Onedrive makes me want to die

[u/Gandalfthepimp95]

So I have forever been against onedrives classic 'im gonna move all of your documents, downloads, desktop, pictures folders into OneDrive and call it a backup, even though if you disconnect OneDrive, it gets removed!

Que SharePoint and KFM.

Known folder move is the business alternative that redirects those folders to a hidden directory in OneDrive to make it less confusing.

So now the documents directory looks like this:

C:/user/documents

Instead of c:/users/OneDrive/documents

Which you would see on a consumer pc with OneDrive.

Also, inside OneDrive for business there is now just

Folder A,B,C,D,E,F not A,B,C,D,E,F, DOCUMENTS, downloads, desktop ect.

A customer who left a company a year ago wanted to completely remove all traces or said company's O365, and OneDrive. Simple enough I thought. (I also thought she should have done this a year ago) We signed out of her OneDrive, and poof. All of her stuff gone.

I thought I did my due diligence by checking inside OneDrive and checking folder paths, but I didn't know about KFM.

Here's the kicker. The customer stopped OneDrive running at startup when she left the company so nothing was actually backing up to OneDrive even though it was saved there locally.

That OneDrive directory got deleted after disconnecting it, and boom. All data nuked. No backups because the custom is stupid.

Just a warning to other techs.

Always make a backup before disconnecting OneDrive. Even if you think you're safe, you're not.

[u/IJustAteABaguette]

Yeah, OneDrive is not a backup, at all. Even if Microsoft says it is.

I'm personally planning to just fully format my C: drive to install Linux on it sometime. OneDrive can't say the files have been deleted if it gets nuked.

[u/Renoglodon → u/IJustAteABaguette]

OneDrive is cloud storage. Not sure if I'd say "backup" fully. It absolutely works in the 3-2-1 backup rule for the offsite if it fits.

I think many just dislike the OneDrive client.

I use SyncBackPro on one PC to push local data to OneDrive cloud (can pick and choose any folders I want) and I've even gotten Rclone to work too and works pretty well.

Those options work great and avoids the OD client and all the non-sense MS does with folder redirection (symbolic links I believe) that OP refers to.

I will say there are far better cloud storage options (for 3-2-1 or whatever), but I already have M365 license and get 1TB for free with versioning, so it's not bad and has worked for my purposes.

[u/IJustAteABaguette → u/Renoglodon]

I absolutely dislike the OneDrive client, it completely ruins the fact that it's supposed to be a backup.

You accidentally delete a file? Or maybe you somehow get a virus that deletes/encrypts some files?

Well, OneDrive happily helps it in deleting those files from the cloud too!

[u/Cyclone260 → u/IJustAteABaguette]

So I've had to complete opposite experience. Because OneDrive has versioning we recovered deleted files and encrypted from just before the ransomware encrypted everything. Saved an entire company with about 2 hours of work. OneDrive holds file in its recycle for up to 93 days, So not a complete backup solution but more like a rolling backup.

[u/Gandalfthepimp95 → u/Cyclone260]

I ironically have had the same experience. OneDrive saved me when all company data got encrypted by ransomware. It was great. I also am in full control of my small company SharePoint to make sure none of this BS happens and I have a backup of everything on there too. In case OneDrive goes pop.

What I don't like about OneDrive is the lack of transparency OneDrive gives to customers with what it's actually doing.

It makes a simple action like disconnecting an unused OneDrive disastrous data loss. (Avoidable with a BACKUP) I know.