Using OneDrive without local copy for *some* folders


  1. Posts : 2
    Windows 10
       #1

    Using OneDrive without local copy for *some* folders


    Hope there is an easy answer!
    What I want to do:
    1) use OneDrive as an automatic backup in the normal way for My Documents, Desktop, etc
    2) store several TB of additional files *only* on OneDrive, never synching with my local OneDrive - ie, get OneDrive to just treat it as cloud-only, never trying to sync.

    Why? I have an external drive with several TB of videos but can't and would never want to store them locally on my PC. Ideally, I therefore have a local (external) copy and an offsite OneDrive copy. If I mount the external drive, I know I could use MLINK to create a junction to it on my local OneDrive. But then (a) I get nervous about OneDrive ever deciding to delete from the external drive if I mount it and (b) OneDrive thinks it has about 100K files to sync, meaning it takes forever for it to recognise the few changes to the OPC files I do want to keep syncing.

    Can this be done? thanks!
      My Computer


  2. Posts : 42,634
    Win 10 Pro (22H2) (2nd PC is 22H2)
       #2

    Perhaps this is the sort of thing you're thinking of- keep files/folders only in the cloud in your Onedrive account's online storage only:
    Mark OneDrive Files as Always keep on this device in Windows 10

    There is a whole set of tutorials on Onedrive- see also those listed below the main text.
      My Computers


  3. Posts : 2
    Windows 10
    Thread Starter
       #3

    dalchina said:
    Perhaps this is the sort of thing you're thinking of- keep files/folders only in the cloud in your Onedrive account's online storage only:
    Mark OneDrive Files as Always keep on this device in Windows 10

    There is a whole set of tutorials on Onedrive- see also those listed below the main text.
    Thanks -- but that would require me to first have them stored locally, *then* mark them as "online only" to remove them. I have nowhere near enough SSD space for that. And I'd prefer to not even see them anywhere but in the cloud (ie, not as "online files" on my local OneDrive.
    So *ideally* I just drag them from my external drive folder into the online version viewed through Edge and they never appear in the local OneDrive. Next best is that they do appear locally but only ever as links -- not files I then need to "delete" locally by marking them online only. But I can't see how in the online view of OneDrive I can set them to Online Only -- I can only see how to do that from Windows Explorer locally...
      My Computer


  4. Posts : 42,634
    Win 10 Pro (22H2) (2nd PC is 22H2)
       #4

    Why? I have an external drive with several TB of videos
    - have you considered how long it would take you to upload that amount of data? Perhaps you have superfast broadband...

    And you could, of course use a completely different cloud storage service for this, avoiding any of the complications of Onedrive..
      My Computers


 

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