Windows 10: OneDrive Backup caused Documents folder to disappear

I used OneDrive backup to start backing up my Desktop, Documents and Pictures. The Desktop and Pictures now appear on OneDrive and on my home system as expected. My Documents folder has disappeared completely from both OneDrive and my home system.


After researching for hours I have searched for know files:

- in file explorer on my home system and none were found;

- searched OneDrive for known files and none found;

- searched Recycle bin on home system and none found;

- searched Recycle bin on OneDrive and none found;

- via Run used %userprofile% and none found.


After 30+ years of being a very knowledgeable user I am at a loss how to proceed.

:)

 

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!

 

File History not backing up OneDrive Documents folder (but correctly backing up other OneDrive folders)

I have my Documents folder and all my photos located in my OneDrive, so that they are always backed up to the cloud. I have previously successfully also used File History to back up all my user files and
libraries (including the OneDrive folder) to a local external drive and it has worked fine for many years. However, recently I noticed that there is something strange happening with the Documents subfolder in the OneDrive folder of the File History backup
when I went to restore a previous version of a file in OneDrive\Documents and the 'Restore personal files' view showed
only a small number of files and folders, not the whole of the current contents of the OneDrive\Documents folder. Moreover, instead of the most recent automatic backup date showing (effectively) the current state of the OneDrive\Documents folder,
it only showed files that had been modified since the previous automatic backup date. If I manually went backwards in time through the backups, I could see other files in my OneDrive\Documents folder that had been modified previously and were still currently
in that folder, but for some reason were not showing in the 'Restore personal files' view of the most recent backup.

I thought something must have gotten out of sync with the File History database, so I stopped the file history service, deleted the
%UserProfile%\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Windows\FileHistory folder, deleted the File History backup folder from the external drive and then rebooted the PC. As expected after rebooting and going into Control Panel -> File History it showed that
File History was off and there was no File History drive set. I then created a new File History backup to the external drive and checked that there were no 'excluded folders' set. Absolutely everything else got backed up correctly in the new backup, except
for just the OneDrive\Documents folder, which wasn't created at all in the new backup. For example, my OneDrive\Pictures folder backup correctly had all 22.3GB of data comprising 13,067 files and 255 folders, exactly as expected.

I then modified a test file in my OneDrive\Documents folder, clicked on 'Run Now' in File History and then checked the backup. There was now a Documents folder showing in the OneDrive folder, but it contained
just that one test file I had modified.

I tried the suggestion I had seen in a previous discussion thread about this problem of manually adding the full OneDrive\Documents path to the list of backed up folders. It was already there in the list,
but I tried adding it anyway. It made no difference and the folder is still not being backed up.

Why isn't File History backing up all of the folders in OneDrive and selectively refusing to back up just the Documents folder?

 

Using OneDrive to backup Documents

For backing up of normal documents, i am trying to use the backup feature of OneDrive. Right clicking on the OneDrive folder, click on the Backup Tab, then click on 'Manage Backup'. A dialog box appears saying that "it cannot backup my 'Documents' folder due to my .pst file being in the 'Documents' folder. To continue move this file and try again". Yet in Windows 10, i cant seem to be able to add a 'New Folder' to 'This PC' outside of the current default folders(Documents, Downloads, Music, Pictures, Videos) ??

This seems strange? Am i missing something simple here? Where am i supposed to 'move' the .pst file to so OneDrive can backup my 'Documents' folder?

....cheers.