Windows 10: Using OneDrive as cloud storage only - no local copies

I’m either using this all wrong or cant figure it out.

Is there no way to get OneDrive to never store a local copy and basically only show cloud stored server side data in my OneDrive folder in file explorer’s nav pane?

The only way I get it to work now is to clear up space manually through that right click menu item....

:)

 

Cloud storage (aka Onedrive will suck so need to find something else)

So, I will have to move away from Onedrive, which is sad because it's frankly the best free cloud storage I know of. But as someone said: "Microsoft realized they accidentaly made a great service." and they'll change it so that starting soon this will happen (the things that affect me anyway):

• 100 GB and 200 GB paid plans are going away as an option for new users and will be replaced with a 50 GB plan for $1.99 per month in early 2016.
• Free OneDrive storage will decrease from 15 GB to 5 GB for all users, current and new. The 15 GB camera roll storage bonus will also be discontinued. These changes will start rolling out in early 2016.

This is so much crap. I use the free version and yeah $1.99/month I probably could afford, but it still SUCKS. Seriously, I usually don't get the MS hate, but this is a poop-poop move.

So I need something new.

Dropbox is out. Too tiny. Google Drive might be an alternative, but I'd rather not, for ... reasons I can't remember right now.

What I need:

• something like 15GB storage or so.
• Automatic photo uploading from my phone (Android)
• Preferably an actual app for Android (yes I know you can setup ES File Explorer and the like but that's usually pretty cumbersome)

The simplest solution I'm actually leaning towards is just to give up and get a 100GB plan now (current 100/200GB plans will not be affected, in the future they won't be avaliable to new customers), but that's the easy way out. *Frown

 

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.

 

OneDrive delivers unlimited cloud storage to Office 365

You bet it is a marketing gimmick at net upload speeds ( mine is 12mbs) it would take over 200 hours to upload 1 Tb. My thoughts exactly... I have to most respectfully disagree. Marketing gimmick or not, unlimited storage or not, this is a very good offer beating competitors 6 to 0.

With the subscription of Office 365 Home you get now unlimited storage space. To compare, with about the same price you get 1 TB from Google Drive or from Dropbox. What tips the scales in favor of Microsoft is that buying the unlimited storage with price you only get 1TB from competitors, you also get free Microsoft Office suite to be installed on up to 5 computers.

Sorry geeks but you cannot find any valid cons in that, any valid arguments against. For everyone needing online storage, Microsoft's offer is unbeatable. Deciding for competitors, against Office 365 and unlimited storage is just plain stupid if the argument is "I will never need so much storage"; price is the same but with OneDrive and Office 365 you will get so much more.

Then this about how long it would take to upload great amounts of data to OneDrive. Let me just start with that it would take exactly as much time to upload it to Google Drive, or Dropbox. The idea is of course not that you subscribe the service, then sit back and wait the 200 hours until your 1 TB of files have been uploaded. That would be idiotic, and is most definitely not an argument against the service.

No, simply copy what you want to be on OneDrive to its folder on your computer and forget it. Your terabyte might take a month or three to finish uploading but it's done in the background, your data being all the time at your service on your local computer, OneDrive folder being as any other local storage location, showing the progress (which files already synced to cloud, with which files OneDrive is still working, syncing them). OneDrive syncs (uploads) your data in a non-disturbing way, a bit slower when you work with computer and need the bandwidth, as fast as it can when computer and line are idle.

You treat the OneDrive folder on your computer as any other local storage. You decide which files are synced (stored locally and on OneDrive), which files are only available online:



This "Online only" is really practical selection when you want to access all your files from any computer and any location but don't want them to take place on your laptop's small hard disk. You can choose to have your documents available offline on your desktop but online only on a tablet, in which case you can still access all the files on your OneDrive from the tablet. Opening the OneDrive folder now on tablet shows all your files stored on OneDrive, you can open, edit, copy and delete as if they were stored locally, only difference being that they do not occupy any storage space on tablet. Opening a Word document locally just means that your tablet picks it up from cloud, opens on your tablet and when you have finished editing it stores it again on cloud. If you want to be sure a file can be edited also when no network connection is available, simply right click it and select Available Offline. A small symbol on file icon tells you now that OneDrive is syncing it, downloading to local computer:



Personally I have to say I love it. This is so practical, take for instance the OneDrive account of the MS account I use on this laptop: over 40 GB of files stored on OneDrive, I can access them from any computer from any location in this globe of ours but as I have selected to keep most of them online only, they take less than 4 GB on my laptop's HDD: