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Windows users keep losing files to OneDrive, and many don't know why (www.techspot.com)
submitted 10 months ago by to c/technology@lemmy.world
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When Windows users suddenly discover that their files have vanished from their desktops after interacting with OneDrive, the issue often stems from how Microsoft's cloud service integrates with the operating system. The automatic, near-invisible shift to cloud-based storage has triggered strong reactions from users who find the feature unintuitive and, in some cases, destructive to their local files.

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[–] -2 points 10 months ago (7 children)

Don't point out people are misunderstanding the product, we're here to shit on the product for anything and everything

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  • [–] 11 points 10 months ago (6 children)

    To be fair when it's a product a person didn't ask for and the OS forced it on them, it's not unreasonable that they may not understand how it works and make mistakes.

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  • [–] 7 points 10 months ago

    Yeah, you can't yell at someone to RTFM when they didn't opt to use the product, and the "manual" is just a barrage of question on a Microsoft support forum where every answer goes to a Microsoft.learn page that hasn't been updated since 8.1.

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  • [–] 0 points 10 months ago* (4 children)

    It is unreasonable to assume you can delete a file from a sync app's cloud dashboard and not expect that the deletion would be synced to the device.

    I get that OneDrive is a mediocre product that gets forced on end users, but so many people turn their brains off and just try to kill it with fire instead of thinking through their actions before making rash decisions. Deleting it from the OneDrive directory is marginally less rash, but again, people delete files without validating the original is where they thought it was.

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  • [–] 2 points 10 months ago (1 child)

    It is unreasonable to expect users to understand.

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  • [–] 0 points 10 months ago*

    It is unreasonable to expect users to understand.

    Or read, be it app popups or error messages. Or learn how to use tools that have been in place for years. Or take basic responsibility for their inability or unwillingness to learn and understand.

    At some point, saying "it's unreasonable to expect the user to understand something" is itself unreasonable. Maybe it's because I've been in IT for like 20 years, but I have minimal sympathy for people who choose not to understand the basic utilities that they have to interact with for their jobs that have been in place for a long time. At the very least, you should know how file management works if you're making files as part of your job, and that you don't just delete files from your system, especially important business files...

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  • [–] 1 point 10 months ago* (1 child)

    Read the article. That is not what is happening.

    This problem stems from the way OneDrive handles synchronization between the cloud and a user's local system. Disabling OneDrive Backup without explicitly restoring or relocating local copies can, in some cases, result in files being removed from both environments.

    Pargin noted that the only way to remove files from OneDrive without also deleting them from the local machine is to follow a detailed, step-by-step guide "There is no intuitive way to do it," he said, accusing Microsoft of deliberately burying the necessary controls deep within menus.

    It is a dark pattern, it is meant to scare or annoy the users into paying a subscription or leave the system as is. There's exactly one cloud service that deletes all files without warning as soon as it is disabled. There's only one service that deletes local files without telling the users, there's only one service that deletes both originals and cloud files when disabled, and it is only OneDrive. Every other service warns users and give grace periods for the users to download their data before deleting the files for good. It is absolutely not the user's fault.

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