Clarification on OneDrive and Autosave

[JustKJ]

I believe I understand the basic concepts involved with the Autosave feature (Word, Excel, Powerpoint). And I understand the concepts around OneDrive and syncing the contents of the one drive folder.  But I have encountered a situation I cannot figure out.

I have Autosave disabled by default as I often modify an old document and want to save it with a new name.  Yes I know there are work arounds. it just the way I like to work (old dog, new tricks).

However, there are times I create a file from scratch, save it to my hard drive in the OneDrive folder that syncs to OneDrive.  If I decide that I want Autosave after this point, the desktop software tells me I need to upload a copy to OneDrive.  It is already in OneDrive at this point, so why upload a second copy which then syncs back to my Local OneDrive folder

Am I missing something, or is this just how it works?

[#2 · Accepted solution]

Hi, have a look at the official docs for some detailed info on the feature (as soon as you save to OneDrive it's enabled if you have an eligible subscription).

https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/topic/what-is-autosave-6d6bd723-ebfd-4e40-b5f6-ae6e8088f7a5

https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/office/how-do-i-turn-on-autosave-dbd19b49-ff3a-48f5-8294-671e33a...

[#3]

@ChristianJBergstrom Thank you for responding and for the links.  I read them and Yes, I do understand those--it was how I assumed it worked..  My question was about something different.  However As I started to recreate the situation for screen shots, I now see that feature is working as expected--something has been corrected or changed since the last time I ran into this.  So as this no longer happens, my question is now moot.  

What used to happen:  In my environment, AutoSave defaulted off (when it was rolled out it created more problems than it solved). Up until recently if I created, say a spreadsheet, and saved it in My Document and Closed it.  Later I move the file from my documents to the OneDrive folder, ReOpened and enable Auto-Save, I would be prompted to upload it to OneDrive (odd since I had already moved the file to folder and I would have expected it to be synced and recognized as being on OneDrive).   

Thank you again.