Adding a folder on an external drive to OneDrive

OneDrive doesn’t natively support adding folders located on external drives (like a USB drive) to be backed up in the same way as the default system folders (Desktop, Documents, Pictures, etc.)…so far I know.

You can create symbolic links (symlinks) to make OneDrive sync folders from external drives.

A symlink acts as a pointer that makes OneDrive think that the folder on the external drive is actually located in your OneDrive folder.

Create the symbolic link. Use the following command in the Command Prompt:

mklink /D "C:\Users\[YourUsername]\OneDrive\Taxes\TY 2024" "D:\Finances\Taxes\TY 2024"

You can manually select folders to sync to OneDrive through its selective sync feature.

Move the Folder you want to back up (e.g., D:\Finances\Taxes\TY 2024) to your OneDrive folder

OneDrive will automatically detect the folder inside the OneDrive folder and begin syncing it to the cloud.

Once it is synced, you can copy it back to your external drive (D:\Finances\Taxes\TY 2024) to ensure you have a local copy.

For file-level backup, consider OneDrive Personal Vault or third-party sync tools.

You could also consider using sync software to keep the external folder synced with OneDrive. There are several third-party tools available that can help you sync an external folder with OneDrive.

Look on _Internet you will find some.

Forum User comment: Syncing OneDrive to an external hard drive

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