Windows 10: Onedrive syncing desktops of two computers and merging them

Hi


I have the same problem as in the following thread:


https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/forum/windows_10-files/one-onedrive-account-two-computers-my-desktop/ed565546-0af5-4766-bdf8-730087dd65e4

However, I did not understand the solution as it was not formulated for dummies...,


So, I do not see how to separate sets of desktop, images and documentos folders in the single drive for different computers. As was mentioned in the earlier post, Google drive sets up "folders" for each computer which one wishes to syncronise, which makes it very easy, but here I don't get how to do or emulate that.


Cheers

:)

 

Windows 10 - OneDrive

Right click on the app and one of the properties has an option to not automatically start it. Uncheck, restart the computer, and it should stop. If you want to go another step further, find the OneDrive app in the start menu, right click on it and uninstall.

If that is still insufficient, there is a batch uninstaller for OneDrive available online. I can copy the code here if you need it.

 

Stop Desktop Backup to OneDrive

"The current situation is that I get a sync issue error message about the Desktop folder: You already have a file or folder with this name in the same location. Rename the item on this PC or online to keep both
versions. If the items are the same, you can delete the version on this PC to download the online version."

Not sure about the details of the error message. It's some kind of sync error.

When I turn on desktop backup of computer #1 the desktop folder location points to OneDrive and merges with the desktop folder of computer #2 which is already synced to OneDrive. The two folders both have the same
name and merge inside of OneDrive.

When I turn off desktop backup of computer #1 the folder location points back to it's original location. But the files (no longer syncing to computer #1 now) are left behind in OneDrive otherwise they would get deleted from the OneDrive cloud and from computer
#2 which is what I do not want to happen. They are still syncing on computer #2 and get updated there.

That's why people get 2 versions of files because they are not fully syncing on all devices.

 

One OneDrive account, two computers – my desktop folders are merged

I have been using my OneDrive account as a common and synced folder from my computers and tablets for some time, and it has been working satisfactorily. I am running Windows 10 Professional
version 1803.

I wanted to try the recently modified option to also save my desktop and document folders to my OneDrive cloud, and it did not behave as expected. This is what I did:

1.
On computer-1 I went to Settings / Auto-save / Update folders. I ticked the Desktop folder and clicked Start protection.

2.
I noticed that a Desktop folder was created within my OneDrive folder, that the contents of my Desktop folder on computer-1 was copied there, and that the Desktop folder under This PC was re-directed to the OneDrive folder.

3.
I then did the same thing on computer-2, using the same OneDrive account.

4.
The same thing happened, resulting in a merge between the two desktop folders. The two computers suddenly had the same contents on their respective desktops!

This was not what I would have expected, I rather anticipated a unique desktop folder per computer. This is the approach taken by for instance Google Drive and Backup & synchronize (they have
a specific top folder per computer, in addition to a common Drive folder). This raises a number of questions:

a)
Is this the way the Auto-save option is expected to work? Or have I done something wrong?

b)
Why is it believed that Windows users would like to have the same contents of their Desktop and Documents folders on all computers attached to the same OneDrive account?

c)
Or, is it anticipated that we should have one OneDrive account per computer?

Lars