How to use OneDrive without logging on 10 with MS Account

gregrocker said:

I move my User folders into the OneDrive folder on each of my PC's. When I started doing this it was considered buggy and a bit risky, but it has remained stable over years now so I really don't want to change it unless there is a better way to do it. The security of having a hard copy of each User folder file in the actual folders is all for me. Not to mention I can pull up a file I leave on my desktop from anywhere in the world, even in the yard or on a plane. I'm a jetage gypsie

But please keep the discussion going which is how we get to change. And the changes in 10 already look for the better.

Greg, not quite sure you're understanding the concept because I used to think the same way. Then I had syncing problems with OneDrive between my phone and PC early on in 8.1. Then it finally sunk in.

Any data that it takes to make up a file (all the zeros and ones), whether they be in the OneDrive folder or other folders within the OneDrive folder is/are not on your HD. It is on the OneDrive server platter. Therefore, one does not have a hard copy on their HD in the OneDrive folder. All that's there is a cache file with a link in icon form we've always known and acts like a hard copy file link if left clicked for menu. It also contains the properties.

One can move or copy a file from OneDrive folder to anywhere else on your HD, whether interior or exterior to get a hard copy, which all that data (all the zeros and ones) would be downloaded to that place on the HD. When one opens a file within the OneDrive folder all the data is downloaded to Memory or disk to view and/or edit.

Therefore, rather a good idea to place user folders there, you do not have a copy of any of those folders you store on OneDrive. I would think you advanced enough to know to back up files periodically on a exterior drive to have a hard copy, which is a good idea. Reading OneDrive instruction suggests backing up. I'm quite sure MS backs their servers/copies up.

gregrocker said:

I would not move User Profiles to avoid AppData and other issues, just the active User Folders - Change Default Location.

Of course moving the whole main profile folder Users to another location only works when moved to a local drive, not to cloud. That being said, let's make the records straight:

Users folder located on another drive, completely with all profiles and their AppData folders is a risk free totally working reversible method to save space on C:. I've done it on every physical or virtual installation of Windows since Vista and never had any issues with that.

Having Ten now on three physical and two virtual machines, the first I did with each of them was to relocate the Users folder to D: (virtual machines) or E: (physical machines), as told in this tutorial: https://www.tenforums.com/tutorials/1...dows-10-a.html

Kari

HippsieGypsie said:

Any data that it takes to make up a file (all the zeros and ones), whether they be in the OneDrive folder or other folders within the OneDrive folder is/are not on your HD. It is on the OneDrive server platter. Therefore, one does not have a hard copy on their HD in the OneDrive folder. All that's there is a cache file with link in icon form we've always known and acts like a hard copy file link if left clicked for menu. It also contains the properties.

I'm a little confused by this?
Just to make clear, this is for my understanding, i'm not continuing the conversion between you and Greg.

I thought it does keep a hard copy on your local disk but also syncs it with OneDrive.


Take for example...

I have 1gb worth of pictures in c:\users\%username%\pictures
I copy it to c:\users\%username%\OneDrive

Based on the quote above, this should not use up any more hard disk space as the data isn't hosted locally

However it does take up an additional 1gb which implies the ones and zeros are local?

Cheers,
Jamie

JDobbsy1987 said:

I thought it does keep a hard copy on your local disk but also syncs it with OneDrive.

The key is if the user has offline files turned on or off. See tutorial at Eight Forums: OneDrive - Available Offline or Online in Windows 8.1.

I have offline files enabled, here's the properties of one of my OneDrives, 18 GB stored locally:

I can move the OneDrive folder wherever I want in my local computer:

HippsieGypsie said:

I'll have to check to see if I can enable the feature on my Lumia.

Lumia (Windows Phone) is not using offline files. You can access all files on all of your OneDrives but nothing is stored on phone if you do not download it. This of course is as it should be, no use to use local storage on phone if not needed.

Funny detail: My both Lumia phones still show "SkyDrive" for private OneDrives and only use the new name OneDrive for those from Office 365 Business.

Yesterday after discovering I cannot use the OneDrive Desktop app in Windows 10, I signed into my MS Account to use built-in OneDrive. This is my first experience with the built-in app.

I moved the User folders from C:/Users/Greg to E:/Onedrive which also serves my Windows 7 partition the same way using the OneDrive desktop app. This populated my User folders in 10 for the first time.

It wasn't until today I learned from Kari that in Windows 10 I must enable Offline Files to have an actual hard copy on the PC. Yet the E:/OneDrive folder still remained 40gb in size and isn't virtual as best I can tell.

So I enable Offline files for all folders and while the size of OneDrive folder remains the same 40gb, the OneDrive app as of now says only 26% are Downloaded - what's up with that?

Is the reason why Windows 10 OneDrive didn't virtualize that OneDrive folder is because Windows 7 had already left a hard copy in the OneDrive folder by default?