Forum Discussion
Undoing unsuccessful Onedrive 'backup'
Your workplace IT department are the people you should be talking to in the first instance, as they a) manage your account; and b) have access to your computer. I do sympathise at the lack of training which is very commonplace.
" I received no warnings about syncing to the OneDrive folder on my local machine (which I already use for a couple of separate projects) or redirection of my Documents path."
As you "checked the box to back up my Documents folder" you're not going to receive a warning for it do what you instructed it to do.
Your computer Documents folder now sits inside your OneDrive folder now, (possibly along with your Desktop and Pictures folders). So, while you may see them in two places in File Explorer, they are simply two views of the same folders.
Thank you for your sympathy.
It is not correct that OneDrive has done what I have asked it to do. The standard definition of 'backup': 'a copy of a file or other item of data made in case the original is lost or damaged'. This does not include deleting files from their original location or redirecting paths.
It is not only Windows that perceives that extra file space is being consumed. WinDirStat agrees. Perhaps the problems I am now encountering result from my stopping the process because it seemed to have stalled, but I think it's reasonable to stop something that does not meet general expectations of what a backup should do.
- You need to talk to your IT department. The user profiles folder userX\Documents has been redirected to UserX\OneDrive\Documents so that the OneDrive4 client can back the files up. Much like in earlier days when user profiles were redirected to network folder shares.
WinDirStat is not a good tool for these purposes. There are oodles of internet references to it not dealing with local cloud folders correctly.
"It is not correct that OneDrive has done what I have asked it to do. "What you wrote in your original post is all I have to go off, plus that being entirely consistent with you using the OneDrive folder redirection feature. If you're doing something different then the onus is on you to explain it clearly and unambiguously.
Again, ask your local IT department. - What can I help you? But if I ‘m not the one you are talking to , please apologize me for misunderstanding.
