Computer files on OneDrive, and files saved locally

[paulb203]

TL;DR Summary

Does removing OneDrive remove your locally saved files?

I was on a chat with a Microsoft agent yesterday to resolve an issue related to OneDrive.
I recently finished college, and my free 365 account had been deactivated a few months ago. But the shortcut link for it still appeared when I went to save a document. I wondered why that was still there (not realising it was just a shortcut link; when I clicked on it I was invited to log into my college account which I could no longer do), and why my personal OneDrive wasn't there. I asked him to resolve this.

He couldn't remove the link, said it was a bug, then decided to remove OneDrive from my computer and reinstall it to see if that would remove the link.

My first question; if your locally saved files are synched with your OneDrive, and you remove your OneDrive account, does this remove your locally saved files (normally)?
Second question ; if you merely delete a file from your OneDrive, does this remove that file from your locally saved files, if the two are synched?

Then the agent said he was going to create a new user profile for me and transfer all my files to that profile.
Then we got cut off. When I looked in both the user profiles all my files were gone.

A second agent said there was nothing he could do. The removal of the OneDrive account automatically removed the locally saved files because the two were synched, so he said. I'm now wating for a callback from his manager.

Is the second agent correct?

Last thing. Just before I got in touch with them in the first place, I subscribed to 365 Personal. Which made me wonder again why, when I went to save a document, I didn't see my personal OneDrive, I only saw the link/shortcut for my deactivated college OneDrive.

 

[Vanadium 50]

If it is, as claimed, a bug, I don't see how we can tell you how it will behave. Maybe how it might, but that is different.

 

[pbuk]

My first question; if your locally saved files are synched with your OneDrive, and you remove your OneDrive account, does this remove your locally saved files (normally)?

It depends on whether the file is set to "Always keep on this device" or not. As the files have disappeared, we can assume that this was not the case.

Second question ; if you merely delete a file from your OneDrive, does this remove that file from your locally saved files, if the two are synched?

Yes, otherwise they wouldn't be synced. You can restore the file from the OneDrive account (if you have access to it of course).

Is the second agent correct?

Without a full transcript of the conversation and full access to your account data it is impossible to say, in any case how would it help you if they were not?

Do you really, really, REALLY need these files? If so your best bet is probably to pursue this through your college's IT support, although they are probably quite busy this time of year: if I were them I would probably say "we told you you would lose access to your college MS365 account and you should save any data you needed, we can't help you now".

Last thing. Just before I got in touch with them in the first place, I subscribed to 365 Personal. Which made me wonder again why, when I went to save a document, I didn't see my personal OneDrive, I only saw the link/shortcut for my deactivated college OneDrive.

Last things first: this is because you haven't linked your personal OneDrive account to your device. To do this, click on the OneDrive icon (the cloud) in the system tray of your Taskbar.

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