Include files in OneDrive sync without copying them

[John Marshall]

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 files and folders scattered around the computer, so they can be backed up, but without copying them to the OneDrive sync folder. This is pretty fundamental, as when they are copied, they are duplicated, and document versioning issues again come to the fore.

This must be the most basic of features that doens't appear to be offered with the OneDrive client. I, and most of my customers, need this functionality and I don't see any way to enable it or to apply a workaround. If this has already been discussed, or if indeed I can achieve this, please let me know.

Appreciate the help!

[#2]

I have created junctions in the OneDrive folder. Though the status indicator seems problematic, the files are actually updated in OneDrive automatically. I opened a Word document located in the junction folder, modified and saved it. It was immediately saved to OneDrive. So as long as OneDrive is up and running we can assume it works fine for junction folders.

[#3]

Same. The situation where it fails is if syncing is paused and restarted.

[#4]

My company has specifically advised me to use OneDrive as a backup solution. Whether MS intends it that way or not, backup is definitely a use case.

[#5]

Yes, but stuck status indicator stops me from "Clean up space". And I needed this feature to keep certain folders only in OneDrive without keeping them locally too

[#6]

@Plabrie 

You can also use symbolic links to have external folders sync to OneDrive. 

Check my open source free app that you can use to create symbolic links with UI and trick OneDrive to include linked folders on the sync.

https://github.com/ktheod/OneDriveBully

If you have issues with it (hopefully not) you can contact me on Facebook here: https://www.facebook.com/pg/OneDriveBully

[#7]

@Paul Stork perhaps it's a little late since you posted this reply a couple years ago - but no, not backup. I have data across several devices and want to be able to share them across multiple machines (mostly Mac, but not entirely so).  Since the devices are different the obvious solution is to enter multiple roots to sync with OneDrive.  But the OneDrive app on Mac doesn't support that.  I could use symlinks from the one and only OneDrive root.  But the app doesn't follow them.

[#8]

Well, this is definitely a feature that is out of the reach of the "big" guys (OneDrive, Google Drive and Dropbox).

I admit I'm pretty used to keep the real data inside the OneDrive (and also on the other two), and then I create a symbolic link wherever it's needed, even if it's a folder of the application which originally created. I really don't see a problem with it, I'd say you need the same level of self-organization to do that.

In fact, Google Drive offers something ALMOST like that: it offers you to pick folders scattered through your computer, but:
- it's one-way sync
- and they get tagged under your computer name (ok, you can copy and link them between your different computer tags, but it's a manual process), and will sync only from it

Anyway, original data on the cloud folder, symbolic link where the data is needed.

I guess Mega (from Mega.nz) has something like this in their client, can't remember... but then you must consider speed, reliability, so many other factors. There will always be a custom need for each of us that won't be supported.

[#9]

@John Marshall 

"As an end user I want to store my files on my local devices on the various disk drives available to me (be they internal or external drives) as I see fit and sync selected data to my OneDrive for Business Service as this will greatly enhance my productivity."

Pretty simple use case....

Why this cannot be fulfilled by Microsoft:

1. Available Disk Space on local devices

1. Files On Demand frees up Local Disk Space but you lose Windows 10/File Explorer Indexing
   1. If I want to take advantage of searching my indexed files and folders, I have to turn off Files on Demand and then keep ALL of my files local on a single disk
   2. Even if you mark a file or folder "keep on my PC" it will not get indexed
2. You can use the Web Browser to search OneDrive online, but it searches at the OneDrive level - you cannot initiate searches that search inside a specified sub-folder tree.  SharePoint can only do Site Level searches for OneDrive (your OneDrive is a SharePoint Site).
   1. For example, you might expect 10 results from the Specific Folder but you get 100 from the OneDrive Site - very difficult to deal with so many results
   2. Microsoft has not enabled SharePoint Advanced Search which enables you to enter a partial path which you can do on regular SharePoint.
3. With SSDs being the norm on PCs much of my data now sits on external disks.
   1. of my 256GB SSD, almost 100GB is used just to run WIndows
      1. Hibernation
      2. Swapfile
      3. Windows
      4. Program Files
      5. My Profile AppData
   2. Since Junction Points have issues the only solution is to add a 5 TB disk to the PC and move the local OneDrive Folder there.  Place all of your files in that folder structure.  But, you give up the speed of an SSD.  But, you can do indexing and searching.
   3. Then setup Backup/Task Scheduler to make copies of files from the local OneDrive folder to your external media on a short, regular basis to mimic OneDrive Sync to the cloud and make local copies of your data just in case Microsoft decides to delete them.

Revised use cases:

"As an end user I want to be to store my files on my local devices on single large internal local disk drive and sync selected data to my OneDrive for Business Folder as this will greatly enhance my productivity."

[#10]

It seems @Salvatore Biscari is right.

At least for me with window10 and OneDrive for Business:
Symbolic link pointing to the OneDrive folder that sits on a different disk --> same issue as above, i.e. takes a lot of time to sync on the cloud when I make changes to a file (pretty quick for a new file though) and sync icon always suggesting it is currently synced even when the sync is complete.
Symbolic link in OneDrive folder pointing to a folder on another disk --> new files and changes to a file sync instantly and icon shows the appropriate state.

Thanks for the "under-appreciated" insight @Salvatore Biscari

---edit---

dang, I just realized that this solution puts the files on the same disk as the one on which the OneDrive folder sites. This is exactly what I am trying to avoid by creating symbolic links.

Problem not solved 😞

[#11]

Be extremely careful when using symlinks in OneDrive folder.

If you delete de symlink in the local Onedrive folder, the source stay in place as it should, but if you delete from the web directly the next sync will delete the symlink in your onedrive local folder and the original folder or document (symlink source) too.

I hope one day they fix that terrible limitation...

[#12]

We should consider also what is the difference between "Backup" and "copy to work with" use cases? The online file copy keeps being the same, a file, in a folder. So Stork conclusions are completely wrong

[#13]

@Paul Stork, bit of an odd comment given the UI of OneDrive: