Comment by snielson
2 days ago
I love OneDrive. I don't know why everyone hates it. I save things in OneDrive, and they are backed up to the cloud and synced with the other computers I use.
Some computers are shared by six family members, each with their own MS account and 1TB of storage. OneDrive makes it so the computers can have a 1TB hard drive but still give everyone ready access to their files by not storing them all on the hard drive.
If I don't want something synced to Onedrive then I usually save it in my downloads folder or another separate folder I create outside Onedrive. I've never had any problems.
The comments by people who hate make me wonder why my experience is so different than theirs.
I agree here, but...
If I don't want something synced to Onedrive then I usually save it in my downloads folder or another separate folder
My complaint is that MS has intentionally made it SO DIFFICULT to do that. There's a significant amount of extra clicking and thinking necessary to go through the steps to do it.
There is? Not at all. Whatever I save from my browser (Edge/Firefox/Chromium) is automatically saved to Downloads and Downloads is not automatically synced with OneDrive Backup. Backed up is Documents, Music, Videos, Desktop etc. but Downloads not AFAIK.
That's true. I wasn't clear - I was thinking mainly of the Office products: Word, Excel, etc. They've got a whole different Save As dialog that go out of their way to funnel you into OneDrive. So it's interrupting my flow precisely in the course of things I need to use brainpower on themselves.
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The windows Explorer and the save dialog make it pretty easy to save a file somewhere else. Also, there is just one folder which syncs with OneDrive but some many more which don’t sync with OneDrive.
MS actually made it harder to save stuff in OneDrive by basically hardcoding the folders it will backup unlike most other similar services that let you sync arbitrary folders on any drive.
I haven't had too many issues with it that I couldn't resolve myself, but I understood what it was and what it was doing on my system. I opted in. I wonder if most of the people who don't like OneDrive didn't know it was enabled.
> OneDrive makes it so the computers can have a 1TB hard drive
No, it's a 1TB storage account accessible via the Internet, and wholly dependent on a good Internet connection, especially if you actually use most of that 1TB. Non-tech people will take misrepresentations like this at face value, which further makes tech a disempowering force.
The "Files-On-Demand" feature of OneDrive makes it possible for everyone in the family to login into any computer with OneDrive and quickly access all their files (I have 500/500 fiber). Because some/most of the files are stored on the cloud and only downloaded when they are accessed, the hard drive of the computer can be smaller (1TB) than the total sum of all the files stored by all the users (6TB). It's very nice. I can also turn off Files-on-Demand and everything will be stored locally on my computer. It sounds like many people are bothered that Files-on-Demand is enabled by default.
That's because you're using it.
The problem comes when people who don't want to use it are tricked,.manipulated, fooled and dark patterned into using it against their understanding.
The two main frustrations that I've seen encountered are:
1) Microsoft aggressively attempting to convince you to use OneDrive, no matter how many times you turn it off.
I've had a Dropbox subscription since before OneDrive became a common name, and it works for me, so I have no real use case for OneDrive. That doesn't stop Microsoft forcibly "helpfully" re-enabling the OneDrive app and embedded link in the quick access bar regularly...which leads to
2) Microsoft attempting to sync your user profile in OneDrive, and bugs that arise from how it implements that.
I've never enabled this, so I haven't dug into how it works, but the first time I ever encountered OneDrive discussion in tech or adjacent circles was people complaining about OneDrive syncing of user profile folders breaking some games.
I assume it's something like the comedy of errors that could come out of folder redirection and software not expecting multiple people touching it at once, or the comedy of conflict resolution on a filesystem layer that isn't expecting that for semantics, but I have heard more complaints about OneDrive in this context than I've heard anything else about it.
So I suspect that it works fine, if you use it as a Dropbox-alike.
Using it as a Folder Redirection/Roaming Profiles replacement, or trying to say "no" to Microsoft, is where the problems ensue.
The problem isn't using OneDrive. The problem is not using it. If you try to not use it, the dark patterns the article references appear.
My wife got into trouble whilst unknowingly using OneDrive. She had a lot of photos on her laptop and they were being uploaded to OneDrive until it hit a limit (1TB?) and then started nagging her to upgrade to more storage. I had to disable OneDrive and move the photos back to her computer to resolve it.
Wholeheartedly agreed. Also the OneDrive Backup feature is great - previously people had to rely on other services (Box, Dropbox) and remember to save stuff into those folders. Now your most important Documents folder is saved in the cloud. Great. Backup! I don't think that OneDrive pestering you about buying more storage after using up your free storage is a bad thing, somebody needs to pay for stuff.
I understand the point, that everything is a bit convoluted and badly explained and may even lead to bad stuff happening. When you disable OneDrive Backup (good feature) and OneDrive deleting all your files locally with a little shortcut to OneDrive in the Cloud with all your files? Yeah... that is bad practice, but an easy fix for MS. Besides that hickup I currently don't undestand what the fuss is about.
I prefer the Dropbox solution, and tend to configure OneDrive, Google Drive, etc the same... I like to be explicit about it... I don't want all my general docs sync'd, for that matter, most of my projects are in a git repo anyway.
I know my Documents/Pictures directory isn't sync'd, I don't want it to be... to me my workspace is far different than what I want backed up to the cloud... I also have a local nas that is also setup for cloud sync for my service accounts. I emphatically do NOT want system default workspace directories sync'd.
None of this is new. They haven’t fixed it for years. At this point it’s not an oversight or mistake, but fully intentional behavior.
How does this work with multiple PC's? Does it just merge all files into the same Documents folder? What if apps are saving app data to these folders, and you have the same app on multiple computers?
All your multiple PCs have the same Documents folder. Files created on one PC are synced to the cloud and appear in all the other PCs' Documents folders, and will be downloaded to the local storage if you try to access them. You get a small icon next to each file or folder to try and tell you if the files are local or in the cloud or whatever status. If apps are saving data to synced folders (eg. all those many many games happily polluting my Documents folder), then that same data is available to the same app on different computers. Could be good, or bad if the apps are being used on different computers at the same time with no real way of determining which PCs changes win for which particular file.
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You are conveniently ignoring the crux of the matter - that onedrive was forced on people without their knowledge or consent.
I enjoy my car, but I would dislike if someone took it without my consent and signed me up for uber instead.
Considering I've had multiple family members and friends tricked into syncing to OneDrive without meaning to, I'd say that's a big reason. My Dad's old neighbor lost the ability to send and receive email after a Windows update did that to her, since it filled up her free Microsoft account and then Hotmail stopped working so she couldn't use email anymore and she had no idea why.
The problem is Microsoft shoving it down our throats and making saving to local FS as cumbersome as possible.
I wouldn't have minded Onedrive, in fact I would have used it a lot more, if it just showed up as an external mounted drive in Explorer where I could just paste files and folders I want shared or backed up. But nope, Microsoft in their infinite wisdom just have to sync up my entire home directory by default and have Office/365 only save docs and sheets to cloud by default. No thank you.
Agreed, I'd even be more inclined to use the Web versions, which are inherently tethered to OneDrive in Linux if the boundaries were better respected... I want an explicit spot backed up, maybe with the option to sync other directories. I don't want to be tricked or forced into it... or see a windows update change the configuration on me.
OneDrive on Windows with 6 users is probably fine.
Try adding Teams, Sharepoint and 9000 more people in the mix.
Oh and MS Office that will try to force it on you.
When I see comment saying that onedrive confusing, and that people are having problems with it, I always wonder if the "hacker" crowd is really the "hacker" type they want to portrait themselves, or just inexperienced computer users bitching on Microsoft for internet points.
OneDrive is an easy and well integrated cloud drive. The principle of having a cloud drive is not new anymore, and I believe people should get over the fact that, indeed, the files on the cloud drive is... In the cloud; colour me surprised!
You clearly understand what’s happening better than most people. As someone who came back to Windows recently after 15 years away, the lengths to which the UI goes to hide the actual location of files and prevent you from directly addressing the filesystem is incredible. Thankfully I don’t have to use Windows for anything important. I would never recommend it to anyone else. (Not that the alternatives are much better.)
What’s mainly wrong with OneDrive is that it doesn’t work how most people expect, it’s on by default, and it deletes files from your local PC without asking. No matter how nice it is if you understand what’s going on, those details are enough to make it hate-worthy IMO.
It's about consent and respect for the user. If you build something awesome, you don't have to shove it down peoples' throats.
When more people Google "How to disable xyz" than "How to enable xyz," that would be a strong hint to most of us, but it doesn't mean anything to Microsoft's developers. ("Hey, at least they're engaging with the product," they tell each other.)