Forum Discussion
Files are mysteriously appearing in the wrong OneDrive folders
It’s definitely possible that the way OneDrive syncs across your two Macs contributed to the corruption. Here’s why:
Possible Causes Based on Your Setup
1. Sync Loop or Conflict Issues- If both Macs are set to always keep a local copy of files and constantly sync changes to OneDrive, any corruption on one machine could propagate to OneDrive.com and then to the other Mac.
- If a file is modified or indexed differently on one Mac (e.g., due to a macOS metadata change), OneDrive might misinterpret the file as new or different, leading to duplicates or corruption.
2. OneDrive File System Conflicts- OneDrive may have trouble handling multiple simultaneous sync requests, especially if macOS modifies hidden metadata (e.g., .DS_Store files or resource forks).
- This could explain why files appear in the wrong locations with different names.
3. OneDrive Database or Index Corruption- If OneDrive’s cloud index becomes corrupted, it might not properly map files to their correct locations.
- Since the issue is visible on OneDrive.com, this suggests a deeper sync issue rather than just a local cache problem.
Next Steps to Fix the Issue
1. Check OneDrive Versioning- Go to OneDrive Online → Right-click a corrupted file → Version history
- See if you can restore a previous, uncorrupted version.
2. Temporarily Disable Sync on Both Macs- Pause OneDrive sync on both Macs to stop potential corruption from spreading.
- Let OneDrive.com stabilize before re-enabling sync.
3. Verify OneDrive Storage Health- Try moving a problematic file to another folder and back.
- If OneDrive throws errors, its backend database may be corrupted.
4. Rebuild OneDrive Sync Database on One Mac FirstOn one Mac only, reset OneDrive:
rm -rf ~/Library/Containers/com.microsoft.OneDrive-mac
Then, reinstall OneDrive and let it fully resync.
5. Manually Re-Upload Affected Files- If files are still corrupted after a reset, try manually uploading clean copies.
If the issue persists, this could be a deeper OneDrive sync bug. Let me know if you need more troubleshooting!
Thanks for your reply but what’s happening here is that the files on OneDrive.com have been corrupted, not the files on just one of my machines. It is possible that they became corrupted because I set my two Macs so that they keep a complete copy of all my OneDrive files on their hard discs and every time I change a file on one Mac, that change is automatically reflected in OneDrive.com and , through that, on the other Mac . I thought keeping a copy of my OneDrive files on each of my Mac’s would be a way of keeping my files s3cure. Maybe, in these circumstances, it allowed the corruption of one folder to infect OneDrive.com and, through that, the other Mac. What do you think?
It’s definitely possible that the way OneDrive syncs across your two Macs contributed to the corruption. Here’s why:
Possible Causes Based on Your Setup
1. Sync Loop or Conflict Issues- If both Macs are set to always keep a local copy of files and constantly sync changes to OneDrive, any corruption on one machine could propagate to OneDrive.com and then to the other Mac.
- If a file is modified or indexed differently on one Mac (e.g., due to a macOS metadata change), OneDrive might misinterpret the file as new or different, leading to duplicates or corruption.
2. OneDrive File System Conflicts- OneDrive may have trouble handling multiple simultaneous sync requests, especially if macOS modifies hidden metadata (e.g., .DS_Store files or resource forks).
- This could explain why files appear in the wrong locations with different names.
3. OneDrive Database or Index Corruption- If OneDrive’s cloud index becomes corrupted, it might not properly map files to their correct locations.
- Since the issue is visible on OneDrive.com, this suggests a deeper sync issue rather than just a local cache problem.
Next Steps to Fix the Issue
1. Check OneDrive Versioning- Go to OneDrive Online → Right-click a corrupted file → Version history
- See if you can restore a previous, uncorrupted version.
2. Temporarily Disable Sync on Both Macs- Pause OneDrive sync on both Macs to stop potential corruption from spreading.
- Let OneDrive.com stabilize before re-enabling sync.
3. Verify OneDrive Storage Health- Try moving a problematic file to another folder and back.
- If OneDrive throws errors, its backend database may be corrupted.
4. Rebuild OneDrive Sync Database on One Mac FirstOn one Mac only, reset OneDrive:
rm -rf ~/Library/Containers/com.microsoft.OneDrive-mac
Then, reinstall OneDrive and let it fully resync.
5. Manually Re-Upload Affected Files- If files are still corrupted after a reset, try manually uploading clean copies.
If the issue persists, this could be a deeper OneDrive sync bug. Let me know if you need more troubleshooting!