How Do I Backup Files in OneDrive? (Yes, you should.)

➡️ You shouldn't rely on OneDrive as the only place for your files. Backing them up elsewhere is important, but there may be bumps in the road.

➡️ Backing up OneDrive files
OneDrive files exist in the cloud, but not all files are automatically or completely downloaded to your PC, due to space-saving features like Choose Folders and Files On-Demand. This means some files might not be present on your PC for backup. To ensure that all OneDrive files are backed up, you can either adjust settings to download all files or understand that not everything in OneDrive is being backed up with your PC.

Chapters
0:00 Backup OneDrive Files
0:50 Why back up OneDrive?
2:00 What if you lose your OneDrive account?
2:40 Why files might not be present on your PC
3:30 OneDrive account
4:00 Managing space
5:30 Syncing Files on Demand
8:30 Three possible states of files
9:30 If you have plenty of disk space
11:10 If you don't have enough space
11:40 Use another computer

More Ask Leo!

#askleo #onedrive #backup

[askleonotenboom]

Yes, you should back up your OneDrive files outside of OneDrive.

[megapangolin]

Crikey, Leo, you always offer a mountain of good sense and solutions to problems that people don't think they have- until they have problems. Again, another day, another thing learnt. I thought I had One Drive cracked, but not in any way, it is much more complicated than the average person can deal with, without tuition- like this. This is the best 15 minutes I have spent today. Thank you.

[pdep]

I love the way you get straight into the ´meat´ of the video topic in seconds. No fluff, no fancy into, just BAM! Straight into it!

[rounderone]

Thank you, Leo! I've been using One Drive for more than a year and now I finally understand how this works.

[johnwesleybodjenga]

Dear Leo,
Thank you for such clear explanations. You have saved my time and enlightened my recovery and back up pathway
Keep it up with those valuables content.
God bless you.

[NoEggu]

@0:40 -- If I understand what our host explained, there is a potential problem.

If, for example, you have 3 devices, all set up to automatically sync, then if you screw up a file one of those 3 devices, then your screw-up gets copied to your other 2 devices.

Whereas, if you were to not set automatic syncing on one of your 3 devices, then you would recover your file from the device that did not get synced.

I suggest that if you can count on yourself to periodically manually sync your files, then that will give you finer control over the safekeeping of your files.
But if you know yourself, and you know that you will not bother to periodically manually sync your files, then set the automatic syncing.

Putting 100% on autopilot is giving up a level of control. But autopilot is good for some people -- until they accidentally mangle some file and kick themselves for having that mangled file overwrite the good copies on their other devices.

Lastly, when you use cloud storage, you are using someone else's computer (complete strangers).
You are handing your files to complete strangers, in the clear. Yes, your files get encrypted in transport to the strangers. But they get decrypted upon arrival at the stranger's computer.

Microsoft, Google, and any other cloud storage service can see everything that you put on their computers. They are not likely looking (unless you are a noteworthy person -- a celebrity, or government official, or someone making headlines, etc). But it is likely that they scan everything, and who knows what type of index or profile they build on you. If you have trade secrets, or anything that can ruin your life, you would be nuts to hand those files over to them.

If you encrypt your files, before they get uploaded to a cloud service, then you are protecting yourself. But if you upload your company's trade secrets, without first encrypting them, you are reckless.

Cloud storage services require you to agree to contracts written 100% by their attorneys, to serve their interests, that you are required to agree with, which turns ownership of your files to them. In other words, any files that you put on their servers are now owned by them.

If you do not need the convince of syncing files between devices, then just make copies of your important files, and manually put them on your other devices, as needed. But if you care zero about sharing your files with anonymous people, then cloud services are a great option.

[ericgraham]

Hi Leo, thank you for yet another brilliant video. You provide information in such a clear and well thought out way. I am learning even when I thought I knew the subject. Keep up this excellent service.

[sysjamal]

thank you Sir for the explanation, your are very professional, a very good Teacher

[mohammedshoaibali]

Thank you Leo . From 2021 I am searching for the green tick that comes on folder from one drive . Now I satisfied by this video u explain . Great job man . 👍

[Mark-kipu]

Thank You Leo, so glad I saw your video. Although it did help alot, I have a long way to go with saving my files. When I save a photo or a document ( am doing a lot of Ancestry saving) Sometimes I can never find the article or photo again. So frustrating. I even subscribe to Microsoft account annually in hopes I won't lose my stuff but I don't know how to use it. I will keep studying your videos!!

[jantorfs]

And indeed that file mentioned below did not look any better on the other 2 pc's that have one drive.... Very helpful video, thank you..

[destiniartis]

This was SUPER informative. Thank you soooo much for explaining all of this!

[johncostigan]

Boy, do I hate MS taking control of my computer a bit at a time. Thanks, Leo!

[cam_]

Onedrive does have a 30 day version history and a recycle bin, it also has ransomware detection. But yes if MS lock your account or you don't pay your bill for more than 5GB storage then that backup strategy is at risk.

[nigelogilvie]

Leo, your entirely valid headline question is "How do I backup onedrive files?" I don't see an answer here. I have two computers with 256 Gb ssd's and I have about 600 Gb of files on onedrive. At present I back up using a couple of 1Tb external drives, alternating. I copy from onedrive using File Manager Copy (in the onedrive structure) and Paste on the external drive. Sooner or later I am going to make a mistake, for example using Cut and Paste in error. I don't think any proprietary backup package will back up from onedrive. I can't have everything on onedrive permanently accessible locally - I don't have enough room.

[Ed-veof]

Great info presented very clearly. I'm curious what you think of services like Acronis that offer cloud to cloud backup for one's Microsoft 365 account (including OneDrive)?

[hassanmaje]

When backing up PC I'm unsure if Google Drive files and folders on the PC have been backed up as well after what you explain with OneDrive. Something weird is happening in Google Drive.

1. Under Google Drive Settings it indicates that files are on the cloud or in other words online but not mirrored to the PC.

2. Under Google Drive>My Drive I right click and under properties it shows the size of files and folders and all of them are occupying disk space on the PC.

3. All folders and files under My Drive in Windows Explorer show the empty cloud icons

4. Any file I opened under My Drive opens fast without downloading.

5. When right clicking any file or folder under My Drive it gives an option to keep this file or folder offline.

1, 3, and 5 above suggest that the files and folders are online without local copies.

2 and 4 above seem to suggest that the files and folders are local while on the cloud too.

There are no sync issues or error messages in the Google Drive icon running in the taskbar tray on the PC.

The above is quite contradictory, inconsistent and confusing.

[piggymalone]

What's your opinion re cloud-to-cloud backup for those of us that don't have a second computer?

[davinp]

New users may be confused why your files were moved from your PC's Documents folder to OneDrive's Documents folder

[richarsenault]

Leo, this tutorial answered my dellima of where and why I was always seeing downloading a particular file. I have been using your backup advise. Not really happy with this one drive.