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

Great info

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

Enjoyed the explanation of onedrive backup. By default ondrive links to the user profile on C drive. Do you have a video that explains how to link onedrive backup to an external D drive for example? Thanks for the video!

Watching all your previous explanations of how OneDrive works changed me from a OneDrive hater to really liking it. I didn't know about the download all files function so I right clicked on each folder in OneDrive and checked to "always keep on this device". Now I can right click on any folder and see that this function is checked and feel comfortable about where the file is. I use Macrium to back up my PC so I feel very safe that at least all my documents and pictures will survive just about any disaster that might strike. Thank you for all your videos on OneDrive and Macrium.

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

I also backup my files to an external drive

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.

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.

I hate One Drive!

I dont fancy applying onedrive storage in the system and the storage to me eventhough is free, but sometimes it can be fully full. This causes some program unable to download. As you sa Leo, i do agree with you, onedrive is not safe for long term.Thanks

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)?

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.

Thanks Leo for another great video. If what I hear is what I think - you have files backed up from pc1 to One drive and the One drive backed up to pc2. If that’s my understanding, then what method used to back up the one drive?

i use google free storage as well..surely both would not lose everything ?

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.

so files on demand doesnt take up space until its opned?

can you please elaborate on backing up your various cloud services to external hdd 24/7. is the drive encrypted? whats the layered sec on that backup pc?

I do not see that "always keep on this device" option a few files that I do not want to backup. I have a few files that are not synching I would like to remove them from being backed up.

Our experience losing data on OneDrive wasn't just due to malware; the platform's limitations, including synchronization issues and version history constraints, also played a role. That's why we switched to Zmanda because it offered broader backup coverage for our Microsoft applications. We learned the hard way that third-party backup solutions offer better protection against such risks. It's wise for others to explore third-party backup solutions for comprehensive data protection.

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 . 👍

Great info. Thanks

Como puedo hacer el respaldo de One Drive sin usar un PC adicional. solo quiero hacer un back up directo en un EXTERNAL hard drive. Many thnks !! your videos are very clear

Unfortunately this video confirmed that the problem I have has no solution. I want to move to using a laptop and was wondering if there was a way to backup roughly 500GB of files from onedrive onto an external drive if the Laptop only has 256GB.

I dont want to use a second machine to do so, its a shame there is no backup mechanism for this scenario.

It's not a backup tool. It's a file synching thing.

When I try backing up my computer to an external hard drive it automatically excludes the One Drive files. Is there any way around this?

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!

thanks

It seems to me that once OneDrive has been started then any files in the "native" documents folder stay there and do not appear under OneDrive. Any files I download (update files for example) are on this "native" drive.

This is exactly the answer I needed!

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!!

Help! Onedrive puts my files on OneDrive whether I want them there or not! I doing some graphic files I do not want in the cloud. My internet is sketchy and I don't want to work off of the cloud! And it saves somethings to the cloud that I have no idea where it went! I have to search dates to find my files! HELP
Surely there is a way to stop it!

Thank you!

Sorry, but if I back up my PC with my one drive file downloaded. When I restored from the PC backup. How to prevent onedrive from deleting file on PC? I mean will one drive delete my PC file because in the cloud, there is supposing no file at all.

I used some files on Onedrive and did not back up them. However one file had a problem: One drive kept saying "there is a more recent version on line, do you want to use that?" I said no for months, till one day I thought"maybe better to use that newer file .. I must have done something wrong" . The moment I said yes to the newer file it update my file and I lost all changes I had made last 4 months! But no worries ... One drive has a history of this file, or at least I thought so. However when I looked at the history there was my last file and then files from January and earlier but all the ones from february to april were missing. Gone was all my work...

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..

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