Windows 10: How do I fix a mess I created with OneDrive, iDrive and Documents/Desktop folders

So I thought I was helping a friend with his PC. There is a sorted history which explains why I did what I did, suffice it to say I did not accomplish what I set out to do. Rather than delve into the history lets look at what currently exists on the PC and hopefully there is a good solution to this.


I set up the computer to backup the Documents, Desktop, Pictures, Videos folders on OneDrive. I "thought" to do this all I needed to do was move the directories out of the user directory into the OneDrive directory. I did this with a drag-n-drop Move command. I discover the Settings method of doing this AFTER I actually did a move on the directories. This all appeared to work....at first. In addition to this, the PC has a subscription to iDrive to backup everything. I set up iDrive to do backups also.


Needless to say all of this failed spectacularly. I found iDrive was failing because the "files" in Documents/Desktop/ .....etc. are not files at all but links because the files are all kept up in the cloud but because they are in the cloud iDrive cannot back them up. So I went into the OneDrive settings and told it to keep all of the files local as well as in the cloud. OneDrive proceeded to do this with the exception that it never reconciled itself completely. I say this because there are flies on the computer that have a X on the file icon. The application cannot open the file because it is "not there". Now, if I go up and use a web browser and from there log into the OneDrive account in the cloud, locate the file up in the cloud, I can open the file up. Not only that. When I open the file in the cloud, now the file can be opened on the local directory because it has been downloaded and now actually exists.


I suspected that my moving the Document folder phyically into the OneDrive folder may have caused the issue so I did a move back to put the Documents folder under the user folder, where it normally should be. About half of the files actually moved. The files that moved were all of the files/folders that have a X on the icon. The files and folders that did not move are all of the files that locally existed and were not a link. So what I have now looks like this:


OneDrive in the cloud using Web Browser


Documents

Folder A

foo.bar

foo2.bar

foo3.bar

foo4.bar


On the PC at location \users\username\OneDrive\Documents

Documents

Folder A

foo.bar

foo1.bar


On the PC at location \users\username\Documents

Documents

Folder A

foo3.bar Has X on system icon and will not open

foo4.bar Has X on system icon and will not open


Now....if I go to the web and just double click foo3.bar it will open in the web browser AND the file will download to the

PC at location \users\username\OneDrive\Documents and I can now open it up on the desktop.


I have about 20,000 files that exist up in the cloud but don't show in the OneDrive\Documents folder but are seen in the \username\Documents folder

but I cannot open them up. I cannot possibly go through one by one and open them on the web to copy them down so I can fix this. Is there a procedure where I can have windows fix all of this and not lose any data?

:)

 

OneDrive app opening Documents folder

Long story short... When I click on my OneDrive app, it opens my Documents folder (folder in 'This PC').

This evening I changed the location of my Documents folder to within OneDrive, and then tried to return it which somehow ended up with 'OneDrive' replacing 'Documents' in the 'This PC' list... I used a .bat file to restore 'Documents to the correct place here, but there still appears to be an issue with Onedrive.

Does anyone have any ideas what I can do to fix this?

Thank you!

 

Merge Document Folders

Bob,

To remove any need for cross-referencing to that other thread I gave you a link to, here are the paras I was suggesting that you consider.

1 You can create a folder structure of your own on the HDD and just start using it. No grand schemes are required. No OS alterations are required.
- It is common to have the following folders but they can be named & arranged however you want: Documents, Music, Videos, Pictures.
- You will probably also want to create a Desktop folder [see #4 below].
- You can also divide Documents into subfolders for your main lines of effort and each of these can be further subdivided.
- Just by way of example & nothing more, my own Documents folder is divided into: Business, Personal, Common, Suppliers, InfoSys

2 You can augment that by opening each one of your applications and saving a test file to your Documents folder then opening a test file from that folder. Doing this makes most applications look there first in the future and that saves messing about browsing around the folders.

3 You can augment that by checking the Options / Preferences within each of you applications to see if a default folder can be nominated there as well.

4 You can augment that by 'relocating' the Desktop user folder [that has been created by Windows] to your HDD.
- This is by default in C:\Users\[YourUserName]\Desktop but the system can be told to use the folder you have created on your HDD instead.
- The TenForumsTutorial listed above can walk you through the whole procedure.

5 You can augment that by 'relocating' other user folders [that have been created by Windows] such as the Documents, Music, Videos, Pictures to your HDD.
- These are by default in C:\Users\[YourUserName]\Documents etc but the system can be told to use the folders you have created on your HDD instead.
- The TenForumsTutorials listed above can walk you through the whole procedure for each one.
- Not everybody bothers with this step and some think that it conveys no benefit. I have done each of them.

Denis

 

Why I have TWO Documents folders?

ok so lemme start off my saying i recently wiped my system and installed windows 10
and i noticed even more recently that i seem to have TWO documents folders...
i have one that has nothing that it should in it and the other somehow is linked to Onedrive...
the onedrive linked one has everything that the non onedrive should. (game saves, etc)
my question is...why? is this normal cause i can't imagine it is...
i don't think steam game save cloud will work with onedrive so i need to know, is this fixable WITHOUT another wipe? i have no idea how my onedrive got synced with my documents folder. i didn't set it up that way. any help is appreciated!
thanks!