OneDrive Adventures [1124]

Adventures with OneDrive Win11 24H2
November 2024

Test 1 - Enable OneDrive Backup

Scenario: OneDrive contains Desktop, Documents, Pictures folders from a previous synchronisation.  User has a newly PC with a vanilla Windows installation and wants to enable OneDrive Backup.  The contents of the previous synchronisaiton is to be retained but should not be merged with the Desktop, Documents, Pictures folders on the new PC.

Sign into onedrive.com with a web browser.

Rename the Desktop, Documents and Pictures folders to Old-Desktop, Old-Documents, Old-Pictures.

Sign into the OneDrive app on the new PC and enable the backup function.

Resulting Behaviour

File Explorer navigation tree displays

<homn> OneDrive\Desktop, OneDrive\Documents, OneDrive\Pictures.
c:\Users\username\OneDrive\Desktop
c:\Users\username\OneDrive\Documents
c:\Users\username\OneDrive\Pictures

Examing the folder structure in the cmd console shows the folders are physically named
\Users\username\OneDrive\Old-Desktop
\Users\username\OneDrive\Old-Documents
\Users\username\OneDrive\Old-Desktop

The contents of the online folders are merged with the folders on the local disk.

Test 2 - After following the steps in Test 1

Open a cmd prompt

cd \Users\username\OneDrive
ren Old-Pictures Old-Pictures-1

Restart File Explorer

Resulting Behaviour

File Explorer displays 2 x folders named Pictures in the same location
<Home>\Pictures
<Home>\Pictures
c:\Users\username\OneDrive\Pictures
c:\Users\username\OneDrive\Pictures

Examing the folder structure in the cmd console shows the folders are physically named
c:\Users\username\OneDrive\Old-Pictures
c:\Users\username\OneDrive\Old-Pictures-1

Test 3 - For added absurdity.

From the cmd prompt cd \Users\username\OneDrive\Old-Pictures-1
echo old-1 > old-1.txt

In File Explorer navigate to
<home>\OneDrive
Locate the Pictures  folder containing old-1.txt
Right click the Pictures folder that does NOT contain old-1.txt
Rename as Old-Pictures

At the CMD prompt
cd \Users\username\OneDrive
dir .\Old-Pictures
dir .\Old-Pictures-1

Resulting Behaviour

The folder that File Explorer displays as c:\Users\username\OneDrive\Pictures
is pointing to the physical path c:\Users\username\OneDrive\Old-Pictures-1

The folder that File Explorer displays as c:\Users\username\OneDrive\Old-Pictures-1
is pointing to the physical path c:\Users\username\OneDrive\Old-Pictures