OneDrive Syncing with Local Documents/Pictures/Videos/Etc Folders

Hello all,

I've been searching for the last couple of weeks and haven't exactly found what I am looking for--I may need a third party app, but we shall see. I have two computers--a desktop and a laptop, both running Windows 10 Pro. My desktop's storage is basically bottomless, but my laptop's storage is much more limited (256 GB). I'm looking for a syncing solution that will mirror selected folders and files with my desktop's local Documents/Pictures/Videos/etc. folders into those on my laptop. When Windows Live Mesh was around, I used that utility to do exactly what I wanted (why did you eliminate it Microsoft?!?). Now that I have an Office 365 subscription, I'm hoping to mirror all of my desktop's Documents/Pictures/Videos/etc. folders to OneDrive, as well as selectively mirror certain folders down to my laptop. From what I gathered so far, files synced from OneDrive wind up in my C:\users\<username>\OneDrive\ folder--not exactly what I want. I've also found posts on creating directory junctions to folders in the OneDrive folder, but I haven't seen any that create a junction at the topmost special Users folder (Documents/Pictures/Videos/etc.)

Any thoughts on what I want to do? Does that make any sense at all? The exciting thing is that once I figure out my solution, I need to figure out how to apply it to my wife's setup--which is the same, except for her desktop is running Mac OS X (but she has a Windows laptop).

Thanks for any advice you have,

-Dan

Hello and welcome to the TenForums!

You can indeed use OneDrive as a cloud storage location and you can select whether or not you want your files mirrored on the PC or laptop.

Here is what I would do:

1. Have your W10 storage options set up so that the locations are all to your OneDrive: see https://www.tenforums.com/tutorials/3...dows-10-a.html

2. Choose which folders you want to sync onto the desktop or laptop or leave as cloud storage: see https://www.tenforums.com/tutorials/3...dows-10-a.html

If you look in the Tutorial index there are a number of other OneDrive tutorials you will find to be helpful.

Thanks Phil for your recommendation. I've actually been going through a lot of the tutorials to figure out the most ideal way of setting things up. Do you know what the difference is between the "Auto Save to OneDrive" option is in OneDrive settings and manually changing the location of Documents/Pictures/etc in the Shell Folder properties dialog? I'm assuming that with just the Auto Save option, my local Documents and Pictures folder is just going to stick around? I'm looking for an option to make the setup as foolproof as possible, especially for my wife's computers--so having files in two places may not be ideal.