Technology

Years ago Microsoft had its OneNote Notebooks as proper files, you could move and copy them and such. Now it’s nearly impossible to get your hands on a “tangible” file using this software.

During that transition- from usable to shit, I made the mistake of uploading my notebook, with all of my uears of course studies (college, professional certifications, etc) into onedrive. That way it could be backed up! A year later I moved my files again into a different system, moving away from OD. They were MY files after all.

What I didn’t know was that Microsoft had moved my Notebook somewhere else into their cloud, on my behalf, and changed my Notebook file to a shortcut/pointer object. There was no indication it was a shortcut as with other documents (the little arrow) on windows. It looked just exactly like the original file.

Well when I tried to open this “file” I got the rudest awakening: Microsoft couldn’t find the “linked” notebook. “What fucking linked notebook?” Apparently, when I moved my “file” (shortcut) out of overdrive, they saw that as a deletion and DELETED the now referenced file they helpfully moved for me.

All of this without ever a single notification; Microsoft deleted years of critical notes with no recourse for recovery. It was just gone.

Ass holes.

Linux welcomes all refugees

Happened to me at work where they force us to use Windows 11. I had turned on the autosave feature on a Word document I was working on. Little did I know this meant it stopped saving the changes locally and started saving them on a OneDrive copy. I then worked all day on that file.

The next day I notice the file on OD, find it odd that it is there so I delete it because I want nothing to do with OD. I then open the local word file and realize that none of the work I did the day prior was saved.

I figured out what happened and fortunately the file was still in the recycle bin. But fuck that whole system to begin with. It won't even let me use the autosave feature locally.

OneDrive is the most aggressively stupid and evil file sync service I've ever used. Constantly upselling, actively re-enabling terrible defaults to maximize storage and bandwidth used, terrible at sync resolution when used with multiple systems, and punitive data loss when you try to disable excessive backups.

It's one of the main reasons I stopped using Windows at home outside a VM.

I've never lost a single file on OneDrive. That's because I do not use OneDrive.

Eat shit, Microsoft.

They are so lucky microslop auto installs the Windows Backup app ..... oh wait .....

Happened to me, too. Now I just ignore OneDrive entirely. I don't think Microsoft understands what cloud storage is supposed to be used for. If I delete something from the cloud, I should still have it locally on my PC. The fact that this isn't the case means essentially, that OneDrive isn't actually a cloud service. They're trying to get you to pay a subscription fee to use your own hard drive. You know, the one you're already using for free. I wonder why that isn't taking off? 🤔

So let me get this straight. Microsoft is taking your local files, without their consent, onto their platform where they can delete them for "terms of use" violations, alongside tracking what you do on your own computer.

Sounds like they don't want you to use your computer in a way they don't want you to.

The problem is most users are unaware their files were being stored on the cloud in the first place. I had a friend who kept downloading mods on his computer only to have them not show up if he was offline. Turns out it was stored on their servers and not locally. All due to Microsoft making sure they stay as little transparent as possible and not warn users that their files are automatically being stored to onedrive.

We need heavy regulation against these sociopaths before it's too late. This is only going to get worse.

It's infuriating. They silently move all your files to their cloud and you don't notice. Then one day they tell you that you have filled your cloud quota and they want more money. Switching to local only is, by design, a huge pain that tends to go wrong.

Seeing all the horror stories in here makes me glad that I recoiled in horror the first time MS offered the idea of me putting my files on their computers instead of mine.

Poor design and shit software

I know why. Because they were using OneDrive.

dropbox and google drive have both erased data from me without copying it properly. these are not "backup" services they destroy your data

I have uninstalled One Drive and enabled a system policy that supposedly sets the default save location to c:\user\documents, and after every single fucking update it defaults back to one drive, hangs for 30 seconds until the stupid ass system realizes that there's no such thing present, and then it opens a "save as" dialogue with some arbitrary path in %user_apps/appdata/onedrive.

GNARF.

Switching to Mint turns out to be quite a decision. Missing none of the fun.

This only happens if you use Windows with an online account. Poor souls were probably forced to do this.

Why handle files? Let big bro Microsoft handle them for you.

It was a PITA to get my files to save locally and to stop auto saving to OneDrive

Windows is just malware designed to steal files and data from the people "stuck" using it.

On the other hand, a lot of people are learning how important a tested backup strategy is.

Its because they are using it.