Local copy of Onedrive

[TravD16v]

Hi could someone please help me to clarify something. I have just purchased the baby Surface Pro 3 (64Gb).
Shortly after setting up the computer I noticed that there was not a lot of space left on the C drive. upon further investigation I noticed that it had downloaded a copy of all my files from my Onedrive which were saved using my previous computer..
Please correct me if I am wrong but.... After searching google it looks like this is the way 'onedrive' works and you cannot switch off this feature. (whatever is saved to onedrive is cached to the local machine so you can access it when there is no internet connection).. My concern is that I only have a 64 Gb harddrive and a 1Tb limit on my skydrive. does anybody know what will happen once I exceed the amount of space I have available on my harddrive.
Ideally I would love to turn this off and remove the cache from my machine and say simply if I do not have internet connection I cannot access my files.. but from what I can make out Microsoft will not allow you to do this.

 

[sharpuser]

You can tell OneDrive to make your files only available online.
This is called "Disable Offline Access". Find out how to do it by clicking here.

 

[TravD16v]

Thanks for your reply looks exactly like what I want but am I missing something. I have followed the instructions in the link, but if I go into C:\Users\User_Name\OneDrive and delete something, it also gets deleted from onedrive.com.

 

[TravD16v]

Right I'm getting really confused now, No matter what I try it looks like it is not breaking the relationship between what is on my hard drive and what is on the onedrive server.
When I delete a file from the C:\Users\User_Name\OneDrive directory it also deletes it from the onedrive. So I thought I would copy some of the pictures from the local copy to my documents (also on the C:\ drive) then remove them from onedrive to free up some space. The strange thing is the time it is going to take copy them is about the same amount of time it will take to download them from the server. you would have thought copying from on place on a SSD to another would be very quick!!!
This made me think perhaps they are not actually on the C:\ drive and just visible there. but all the files I have deleted are in the local copy of my recycle bin which implies they are on the C:\ drive.

Am I missing something obvious here????????

 

[sharpuser]

You are not missing something obvious. Instead, Microsoft is changing the functionality and features of OneDrive, as they are marketing a more general "Microsoft Cloud"; OneDrive being a major player.

You need a OneDrive reset and retry. Follow the instructions that are on this page. Even though you are not likely on Windows 10, the instructions still apply. http://winsupersite.com/windows-10/...problems-windows-technical-preview-build-9879

 

[TravD16v]

Thankyou for your suggestion. I really appreciate you trying to help. I'm afraid I am still having no Joy, I have followed the instructions word for word (well apart from the step where it said to delete the folder, I renamed it and copied it to another location, perhaps this is where it is going wrong but I am too paranoid to delete the files). The first thing I noticed was that I did not have a process running called 'skydrive.exe' but did have 'onedrive.exe' so stopped this process instead. I am still have exactly the same problem. the strange thing is when I delete files from the folder in the new location they still seem to be linked to the online server and disappear from there.

 

[sharpuser]

Are you near a Windows Store (not the online one)? I would go see them.

 

[TravD16v]

No im afraid not, I live in Oxford England, not even sure there is a store in the Country....

 

[Liam2349]

Not all of the files you see in the OneDrive folder in file explorer are stored locally.

What you see in explorer is everything saved to your OneDrive - from here, you can choose what you want to store online and offline or online only. You can see whether a file is available online only by looking at it in explorer under the 'Availability' column. Deleting a file in explorer is the same as deleting it on OneDrive.com.

If you right click a file and make it available online only, then you will need to download it each time you use it and changes will sync back to OneDrive. You can also right click a file to make it available offline - when you make changes to it, it will still sync back to OneDrive but a local copy will also be saved.

 

[TravD16v]

Thank you for your reply Liam, I was beginning to suspect this, when you look at the file details availability is online only. which implies they are not stored on the local HD

Also if you look at the folder properties you see:

The size on disk is substantially smaller than size. what confused me is then you hover over the folder name it showed the size rather than size on disk.

Thanks to both of you for your help with this matter

 

[mikecarter66]

Hi could someone please help me to clarify something. I have just purchased the baby Surface Pro 3 (64Gb).
Shortly after setting up the computer I noticed that there was not a lot of space left on the C drive. upon further investigation I noticed that it had downloaded a copy of all my files from my Onedrive which were saved using my previous computer..
Please correct me if I am wrong but.... After searching google it looks like this is the way 'onedrive' works and you cannot switch off this feature. (whatever is saved to onedrive is cached to the local machine so you can access it when there is no internet connection).. My concern is that I only have a 64 Gb harddrive and a 1Tb limit on my skydrive. does anybody know what will happen once I exceed the amount of space I have available on my harddrive.
Ideally I would love to turn this off and remove the cache from my machine and say simply if I do not have internet connection I cannot access my files.. but from what I can make out Microsoft will not allow you to do this.

I have had exactly the same problem. The 'only access online' etc., options are misleading and have no effect. Calls to Microsoft have finally resulted in a single solution that actually works but defeats the purpose of all that free storage space. You have to disconnect your machine. Swipe in from the right, Settings charm, change PC settings, Accounts. Under your name select disconnect.

It will then be safe to delete local copies. The downside is that you will have to enter your MS id to access MS apps and the store etc..

I would wait until the Windows 10 roll out when this silly 'feature' is properly changed.