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Include files in OneDrive sync without copying them
Hi, This may be something already discussed and seems to be in the User Voice forums. I'd like to know if there is a way to include existing folders or files, similar to folder redirection, for f...
Hi John.
This feature is not available natively at the moment, but luckily there is a very effective workaround (if you are using NTFS as the local file system).
You should simply create in the local sync folder a symbolic link to the folder that you want to sync (which is located elsewhere) and such folder will sync as if it were a regular subfolder of the local sync folder (it can even be selectively synced...).
You can create symbolic links using the command line or by a wonderful utility called Link Shell Extension.
Hope it helps...
Matt Storr wrote:
It seems MS have half-hardheartedly removed this very useful and glaring missing functionality from the OneDrive application. It used to work with no issues at all, but instead of MS being up-front and obvious with a statement to say symlinks/junctions are not supported (and show this in the sync log), they've behind the scenes broken it so now we are left with files in disparate locations that we're just not sure are being synced any longer.
- Actually it have not worked properly. Because Windows doesn't propagate file system events to both ends of the symlink, just the original end. If you use symlinks or junctions, the OneDrive client cannot get to hear about changes promptly. The OneDrive client maybe check for changes after certain minutes. So it is seemingly syncing for everything. Maybe MS just doesn't care about that thing as MS has introduced OneDrive REST API to developers.
Matt Storr wrote:
The only valid way to work with OneDrive is to copy the files into the OneDrive folder. If you want to backup data from other locations, sorry, but MS dont want you to. If they did, they would either a) make 'out of folder' synchronisation possible or b) allow symlinks/junctions to be used (as they used to work!)
Here are three tools
- If you just want to use OneDrive client, maybe you can try this tool. It can create symlinks or junctions and trigger OneDrive to sync, including those folders on a timer you set. Here is the link: OneDriveBully. But it hasn't update for half a year.
- And this tool may be suitable for you. It creates a sync relationship between a OneDrive folder and a local folder. This project has not stopped yet, and it has a wonderful GUI. Here is the link: SyncPro
- The last I want to introduce is rclone. It is a big open source project as it has 8k+ stars. But it is only a backend. It requires you having a certain computer basics. There is a GUI frontend called RcloneBrowser which seems to be helpful although it hasn't update for half a year.
I have the opposite problem. I want to make sure large files and unused files (archives and pictures) do not get sync'ed so I am using a symlink. It seems to work, but if anyone finds that it doesn't under certain situations please let me know.
- Same. The situation where it fails is if syncing is paused and restarted.
