this post was submitted on 11 Jan 2026
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Oh no it’s far worse than that. Essentially what happens is One Drive takes over your entire home holder, and then makes the copy in OneDrive the original. People try to disable OneDrive and then delete the copies in the cloud, only to find out OneDrive will then delete the local copies from your computer.
It is a syncing app, not a backup.
Yes one drive replaces the default path locations with its own onedrive locations but the local folders are still there under ~/users/user/Documents etc. Also Disabling onedrive doesnt delete the copies, they are still there in microsoft cloud the user needs to go grab them. The users are using a tool that moves unused files to the cloud, its expected that they take the necessary steps to reverse that when they stop using that tool. You cant just disable onedrive and expect everything to magically be downloaded back unless you click the download all button or go to the website.
The issue is users dont know how it works and dont want to know. I dont blame them since microsoft is so dogshit at ui/ux to the point where its malicious.
No if you download the local copies back then delete them from OneDrive, OneDrive will delete the local copies you restored to your computer.
It’s also important to note that the users aren’t “Using OneDrive” intentionally, so they aren’t even aware that there are steps they’d need to reverse.
The issue isn’t the users at all. The issue is that Microsoft has a software that takes files off your computer without permission and puts them on their computers. And then make sure it’s obtuse to safely get them back.
No because they would go to the download folder which isnt synced with onedrive.
Yes this is the biggest issue with onedrive but its still on users to administer their system at the end of the day. That means doing the bare minimum research when removing something as integral as Onedrive. You cant just turn off a home directory sync service and not make sure your stuff has been downloaded out of that service.