Windows 10: OneDrive File Syncing and Backup

Just set up a new Windows 11 laptop for a senior in a nearby retirement community. Copied all his data to the new machine. Signed into Onedrive and went to "choose folders" in settings. Desktop, Documents and Pictures were available to "check", but music was not. He has lots of music in his Music Library. Question #1: Why is music not showing up as an option to sync in OneDrive settings, "choose folders"?Question #2: What is the difference between OneDrive Backup process and the OneDrive syncing process. If the files are syncing, what is the point of Back Up? I must be misinterpreting

:)

 

Files not syncing to OneDrive

Hi,

Thank you for writing to Microsoft Community Forums.

I understand that you are facing issues not syncing properly with OneDrive.

I suggest you to refer the troubleshooting steps in the article
Fix OneDrive sync problems and check if it works for you.

For more information, you can check the article to
Sync files with the OneDrive sync client in Windows.

If you are still facing the issue, I suggest you to get in touch with the OneDrive support team.

Sign in to OneDrive.com from any browser, click the ‘?’ help icon on the top banner of the page and select
Email OneDrive support. Submit your question and follow the prompts to request support.

Hope it helps.

Nikhar Khare

Microsoft Community - Moderator

 

Use File History to Backup OneDrive Content

Technical Level : Intermediate

Summary

This article details how to backup OneDrive content to another storage medium using the built-in Windows backup tool File History. For more details about File History, read this page:

Restore files or folders using File History

This is valid on Windows 10 and Windows 8.1.

Details

OneDrive is a great tool for syncing and sharing files via Microsoft accounts, however, it's a syncing tool first and files can be permanently deleted. A good practice is to use File History in conjunction with OneDrive so any changes are automatically backed
up to a different location without fear of files being deleted.

Setup OneDrive to Sync all Critical Files Worthy of Backup

Before you can backup anything in OneDrive using File History, configure it so OneDrive syncs everything to your computer:

• (Windows 10 and Windows 7) Choose the files and folders you want to sync to your computer
• (Windows 8.1) Choose the folders and files you want to "Make Available Offline"

Wait for OneDrive to finish syncing all content before continuing to the next step.

Setup a Drive for File History

After you configure OneDrive to sync the content you need, setup a drive to use File History:

Set up a drive for File History

Large, slow drives are ideal for File History, whether they're inside of the computer or connected via a USB on the outside. When you setup File History it should automatically backup all Library folders, OneDrive folders, and other
common Windows folders. If you don't see your OneDrive folders, manually add them.

Once configured, File History will run on the frequency you chose and will backup your OneDrive files if there are changes; File History uses a more intelligent backup process and will only backup if it detects changes. If a file
changes frequently, you'll see many versions, possibly a version every time File History runs, otherwise, you may see the original version if it never changes.

If you lose a file and need to restore it, follow these instructions to restore a file from File History:

Restore files or folders using File History

 

OneDrive Placeholders are coming back, now called On-Demand Sync




"At Ignite 2016, Microsoft has just announced that it is bringing Placeholders back to OneDrive on Windows 10. Now, they are not called Placeholders anymore — Microsoft is renaming the feature to “On-Demand Sync” which makes a lot more sense than “Placeholders”.

The company demoed this feature at Microsoft Ignite today, and it works just like it used to previously. As you can see in the screenshot above, the files stored in OneDrive weighed in around 9GB, but the actual size on disk was only around 3MB which is really neat. Of course, this feature isn’t anything new as it was available back in the Windows 8 days. However, Microsoft removed the feature with Windows 10, and after lots of waiting, they are finally coming back.

In case you are not familiar with OneDrive Placeholders, it’s a pretty neat feature which lets you see all of your OneDrive files on your computer — but they are not actually downloaded on your PC. When you open them, OneDrive will download the files on-demand, saving your local space which is really useful, especially if you have a PC that doesn’t have a lot of storage.

While Microsoft didn’t announce when exactly On-Demand Sync will be available to OneDrive users, we suspect it will be available with Windows 10 Redstone 2 — which is expected to arrive early next year. "

https://mspoweruser.com/onedrive-placeholders-coming-back-now-called-demand-sync/