Comments linked this TikTok video. Here are a few key points from the video, generated by artificial intelligence organic stupidity:

• If you aren’t careful, OneDrive will spontaneously delete all your computer files, without warning you in plain language beforehand. No confirmation, pop-up or anything.
• You’ll notice the bandwidth waste, then look up how to stop it, then as you turn OneDrive off everything in your computer is gone, deleted by Microsoft. Then you’re forced to redownload all your data back into your computer.
• When you eventually get your files back, and try to delete the OneDrive copies, the local copies also get deleted. The only way to avoid this is following detailed tutorials.
• The issue is that people are familiar with cloud backup, so they assume it’s what OneDrive is. But it isn’t; the copy within OneDrive is the primary version, and when you work on files in your local machine, it treats them as temporarily accessing those files.

Here’s my take. It’s based on the video, given I don’t use OneDrive (or Windows).

If you trust Google, Amazon, Facebook, Apple or Microsoft, then you’re a moron. I understand sometimes you need to use their services and/or software, in this case Windows, but be aware you can’t trust your own machine if your OS is Windows.

As such, backups are essential. And by backups I mean offline copies, under your complete control. “The cloud” is just someone else’s computer, dammit, once they deny you access the copy is gone.

Odds are Microsoft will never fix this OneDrive mess. It doesn’t look poorly designed; it looks perfectly designed, in a way that is hostile towards the user. I think Microsoft’s idea is to force users to incorrectly believe they need a paid OneDrive subscription, because otherwise they won’t be able to store their files. Rain falls down, fire is hot, and your files are in OneDrive, simple uh.

It’ll likely get worse over time as they refine the design further. Odds are they’re doing everything possible while barely avoiding OD to be classified as plain ransomware.

Some users here are talking about revkas PEBKAC (problem exists between keyboard and chair = problem is the user). Personally I wouldn’t say so; users should not be blamed for not being tech-savvy, when the software is made by hostile clowns actively trying to mislead them.

Likely pebcak