Microsoft OneDrive is is useful for storing documents, photos and work files, especially when using multiple computers and devices. How do you back it up? It may clash with backup tools.
The file sync and online storage is great and you can even sync your Desktop and Documents folders using OneDrive. However, on occasions I have found that certain backup software can run into problems when you are backing up the disk drive. This is because of the way that OneDrive works, so here’s how to solve those problems.
OneDrive is built into Windows 10, but it can also be added to Windows 7 by downloading the OneDrive app. You may or may not have encountered problems when making backups of the PC’s disk drive and it depends on the software and the way it works.
One backup utility I was using was very, very slow and when I checked why, I found it was pausing for a long time with certain files. Each of these files took a long time to process, even though they were quite small and should have backed up in no time at all. Looking at the backup log afterwards, there were lots of error messages about files not being able to be backed up. The clue was that they were all in the OneDrive folder.
The problem is the way that OneDrive works. Open the OneDrive folder in Explorer by selecting it in the sidebar on the left and you can see all the files and folders it contains. It looks like they are stored on the local disk drive like any other file, but the Explorer view may be deceiving and they might actually be stored remotely online.
What you see in Explorer might be a real file or just a link to the real file in the online storage. It depends on OneDrive’s settings and files can be stored online with the physical contents replaced on the disk by links to the online files.
Double click a file to open it or perform a file operation like copying or renaming, and OneDrive just works. If the file is on the disk drive then fine, but if it isn’t, Windows downloads it first and then performs the open or file operation.
A backup program I was using was backing up all the files on the disk drive, but stumbled when it came to the OneDrive files. (OneDrive is stored in your user account folder C:\Users\YourName\OneDrive.) Instead of physical files, there were really just links to files online in OneDrive and this was causing it to slow down.
The backup program tried to back up what it thought was a file on local disk drive, but it wasn’t actually there. After many failed attempts to back it up, it gave up and moved on to the next one. This is why the backup program was running so slowly.
Another problem that might occur is that the backup program tries to open each file in OneDrive and OneDrive then downloads it, which could take a long time if you have many gigabytes in your online space.
Exclude OneDrive from backups
There are two solutions to this problem. One is to set the OneDrive folder as an exclusion in the backup job. The downside to this is that you won’t have a backup of the files on OneDrive. You would need to trust that Microsoft won’t lose any of your files, which is unlikely, and that you will never lose access to your account, such as by being hacked. That sometimes happens. You will lose more than your email if you end up locked out of your Microsoft account.
Store OneDrive files locally
A better solution is to store a copy of everything that is on OneDrive locally. This will consume disk space, so this is an option only for those PCs with large internal drives. It is not suitable for PCs with small SSDs and tens or even hundreds of gigabytes online in OneDrive.
Open an Explorer window and right click the OneDrive folder in the sidebar. Select Always keep on this device and OneDrive will download copies of all the files and folders on your cloud storage. Alternatively, turn off Files on Demand in OneDrive settings.
OneDrive backups
If you have the disk space, this means that you have a backup of every file and folder on OneDrive on the local drive. Any changes are automatically synced with your online storages, so there are no drawbacks apart from the loss of disk space. With everything stored locally, your backup software can include the OneDrive folder in the backup job.
I have two PCs, one with a big hard disk drive and one with a small drive, so I have one PC that stores files locally and is backed up to a USB drive, and the other does not store files locally. As long as one of your PCs is backing up OneDrive, you are OK and can access the backup if anything ever goes wrong with your online files.
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