How OneDrive Works: the Very Basics

➡️ OneDrive is a free, useful service. Learn the basicsof how it works here.

➡️ OneDrive Basics

Chapters
0:00 How OneDrive Works
1:09 Files on your computer
4:50 OneDrive automatically copies to the cloud
7:03 Copying a file to OneDrive
8:36 Moving a file to OneDrive
9:30 OneDrive synchronization
11:00 There’s more to OneDrive

More Ask Leo!

#askleo #onedrive #backup

[askleonotenboom]

Where to place your files and what OneDrive does with them.

[age_of_reason]

This is THE ONLY OneDrive video on YT that explains the essence of OneDrive clearly, concisely, and completely....and it only has 6k views. Meanwhile other videos 3x longer ramble on and on and have millions of views. No wonder most people don't know how to use OneDrive. Google really needs to work on its search algorithms to push the best information to the forefront because their algorithms are atrociously inadequate.

[geraldthorburn]

At last, someone has explained with exceptional clarity the fundamental concept of One Drive, which I feel sure has been cloudy (sic) to many hundreds of thousands of MS Windows users. Thank you, Leo.

[jimleone]

Finally! This gentleman speaks my language and clearly explains what so many others haven't been able to explain. Thank you!

[JerryLoebach]

Finally someone that actually explained it to my satisfaction.

[gayearnaudon]

I'm computer literate, and I have not botherered with One Drive until now as we will be travelling for months at a time, and I found this explanation very precise and clear - also for my husband who is not computer literate. Thank you.

[carolynwilson]

I finally understand. Thank you so much for your clarity and organization in your explanation.

[edwardlainsbury]

The absolute best explanation I’ve heard! I’ve struggled with the concept for a couple of years and every IT person I’ve asked for help has been over my head. Thank you!

[ms]

After all these years using OneDrive, I now understand it! Thanks.

[socialmeaslesinpartnership]

I appreciate this. I'll have to look at it more than once though.

My initial feeling is regret that it doesn't give me the location of my nearest river in which to dump my computer. I hate this "out-of-control" geek life being opt out rather than opt in. Microsoft don't seem to want to explain anything. I'm only looking at it now because my "C" drive is full.

It's clear enough though.

[kaylawestern]

Thanks Leo! I think you misspoke at 8:32? You say 'I only deleted the one in Documents' when I think you meant to say 'I only deleted the one in OneDrive Documents'. The rest is quite clear but that sentence made me pause.
A point I think should be stressed - Say you create a Document on your native Documents folder on your device, then you copy that Document into your OneDrive Documents folder (and therefore it is automatically uploaded to the OneDrive cloud). Then you make a revision to the original Document that is in your native Documents folder on your device, THOSE REVISIONS ARE NOT REFLECTED IN THE COPY OF THE DOCUMENT YOU PLACED ON ONEDRIVE!!! This may be a very obvious point to many, but it wasn't to me at first and I learned the hard way!! Same thing goes if you make revisions on the document that's in the OneDrive Documents folder - THEY ARE NOT REFLECTED IN THE COPY OF THE DOCUMENT IN YOUR NATIVE DOCUMENTS FOLDER ON YOUR DEVICE!!!. Sorry for the 'shouting' - but I did a LOT of 'shouting' when I was trying to figure this out!! :)

[Steve-iqyw]

Thank you very much for this extremely clear explanation of the fundamentals.
One of my points of confusion was that the OneDrive folder has a documents folder as well as my standard user documents folder on my PC. Since they both had the same name (i.e. "Documents") I didn't know that if there was some sort of magical relationship between these folders. I believe you have made it clear that these two folders are independent.

[fxvqgfj]

n my organization, when we use managed backups for Desktop, Documents and Pictures, it removes those folders from 'C:\Users\User1\Desktop or Documents or Pictures' and places them into or Documents or Pictures'. If you go back to 'C:\Users\User1\Desktop or Documents or Pictures', you'll either have a generic folder of the same name which is a separate entity from the OneDrive or it won't exist at all in the file structure..

We also have several icons on the Desktop as part of our standard image and if you back up Desktop, and go to a new computer and set up OneDrive and use managed backups, it will create copies of those icons unless you delete the ones from the managed OneDrive Desktop, Documents or Pictures folders. It's inconvenient and confusing!

[armelmim]

Thank you so much for this tutorial. this is the kind of video I was looking for about OneDrive. It is the very basics, simplest and comprehensive video about OneDrive.

[AmityWarrior]

Nice explanation Leo - yesterday I experimented with OneDrive. As you pointed out it can become confusing quickly if one missed the fundamentals. Your explanation is well paced for an old fella to follow - I'll replay the video a couple times and practice moving documents. I'm a subscriber now.

[Sergei-ldiv]

Thanks very much!!! You are a great teacher as you can put yourself into the student's shoes and highlight the connections which are key to understanding which other tutors miss

[OluPhillips-ct]

Thank you thank you thank you! You have cleared up quite a few things with this video. I have gone through a number of videos about OneDrive which blithely gloss over, talk around and even completely miss out the fundamentals you have highlighted which are essential for understanding how the thing works.

[qbmxfkf]

Another great explanation! I am finally learning about One Drive and how to sort through the folder structures. Thank you!

[barrysorkin]

Thank you so much for this clear explanation! I wish Microsoft could explain this simple fact simply to us! I finally understand that when a file is placed or deleted into or from the PC's Onedrive folder, that causes the PC's Onedrive to automatically copy or delete that file from the Online Onedrive folder!. Thank you, thank you, thank you!

[AmazingPhilippines]

I have never used Onedrive but see the advantages now. Thanks.