What idiot ever possibly thought that this [OneDrive idiocy] was a
good idea?
Alan wrote:
I just now worked with a client to end his personal Microsoft account
he no longer has a need for one, as he now gets his Microsoft
subscription through his business.
In the course of ending his personal subscription, we set his personal
OneDrive to download and always keep on his device every file, with
the full intention that we would then unlink his personal OneDrive
account and be told that all his local files would remain on the device.
Two different OneDrive MSFT accounts with two separate subscriptions
should have been the original clue.
If crossing the same path in the future, ensure the personal one drive
folder is relocated to a folder external to the Desktop\OneDrive folder
- Unlink One Drive personal, Reopen/reconnect OneDrive and choose the option to set the path to the new location(e.g. In Documents or another
use created folder on the drive(or other internal drive if available)
On 2025-07-16 22:04, ...winston wrote:would remain on the device.
Alan wrote:
I just now worked with a client to end his personal Microsoft account he no longer has a need for one, as he now gets his Microsoft subscription through his business.
In the course of ending his personal subscription, we set his personal OneDrive to download and always keep on his device every file, with the full intention that we would then unlink his personal OneDrive account and be told that all his local files
Two different OneDrive MSFT accounts with two separate subscriptions should have been the original clue.
If crossing the same path in the future, ensure the personal one drive folder is relocated to a folder external to the Desktop\OneDrive folder
- Unlink One Drive personal, Reopen/reconnect OneDrive and choose the option to set the path to the new location(e.g. In Documents or another use created folder on the drive(or other internal drive if available)
The paths were NOT the same.
Try again.
Alan wrote:No. The error is that after unlinking a OneDrive account, the folder
On 2025-07-16 22:04, ...winston wrote:
Alan wrote:
I just now worked with a client to end his personal Microsoft
account he no longer has a need for one, as he now gets his
Microsoft subscription through his business.
In the course of ending his personal subscription, we set his
personal OneDrive to download and always keep on his device every
file, with the full intention that we would then unlink his personal
OneDrive account and be told that all his local files would remain
on the device.
Two different OneDrive MSFT accounts with two separate subscriptions
should have been the original clue.
If crossing the same path in the future, ensure the personal one
drive folder is relocated to a folder external to the
Desktop\OneDrive folder
- Unlink One Drive personal, Reopen/reconnect OneDrive and choose
the option to set the path to the new location(e.g. In Documents or
another use created folder on the drive(or other internal drive if
available)
The paths were NOT the same.
Try again.
The paths last folder would never be the same for two different
OneDrive's on the same device.
The error was not understanding or researching how OneDrive functions,
it's default(changeable) storage location, and not saving the first MSA OneDrive files to another location or copying them to a folder
independent of OneDrive.
On Thu, 7/17/2025 1:45 AM, Alan wrote:
On 2025-07-16 22:04, ...winston wrote:
Alan wrote:
I just now worked with a client to end his personal Microsoft
account he no longer has a need for one, as he now gets his
Microsoft subscription through his business.
In the course of ending his personal subscription, we set his
personal OneDrive to download and always keep on his device
every file, with the full intention that we would then unlink
his personal OneDrive account and be told that all his local
files would remain on the device.
Two different OneDrive MSFT accounts with two separate
subscriptions should have been the original clue.
If crossing the same path in the future, ensure the personal one
drive folder is relocated to a folder external to the
Desktop\OneDrive folder - Unlink One Drive personal, Reopen/
reconnect OneDrive and choose the option to set the path to the
new location(e.g. In Documents or another use created folder on
the drive(or other internal drive if available)
The paths were NOT the same.
Try again.
There is supposed to be a GPEDIT.msc policy for "preventing user
from using personal OneDrive".
All of that is beside the point.subscription to Microsoft 365.
This business is owned by the client, and he had had a personal OneDrive from before its formation, and all we were doing was making sure that data on his personal OneDrive as completely downloaded to his computer before ending his personal
What should have happened was that after we had ascertained that all files were on his computer ("Always keep on this device" applied to the entire hierarchy), and then unlinked the account (and been informed that local files would quite naturallyremain in his user folder...
...at that point the folder containing the contents of the unlinked personal OneDrive should just have been treated as an ordinary folder.
That didn't happen.
Any attempt to open that folder to view its contents resulted in A DIFFERENT FOLDER BEING OPENED OVER TOP OF IT.
That is just stupid.
On 7/16/2025 6:48 PM, Alan wrote:
I just now worked with a client to end his personal Microsoft account
he no longer has a need for one, as he now gets his Microsoft
subscription through his business.
In the course of ending his personal subscription, we set his personal
OneDrive to download and always keep on his device every file, with
the full intention that we would then unlink his personal OneDrive
account and be told that all his local files would remain on the device.
And while it is true that the local files did remain on his hard
drive, attempting to access them was made more difficult by an idiotic
choice that Microsoft made for him.
In his user folder, there are two OneDrive folders: one simply
called ”OneDrive”, and the other called ”OneDrive –<business
name>. Checking the properties of the folder called “OneDrive”, we
could see that his 11 GB of personal oneDrive files were in that
folder, however:
Whenever we attempted to open that folder to check the contents
against files in his new business-oriented OneDrive, Microsoft Windows
11 operating system made the completely unhelpful choice of opening a
new window to that business-oriented OneDrive; immediately hiding that
it had also opened the personal OneDrive folder we wanted to check.
This made it appear as if Microsoft had chosen to send you to the
active OneDrive, when in fact is it just opened another window that
the user hadn’t asked for!
What is more, when we finally realize what was going on, and set up
the two different folders side-by-side to examine their contents and
decide what needed to stay and what needed to go, every time we
drilled down into a folder to look at its contents and then moved back
up into the base, personal OneDrive folder, the operating system would
open yet another full-screen window to the active OneDrive over top of
the two we were trying to compare.
What idiot ever possibly thought that this was a good idea?
If you ever find out I'd like to strangle him. OneDrive on a machine
with 2 Microsoft accounts is a total FUBAR.
Onedrive is an abomination, even on a machine with only ONE Microsoft account.
So is google's version.
Just buy yourself a hard drive to do it yourself.
On 2025-07-17 15:50, Hank Rogers wrote:
Tom Elam wrote on 7/17/2025 4:31 PM:
On 7/16/2025 6:48 PM, Alan wrote:
I just now worked with a client to end his personal Microsoft
account he no longer has a need for one, as he now gets his
Microsoft subscription through his business.
In the course of ending his personal subscription, we set his
personal OneDrive to download and always keep on his device every
file, with the full intention that we would then unlink his personal
OneDrive account and be told that all his local files would remain
on the device.
And while it is true that the local files did remain on his hard
drive, attempting to access them was made more difficult by an
idiotic choice that Microsoft made for him.
In his user folder, there are two OneDrive folders: one simply
called â€OneDriveâ€, and the other called â€OneDrive
–<business name>. Checking the properties of the folder
called “OneDriveâ€, we could see that his 11 GB of
personal oneDrive files were in that folder, however:
Whenever we attempted to open that folder to check the contents
against files in his new business-oriented OneDrive, Microsoft
Windows 11 operating system made the completely unhelpful choice of
opening a new window to that business-oriented OneDrive; immediately
hiding that it had also opened the personal OneDrive folder we
wanted to check.
This made it appear as if Microsoft had chosen to send you to the
active OneDrive, when in fact is it just opened another window that
the user hadn’t asked for!
What is more, when we finally realize what was going on, and set up
the two different folders side-by-side to examine their contents and
decide what needed to stay and what needed to go, every time we
drilled down into a folder to look at its contents and then moved
back up into the base, personal OneDrive folder, the operating
system would open yet another full-screen window to the active
OneDrive over top of the two we were trying to compare.
What idiot ever possibly thought that this was a good idea?
If you ever find out I'd like to strangle him. OneDrive on a machine
with 2 Microsoft accounts is a total FUBAR.
Onedrive is an abomination, even on a machine with only ONE Microsoft
account. So is google's version. Just buy yourself a hard drive to
do it yourself.
There are lots of legitimate reasons to use OneDrive, the software, even
if you don't want OneDrive, the personal cloud storage resource.
OneDrive, the software is not only to synch with OneDrive, the personal
cloud storage service. It's also able to synchronize with SharePoint
sites, which allows for collaboration across an organization.
Yes: I COULD just use the web version of SharePoint access--and for some things I do, I DO use that, but having local copies of the files--being
able to quickly search their contents using the Mac's Spotlight
technology makes my work go much better.
Tom Elam wrote on 7/17/2025 4:31 PM:
On 7/16/2025 6:48 PM, Alan wrote:
I just now worked with a client to end his personal Microsoft account
he no longer has a need for one, as he now gets his Microsoft
subscription through his business.
In the course of ending his personal subscription, we set his
personal OneDrive to download and always keep on his device every
file, with the full intention that we would then unlink his personal
OneDrive account and be told that all his local files would remain on
the device.
And while it is true that the local files did remain on his hard
drive, attempting to access them was made more difficult by an
idiotic choice that Microsoft made for him.
In his user folder, there are two OneDrive folders: one simply called
â€OneDriveâ€, and the other called â€OneDrive –<business name>.
Checking the properties of the folder called “OneDriveâ€, we could
see that his 11 GB of personal oneDrive files were in that folder,
however:
Whenever we attempted to open that folder to check the contents
against files in his new business-oriented OneDrive, Microsoft
Windows 11 operating system made the completely unhelpful choice of
opening a new window to that business-oriented OneDrive; immediately
hiding that it had also opened the personal OneDrive folder we wanted
to check.
This made it appear as if Microsoft had chosen to send you to the
active OneDrive, when in fact is it just opened another window that
the user hadn’t asked for!
What is more, when we finally realize what was going on, and set up
the two different folders side-by-side to examine their contents and
decide what needed to stay and what needed to go, every time we
drilled down into a folder to look at its contents and then moved
back up into the base, personal OneDrive folder, the operating system
would open yet another full-screen window to the active OneDrive over
top of the two we were trying to compare.
What idiot ever possibly thought that this was a good idea?
If you ever find out I'd like to strangle him. OneDrive on a machine
with 2 Microsoft accounts is a total FUBAR.
Onedrive is an abomination, even on a machine with only ONE Microsoft account. So is google's version. Just buy yourself a hard drive to do
it yourself.
Onedrive is an abomination, even on a machine with only ONE Microsoft account. So is google's version. Just buy yourself a hard drive to do
it yourself.
Onedrive is an abomination, even on a machine with only ONE Microsoft account. So is google's version. Just buy yourself a hard drive to do
it yourself.
On Thu, 17 Jul 2025 17:50:11 -0500, Hank Rogers wrote:
Onedrive is an abomination, even on a machine with only ONE Microsoft
account. So is google's version. Just buy yourself a hard drive to do
it yourself.
What would I need to access that hdd safely from outside my home
network? Or other users to access data I want to share with them?
On Thu, 17 Jul 2025 17:50:11 -0500, Hank Rogers wrote:
Onedrive is an abomination, even on a machine with only ONE Microsoft account. So is google's version. Just buy yourself a hard drive to do
it yourself.
What would I need to access that hdd safely from outside my home
network? Or other users to access data I want to share with them?
"Alan" wrote in message news:105b87f$1es5i$[email protected]...
The paths were NOT the same.
The paths last folder would never be the same for two different
OneDrive's on the same device.
The error was not understanding or researching how OneDrive
functions, it's default(changeable) storage location, and not saving
the first MSA OneDrive files to another location or copying them to a
folder independent of OneDrive.
No. The error is that after unlinking a OneDrive account, the folder
with its files should then be treated as an ordinary folder, and it is
NOT.
That makes my point about *not* understanding OneDrive's account folders.
On Thu, 17 Jul 2025 17:50:11 -0500, Hank Rogers wrote:
Onedrive is an abomination, even on a machine with only ONE Microsoft
account. So is google's version. Just buy yourself a hard drive to do
it yourself.
What would I need to access that hdd safely from outside my home
network? Or other users to access data I want to share with them?
What would I need to access that hdd safely from outside my home
network? Or other users to access data I want to share with them?
On Fri, 18 Jul 2025 19:52:24 +0200, s|b wrote:
What would I need to access that hdd safely from outside my home
network? Or other users to access data I want to share with them?
Still waiting for Hank though...
I'm not Hank, but see my comments on NAS devices acting like a
personal cloud. There's Windows software which can turn your Windows
system to (also) act as a personal cloud. (As I said, *I* would never
use a personal cloud, but the functionality *does* exist.)
On 20 Jul 2025 15:32:54 GMT, Frank Slootweg wrote:
I'm not Hank, but see my comments on NAS devices acting like a
personal cloud. There's Windows software which can turn your Windows
system to (also) act as a personal cloud. (As I said, *I* would never
use a personal cloud, but the functionality *does* exist.)
Hank spits on OneDrive and Google Drive, stating 'use a hard drive', so
I'd like /him/ to explain how to do this in a safe way and maybe
elaborate on how this is the better choice. I'm always eager to learn.
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