I mean, yes. It is cool until a timestamp error convinces OneDrive to nuke your entire use folder. IT at my organization actually bans the use of OneDrive for whole disk synchronization. We can’t get rid of it because it is just part of the Office and Outlook package, they depend on it for some dumb reason. But, enough people lost work valuable documents, and it consumes so much storage, that we were under a “how to disable OneDrive backup without losing your documents” campaign for several months. It is also an information leak target, that shit sends unencrypted telemetry and compromised our data security model.
Of course, but the problem is that it is a waste of time over something that shouldn’t happen in the first place. Our teams are often out in rural areas with spotty internet connections. If a bad sync can wipe their user folders, it takes a good connection to do the rollback with the ICT team hundreds of kilometers away. You can take a wrench out of the gearbox, but it doesn’t mean the gearbox isn’t fucked for a long while during repairs, and the wrench shouldn’t have been thrown in to begin with.
The worst part is that we have to keep working with the neutered OneDrive because MS is shit.
I’m not doubting that happened but i have no idea how one drive would nuke your folders. When there is a difference in time between local and cloud one drive forces you to manually choose which version of the file should stay. What’s Whole disk sync is that like sync the entire c drive why would someone do that?
I do not understand most of your points at all. They dont seem like real onedrive issues and instead come off as internal issues of configurations and bad process.
By default OneDrive comes configured to backup the entire user folder, it overrides the default user structure. It creates a labyrinth of shortcuts. This messes with other applications that expect a default user folder hierarchy, but sometimes it fails to resolve the correct links. You effectively end up with two user folders that coexist on the same symbolic links and are both present in your computer at the same time (different place on the harddrive but same place for the OS). This wouldn’t be a problem if OneDrive were only backing up the folders one way. Unfortunately, it is actually syncing the OneDrive and your folders bidirectionally, and this includes deleting files and folders.
Thus, if another program or another computer associated with your active directory user account messes with the folders at the same time, there exists the possibility that OneDrive confuses your empty user folder, with the virtual user folder. It believes the empty folder structure is the newest and most updated version. Because internally it only has time stamps but it doesn’t store metadata on the procedures. It sees, file existed at 01:33:12 and no longer exists at 01:33:13, it doesn’t know why it doesn’t exist anymore. Now it thinks this computer is outdated and it proceeds to sync, erasing all files without prompt.
Thats not how it works. One drive creates a one drive folder that sits in your directory. Your directory folder still has the documents/videos folders etc. Inside the newly created one drive folder is a documents/videos folders etc. Onedrive changes the system path to use these folders instead. If onedrive is offline the files can still be saved to the one drive folder. If a programming uses a hardcoded path for some reason then that path still exists because \user\documents still exists and \user\onedrive\documents exists.
Its actually quite simple and works well in my opinion.
I mean, yes. It is cool until a timestamp error convinces OneDrive to nuke your entire use folder. IT at my organization actually bans the use of OneDrive for whole disk synchronization. We can’t get rid of it because it is just part of the Office and Outlook package, they depend on it for some dumb reason. But, enough people lost work valuable documents, and it consumes so much storage, that we were under a “how to disable OneDrive backup without losing your documents” campaign for several months. It is also an information leak target, that shit sends unencrypted telemetry and compromised our data security model.
You can roll your onedrive back to a previous point in time in the event of a ransomware, technical issue or user mistake that causes issue.
https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/office/restore-your-onedrive-fa231298-759d-41cf-bcd0-25ac53eb8a15
OneDrive does not do full disk synchronization to my knowledge.
Of course, but the problem is that it is a waste of time over something that shouldn’t happen in the first place. Our teams are often out in rural areas with spotty internet connections. If a bad sync can wipe their user folders, it takes a good connection to do the rollback with the ICT team hundreds of kilometers away. You can take a wrench out of the gearbox, but it doesn’t mean the gearbox isn’t fucked for a long while during repairs, and the wrench shouldn’t have been thrown in to begin with.
The worst part is that we have to keep working with the neutered OneDrive because MS is shit.
I’m not doubting that happened but i have no idea how one drive would nuke your folders. When there is a difference in time between local and cloud one drive forces you to manually choose which version of the file should stay. What’s Whole disk sync is that like sync the entire c drive why would someone do that?
I do not understand most of your points at all. They dont seem like real onedrive issues and instead come off as internal issues of configurations and bad process.
By default OneDrive comes configured to backup the entire user folder, it overrides the default user structure. It creates a labyrinth of shortcuts. This messes with other applications that expect a default user folder hierarchy, but sometimes it fails to resolve the correct links. You effectively end up with two user folders that coexist on the same symbolic links and are both present in your computer at the same time (different place on the harddrive but same place for the OS). This wouldn’t be a problem if OneDrive were only backing up the folders one way. Unfortunately, it is actually syncing the OneDrive and your folders bidirectionally, and this includes deleting files and folders.
Thus, if another program or another computer associated with your active directory user account messes with the folders at the same time, there exists the possibility that OneDrive confuses your empty user folder, with the virtual user folder. It believes the empty folder structure is the newest and most updated version. Because internally it only has time stamps but it doesn’t store metadata on the procedures. It sees, file existed at 01:33:12 and no longer exists at 01:33:13, it doesn’t know why it doesn’t exist anymore. Now it thinks this computer is outdated and it proceeds to sync, erasing all files without prompt.
I’ve seen this happen at least three times.
Thats not how it works. One drive creates a one drive folder that sits in your directory. Your directory folder still has the documents/videos folders etc. Inside the newly created one drive folder is a documents/videos folders etc. Onedrive changes the system path to use these folders instead. If onedrive is offline the files can still be saved to the one drive folder. If a programming uses a hardcoded path for some reason then that path still exists because \user\documents still exists and \user\onedrive\documents exists.
Its actually quite simple and works well in my opinion.