[SOLVED] Stop Onedrive from restoring a folder?

[nlinecomputers]

Yeah but that creates a unique folder per PC does it not? You have to do it from within the OneDrive app. It you just point all your desktops from all of your PCs to the same SINGLE folder you'll get the results seen here.

 

[YeOldeStonecat]

You have to do it from within the OneDrive app. It you just point all your desktops from all of your PCs to the same SINGLE folder you'll get the results seen here.

Correct..which is what I was saying above..." If you go into Settings, there is a new 5th tab called "Backup". In here, you can turn on the syncing of these libraries (user system folders)....Desktop, Docs, and Pics. Do this on 2 or more computers...and you basically have "Folder redirection" driven by OneDrive. Now...if the OP (or end user) was intentionally moving system folders into OneDrive (like manually relocated the Desktop folder)...I guess this broke it. But if you use the Backup tab in OneDrive to do this properly...it works perfection fine, as intended. "

 

[Sky-Knight]

Yeah but that creates a unique folder per PC does it not? You have to do it from within the OneDrive app. It you just point all your desktops from all of your PCs to the same SINGLE folder you'll get the results seen here.

Oh goodness yes, you can't sync any user profile folder into a place multiple other people are syncing to... that will detonate everything. Heck, you can't even use DFS replication with profile folders for the same reason. One sync per folder... that's IT, if you do more bad things will happen. Even the OneDrive backup operates assuming the user is only actually using one platform at a time!

 

[mraikes]

Oh goodness yes, you can't sync any user profile folder into a place multiple other people are syncing to... that will detonate everything. Heck, you can't even use DFS replication with profile folders for the same reason. One sync per folder... that's IT, if you do more bad things will happen. Even the OneDrive backup operates assuming the user is only actually using one platform at a time!

See, I think this is exactly where the problem lies in this case. This particular user has more than one system logged in at the same time under the same MS account.

 

[Sky-Knight]

@mraikes, if that's the case you can't do anything. There is no such thing as a replication system that will tolerate changes coming in from multiple vectors. At least not for folders as busy as user profile folders. You can "share" a data folder that way, but even that has problems sometimes.

But yeah you can't do that with desktop, documents, etc. And if your users start working out of the "share" as if it was a profile folder, the same issue appears.

 

[YeOldeStonecat]

I have been using OneDrive to sync my multiple computers for several years. Heck even back when it was Microsoft SkyDrive.
I typically sync across 3x computers.
Add a file or folder here, and it shows up on the other 2 computers.
Delete a file or folder here, and it gets removed from the other 2 computers.

Including desktop, docs, pics...which have added to OD as a new feature under the Backup tab.
Since that feature was added, I have many clients also using it in the same manner.

 

[Sky-Knight]

@YeOldeStonecat Yes, but you aren't using all three of them at the same time!

Open two of them up, and modify the same file and near the same time... you'll find yourself in voodoo land very quickly.

 

[YeOldeStonecat]

I've pushed it close...had laptop next to desktop at the office flipping lots of files and folders around at the same time. Obviously modifying one file, at exactly the same time, saving at the same exact millisecond, using the old fashioned approach won't work, but if you want to concurrently work on files you'd use the Teams app for that since it supports multiple users concurrently working on the same file at the same time. (live co-authoring) And I don't have 4x arms/hands to work/save on a file on 2x different computers at the same exact millisecond...not sure who can replicate that.

 

[Sky-Knight]

@YeOldeStonecat, idiot cheap SMB owners that want everyone to work off the same account so they don't have to pay for more. I assumed that's what started this whole mess.