Windows 10: How to use OneDrive without logging on 10 with MS Account?

Now you completely lost me. I am totally willing to believe and accept it is my fault due English not being my native language thus causing me to misunderstand something but if I got that correctly, that's precisely the reason why OneDrive as mapped network drive is so perfect solution: nothing is stored locally, no hard copies on your disk. Everything is and remains on OneDrive and is only worked with on local computer.

Exactly!

 

Kari, can you not imagine that some Users are wary of not having hard copies of their files on their PC?

I am able to persuade many consumers to try the cloud only if they're assured they will still have a hard copy always on the hard drive. Anything less sounds like they are risking their files to a cloud.

For example: accidental deletions. That the deleted files are in every sync'd device's recycle bin is the reassurance that clinches many for trying the cloud. Using offline files would rely entirely on the OneDrive Recycle bin which is not enough for the multiple redundancy many want for sending their preciious files into the sky.

 

No Greg, I can understand that. As I mentioned, I might have understood you wrong:

When I read the above I understood it to mean you have never been one for offline files (=files stored locally, hard copies) and that's why you like OneDrive app, to keep your files online not having them stored locally.

 

You can store a hard copy on your hard drive anywhere but in the OneDrive folder.

 

I move my User folders into the OneDrive folder on each of my PC's. When I started doing this it was considered buggy and a bit risky, but it has remained stable over years now so I really don't want to change it unless there is a better way to do it. The security of having a hard copy of each User folder file in the actual folders is all for me. Not to mention I can pull up a file I leave on my desktop from anywhere in the world, even in the yard or on a plane. I'm a jetage gypsie *Cool

But please keep the discussion going which is how we get to change. And the changes in 10 already look for the better.

 

Hi Greg, i like the idea of this (never actually done it) does it not cause issues with big files such as downloading a 1gb ISO to the desktop, does it not try to upload it to onedrive?

Would that not also copy all appdata etc over too, does this not cause issues with programs on other machines?

I'm not questioning the method, I'm curious how it is handled in this instance that's all.

Regards,
Jamie

 

Hi Jamie *Smile

If I don't want a large file to go to OneDrive, I put it in the C root or somewhere where it won't be sync'd.

I would not move User Profiles to avoid AppData and other issues, just the active User Folders - Change Default Location.

 

I see, I misunderstood the users folder bit. I might have a play with that in the near future, looks like a good concept.

Cheers,
Jamie

 

Greg, not quite sure you're understanding the concept because I used to think the same way. Then I had syncing problems with OneDrive between my phone and PC early on in 8.1. Then it finally sunk in.

Any data that it takes to make up a file (all the zeros and ones), whether they be in the OneDrive folder or other folders within the OneDrive folder is/are not on your HD. It is on the OneDrive server platter. Therefore, one does not have a hard copy on their HD in the OneDrive folder. All that's there is a cache file with a link in icon form we've always known and acts like a hard copy file link if left clicked for menu. It also contains the properties.

One can move or copy a file from OneDrive folder to anywhere else on your HD, whether interior or exterior to get a hard copy, which all that data (all the zeros and ones) would be downloaded to that place on the HD. When one opens a file within the OneDrive folder all the data is downloaded to Memory or disk to view and/or edit.

Therefore, rather a good idea to place user folders there, you do not have a copy of any of those folders you store on OneDrive. I would think you advanced enough to know to back up files periodically on a exterior drive to have a hard copy, which is a good idea. Reading OneDrive instruction suggests backing up. I'm quite sure MS backs their servers/copies up.

 

Of course moving the whole main profile folder Users to another location only works when moved to a local drive, not to cloud. That being said, let's make the records straight:

Users folder located on another drive, completely with all profiles and their AppData folders is a risk free totally working reversible method to save space on C:. I've done it on every physical or virtual installation of Windows since Vista and never had any issues with that.

Having Ten now on three physical and two virtual machines, the first I did with each of them was to relocate the Users folder to D: (virtual machines) or E: (physical machines), as told in this tutorial: https://www.tenforums.com/tutorials/1...dows-10-a.html

 

I'm a little confused by this?
Just to make clear, this is for my understanding, i'm not continuing the conversion between you and Greg.

I thought it does keep a hard copy on your local disk but also syncs it with OneDrive.


Take for example...

I have 1gb worth of pictures in c:\users\%username%\pictures
I copy it to c:\users\%username%\OneDrive

Based on the quote above, this should not use up any more hard disk space as the data isn't hosted locally

However it does take up an additional 1gb which implies the ones and zeros are local?

Cheers,
Jamie

 

The key is if the user has offline files turned on or off. See tutorial at Eight Forums: OneDrive - Available Offline or Online in Windows 8.1.

I have offline files enabled, here's the properties of one of my OneDrives, 18 GB stored locally:




I can move the OneDrive folder wherever I want in my local computer:

 

That makes sense, thank you for clearing that up *Thumbs

I haven't done a lot with Windows 8/10 OneDrive sync.
I did use it on Win 7 by installing SkyDrive (as it was then) which must be offline files by default (maybe it didn't even have the online-only option).

Cheers,
Jamie

 

Thanks for that, Kari. *Smile I learned something new.

It appears I'm half wrong then! *Tongue

This would be beneficial for mobile devices that don't have large drive capacity and beneficial for tower desktop PCs that do. I'll have to check to see if I can enable the feature on my Lumia.

 

Lumia (Windows Phone) is not using offline files. You can access all files on all of your OneDrives but nothing is stored on phone if you do not download it. This of course is as it should be, no use to use local storage on phone if not needed.




Funny detail: My both Lumia phones still show "SkyDrive" for private OneDrives and only use the new name OneDrive for those from Office 365 Business.