Sync Any Folder to OneDrive in Windows 10  

Rin3105 said:

Yes, they do show up in OneDrive, but with the three lines symbol.

Ok. Good.

The glimmer marks (three little blue lines) seen next to a file or folder indicate that the file is new. This would indicate the file have successfully synced despite the source folder showing "Sync Pending".

What do the OneDrive icons mean? - OneDrive

You might check this below to see if it may help with the stuck "Sync Pending" on the source folder.

OneDrive is stuck on "Sync pending" - OneDrive

shawnadam said:

I am sure this has been asked and answered somewhere, but I do not find it. If for instance, I was to delete a file off my computer that I needed. Then if OneDrive is a backup, I would think that the file would be available on the OneDrive system. But the way I understand it, files deleted from OneDrive are not deleted from the computer, but those deleted from the computer are also deleted from OneDrive. That does not really make sense to me. Thanks for your time. -- Shawn

Hello Shawn, and welcome to Ten Forums.

Normally, deleting a file that is synced with your PC and OneDrive will delete the file from both locations no matter which location it was deleted from.

Deleting a folder on OneDrive that you used mklink to sync a folder on your PC to OneDrive will only break the link.

shawnadam said:

Thanks for the quick reply.

If I was to accidentally delete a file on my computer that was in a folder that I used mklink to link, would it also be gone from OneDrive? I assume that since I used mlink, then the file would be deleted from both locations on my computer, leaving the file gone from the computer and OneDrive. If so, then using OneDrive for backup is pointless, because a backup copy would not be available. In that case OneDrive is of more use for using files away from home or working with other users.

One further question, what happens in the case of a file being edited on the computer and on OneDrive? Would one overwrite the other, or would both be kept (maybe one being renamed)?

Thanks again for the help.

You can safely use OneDrive for backups, but not if you sync.

For backup purposes, it would be better to copy them to OneDrive instead of sync.

bkr009 said:

Hi Brink,

I came across your post some time ago and began using it as a basis to try and sync my files across multiple devices, retaining the original file/folder locations. It was super simple, using your guide, to sync to OneDrive from the original device. However, whenever trying to connect to another device, I ran into the problem of not really knowing what was the best way to get it connected with my sync'd items (already existing folders prevent symlink, original folders need to be deleted?, etc...).

When I reached out to Microsoft for assistance, they were either a broken record or are giving me conflicting information:

• Please move the files into documents, desktop, or pictures folder (this is the only way!) < - repeated constantly
• Symbolic links don't work
• Symbolic links only work 1 way
• And finally they said to vote on this topic. But this indicates that symbolic links do work for backup/sync and that people want an option to ignore symbolic links so OneDrive doesn't back up the files from there.

I'm trying to automate this process with the least bit of manual labor to set this up.
Could you help me out? What do I need to do?

Hello bkr009, and welcome to Ten Forums.

Please go into more details about what you are wanting to sync from another device to your OneDrive.

It is true that you cannot sync to folder that is already linked using mklink.

For example, you would want to use a different folder name in OneDrive to sync the source folder to.

If this is say for "Pictures", I would use subfolders inside the "Pictures" folder at the OneDrive location with each subfolder as the link to a separate source folder.

bkr009 said:

Thank you for the warm welcome Brink!

You know, I didn't even think about that! Instead of symlinking the higher level folder, symlinking the subfolders that definitely wouldn't be on the other devices. I could write something to recursively go through each folder to symlink the subfolders.

To get a better idea of what I'm doing:
I'm doing a favor for someone They're trying to move to a new laptop. But they have many issues:

• Time constraint - They don't have time for a lengthy standard process of backing up and restoring files
• They are actively using the old laptop as they use it for work, so any normal "back up" would have outdated or non updated files
• I'm not getting paid for this, so I'm not using other paid tools to get this done
• They use OneDrive through work, so that's why I'm looking for solutions via OneDrive
• I'm trying to automate this as I can foresee being asked to do this again and once again, time constraint.

What I'm trying to do is sync all their files and folders that are scattered across their user folders.

Let me know if you need any more information from me.

It would certainly be easier if they could save directly to OneDrive, and have it sync normally to the online OneDrive. This way they could just pick up where they left off on the new laptop.

If this is not possible, then yeah you could sync the individual locations to separate folders in OneDrive.