Windows 10: OneDrive reparse point prevents syncing and renaming

Hi,

Some other application has dropped some files with weird names within a OneDrive sub-subfolder. One of them ends with a period and others are just odd – a sequence of numbers.


So I tried deleting them from the local storage, which is under F:\OneDrive\etc\etc\nasty_folder\that_dumb_file_that_ends_with_a_period. I couldn't. The OS says the files or folders don't exist. But they're there.


After opening OneDrive to have it synced to the cloud, the Action Center displays some messages regarding files with invalid filenames, and prompts to automatically rename them. I allowed, but it was unsuccessful: "0 of 7 files renamed". And every time they are there again. Interestingly, the message cannot display what exactly went wrong.


So I took a more radical measure. I booted with a Linux live image to access those files from outside Windows. PartedMagic, if you ask me; it is a utility distribution with partition-oriented apps. It also includes a file browser, which I used.


Actually, I use both Dropbox and OneDrive, and the latter is a mirror of the former. So I navigated to E:\Dropbox\nasty_location and successfully deleted the problematic folder and its files from within PartedMagic. But when I tried repeating the same on F:\OneDrive, it wouldn't let me inside. I saw the OneDrive folder had a link attribute.


Back on Windows 10, I used PowerShell to check the properties with Get-ChildItem. Look:


Directory: F:\

Mode LastWriteTime Length Name

---- ------------- ------ ----

d-r--- 05/05/19 02:56 Backups

d----- 31/05/19 06:09 Some Files
dar--l 24/07/19 06:42 OneDrive

As you can see, the OneDrive folder has the LINK attribute, I don't know why. In fact, in the beginning after installing Windows I changed its location from the default C:\Users\me\OneDrive to F:\OneDrive, since C:\ is the OS partition with limited space.


How can I get rid of that folder for good, and prevent the Action Center from warning me of this wild goose chase?

:)

 

Reparse points preventing cloud backups from working

Try this site, it’s for Windows backup but may help in finding the problematic file/folder:

https://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/en-...

The only other suggestion is to use the program I mentioned previously.

 

Reparse points preventing cloud backups from working

I have two cloud-based backup services (Crashplan, which is withdrawing its consumer services) and Acronis (which I have set up as a replacement). My primary aim is to back up my OneDrive files, since OneDrive is not a backup service, only a syching mechanism.

I have always had the OneDrive "Files on demand" feature turned OFF, to ensure that all my files are physically present on my local drive, thus enabling the backup services to copy them to the cloud. However, both Crashplan and Acronis are exhibiting problems,
and failing to back some of my documents and pictures folders (especially newly-created folders). Through my contacts with Acronis, and testing with the “fsutil reparsepoint query” command, I have established that the problem is caused by the fact that on
my C: drive, the folders C:\Users\[Username]\OneDrive\Documents and C:\Users\[Username]\OneDrive\Pictures are classified as "Reparse Points" rather than normal folders.

Acronis have advised me that their software will not reliably back up a folder which is a Reparse Point, but are unable to help me further.

I don’t know what a Reparse Point is, and I certainly never created them intentionally. The only reason I can think of for the Reparse Points having been created is that a few years ago I used the “Location” tab in File Explorer to redirect my standard
user folders to OneDrive (so for example my “Pictures” folder in Windows moved from c:\users\[username]\Pictures to c:\users\[username]\OneDrive\Pictures). Could that be the explanation?

Anyway my question is, how do I stop a folder within OneDrive being a Reparse point, and revert it back to being a “normal” folder? Are there any dangers in attempting to do so – I obviously cannot afford to lose data, and if any of my OneDrive folders are
deleted or emptied, I fear that the data loss will quickly be replicated to the cloud as well

 

File History and reparse points.

It turns out that File History hasn't been keeping a history of my important files. Ever. The error events say that the various folders in my home directory are reparse points. For example, it complains that C:\Users\whn\Documents is a reparse point.
If I open that file's properties, it says that it is a folder, however there is a tab labeled Location which says "Files in the Documents folder are stored in the target location below." In the location below it says that the files are stored at "C:\Users\whn\Documents".
That is to say, the reparse point is a folder that is stored where the reparse point is. ??

This can't be good. And it can't be normal, else File History would not be working for anybody. Any suggestions on how to fix it? I guess I could, for each of Desktop, Documents, etc., move the contents to a temp dir, delete the self-referential
link, the rename the temp dir back to Desktop, Documents, etc... But that doesn't sound good.

So, I created a new user account, signed in, and discovered that it has the same pattern as my main account (desktop and documents are reparse points that refer to themselves). Which means it is normal for this version of Windows and that File History shouldn't
be working for anyone anywhere. How can that be?

A couple of points: This is Windows 10 Pro version 1803. This machine is four years old and was originally a Windows 8 machine that got the free upgrade to 10.

I hope you can help, thanks!