windows ever again now.
Yup this was me back in early October saving an old box I wanted to keep around as a media server.
Before the month’s end all my computers are on one Linux distro or another.
Valve made a big move when they started their Proton project. That was a key compatibility layer for a more wide-spread adoption.
It was shocking at how fast it went from ‘you can tweak it to run most things’ to ‘I don’t even check to see if the game works anymore before I buy it’.
I just made the switch and probably for good this time, and Steam just working was a HUGE moment for me. I opened up a guide thinking I’d need it, but I just downloaded Steam, didn’t change any settings, and could start playing.
At this point, Linux is more of a “just works” experience than Windows 11 was.
I also made the switch with no plan of looking back, and the only thing was that some odd interaction between the integrated and dedicated GPU caused the Steam UI to not work. The fix was disabling “Hardware accelerated Web” something something, and I was playing shortly after downloading the first game.
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.
A lot of people on lemmy long ago realized that if you have enough problems with windows, the problem is windows.
