HACKER Q&A
📣 ifyoubuildit

Windows moving files without asking?


I just got a panicked called from a family member that I setup with a local password manager years ago so they could do all their banking and bill paying online. It's been great for years now.

But today I get a call saying that "my main password isn't working." So after figuring out that it wasn't something simple like caps lock being on, I go over there and take a look.

I go to recently opened password files, which points to exactly where I initially put the file, and sure enough that file is not there.

I look in the recycling bin, it's not there. As a last ditch, I search for the file and assume that it's gone forever, and it turns up in a different directory with OneDrive in the path.

What the ever loving fuck is that? I'm the family IT guy and I didn't put it there. My relative certaintly didn't put it there, at least not intentionally.

So is someone juicing their usage metrics at ms by quietly moving your files to their cloud? I mean I get the benefit of backing things up, but this is nonsense. They can't really be doing this right? It had to have been something else. If I wasn't around to debug this, they would have been screwed. How do you trust software that pulls this kind of stunt?

It drives me nuts that we're forced to continue taking updates from these companies while they ruin their products. I'm not big into regulations, and I'm sure it's not practical, but man do I wish we could force these companies to only require you to take security updates. All the latest bullshit product "features" that they ram down your throat are so galling. Uggh. Alright, end of rant.


  👤 PaulHoule Accepted Answer ✓
OneDrive is a disaster. Uninstall it.

👤 wruza
at least not intentionally

People do all sorts of things with files unintentionally because it’s easy in a file explorer to do so. I do that too once a month and only my programmer’s perception saves the day.

OneDrive cannot be completely uninstalled, but there’s a way to disable it with a group policy, afair. Citing some site:

gpedit.msc > Computer Configuration > Administrative Templates > Windows Components > OneDrive > Prevent the usage of OneDrive for file storage = Enabled

(May not work on some editions.)


👤 toast0
This sounds like the user directory screw ups that were happening for some people with the seasonal windows 10 updates. TLDR: something went sideways with the user directory, windows tried to fix it by making a new one, and much confusion occurs. I'm having trouble finding a good link to share, but something like this. [1]

Count yourself lucky that you've got a copy of the password file, but consider that installation cursed, run a backup, install fresh, and put the files you like back on. If that's too drastic, you could try setting up a new account and disabling the old one.

[1] https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/forum/all/in-win...


👤 Itago
When I brought a second workstation online I had one drive deleting files on my old machine to “sync” the two. Microsoft really is hot garbage