Does Anyone Use OneDrive?
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My employer provides all employees with the 365 subscription, and I use OneDrive for all work files. If my employer believes OneDrive is safe, then who am I to argue? It has the huge advantage that if anything happens to my laptop, all my work files are safe. I log into OneDrive from a new PC, and shortly all files are downloaded. This came in handy when I have desktops at 2 locations and carried a laptop (that situation is thankfully done). Also, I can log into OneDrive from any browser and download files should I need them. Note: The default is to download files from OneDrive only when you need them. I turn this off, as I want a local copy of everything, and I make separate backups as I trust nothing. It's supposed to save disk space, but in today's world, that's a silly reason. I also have the personal subscription, with licenses used by family members. The final cost is under $20 USD/year per person. My phone is setup to upload pictures to OneDrive when I'm on wifi, and these are downloaded to my desktop and laptop automatically. I have all non-sensitive files in OneDrive, e.g., if it's a file I don't care if anyone sees, it's there. Like my work files, these are backed up externally on a regular basis. If a file is sensitive, e.g., financial files? These go no where near any online service. Anything can be hacked, and I'm sure there are thousands of criminals trying to get into OneDrive every day.
"If my employer believes OneDrive is safe, then who am I to argue?" None at all. Your employer has accepted responsibility, and I mean, when was corporate IT ever wrong? lol. Even if most of the patches across the IT world are due to MS screwups. My in-laws suffer from bundle-carcinoma. They are with Xfinity and have their phone service (for their alarm that they don't need), their home phone (that they don't need), their two cell phones that they can barely operate, and their internet that is just about hopeless. Anytime they ask me what's wrong with ..."blank", my answer is always the same - Xfinity. How does that apply to Microsoft? I have enough troubles with their stupid shit with their OS, and I only need .01% of what office offers, so why in elephanting would I ever want to start "bundling" with that cesspool? "'m sure there are thousands of criminals trying to get into OneDrive every day" And there is your nugget. But to be fair, we keep our financial records "safe", but who knows what the banks are doing? Until anyone with my critical data can be held legally liable, we're all just blabbing.
Charlie Gilley “They who can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety.” BF, 1759 Has never been more appropriate.
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I stay away from OneDrive specifically as far as possible, as it is by far the worst implementation of a cloud storage/backup solution out there. IT dictates what, where and when it moves stuff "to the cloud", and worst of all, when doing so, it removes all local references. Good luck trying to adjust it in the way YOU want it to work...
I think one issue I have is MS' attempt at making OneDrive bundled with the OS. I just turned off OneDrive, and Explorer - the file navigation tool - started reporting errors. MS is a joke.
Charlie Gilley “They who can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety.” BF, 1759 Has never been more appropriate.
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I don't, as a rule, trust anything in the "Cloud" - breeches are all too common for my tastes. But I also have to use the same tools on multiple platforms, and so finally bought into Office365. I can't afford the obscene prices MS charges for the standalone products on multiple devices. So I'm rethinking this OneDrive thing. Apparently I can't kill it, and everything from MS defaults to OneDrive as the first listed place to store data, so I probably should learn to use it. My question is, should I keep most storage local, and use OneDrive as a backup destination? Or should I use OneDrive as a main storage location and use my local drives for backup storage? Or should I do something else? How do you use it?
Will Rogers never met me.
It works well. YMMV. I like that you can have things stored only in the cloud to save space locally, and other things both in the cloud and locally. Ref: What do the OneDrive icons mean? - Microsoft Support[^] This might be useful[^].