Keep the whole folders stored in Onedrive also on the PC disk.

Dear respected SIMONE MELIS,

Good day! Thank you for posting to Microsoft Community. We are happy to help you.

As per your description, generally, when we have enabled "OneDrive Files On-Demand" all your files as online-only files in File Explorer, and they won't take up space.

Right-click on Folder in a File Explorer and check if you select ""Always keep on this device".

Meanwhile, could you please upload a screenshot of sync status of your Folder in a File Explore, so we can understand your exact scenario and provide our suggestion in a productive manner, perhaps some related screenshots will be helpful.

Appreciate your patience and understanding and thank you for your time and cooperation.

Sincerely,

Waqas Muhammad

Dear Waqas Muhammad,

this is what I want to explain and solve: I want to have the entire folder of 18.4 GB stored on my physical disk too and not only online in Onedrive. But I cannot find any option to do it. Moreover I cannot download it: even if my net is really fast, after at best 2 GB the dowload gets an error or stops.

So, please, what should I do?

Thanks,

Simone

Hi respected SIMONE MELIS,

Thanks for your valuable feedback and sharing updates with us and I really appreciate your effort and your precious time doing. 

And I appreciate your kind words.

It sems that you want to keep some of Folder available on PC and while currently all your Folder/ files are online available.

As per your screenshot your Folder is mark as "Always keep on this device" have the green circle with the white check mark via right-click on Folder. These Folder download to your device and take up space, but they’re always there for you even when you’re offline.

The option "Always keep on this device" will help you to download this file/folder to your device. Normally, when you set up your OneDrive, all OneDrive files in the File Explorer (OneDrive sync folder) won't take up space on your computer. When you open one OneDrive file or select the option "Always keep on this device", the OneDrive app will download it. After that, you can open/edit these files offline.

Your understanding and patience will be highly appreciated. I hope that you are keeping safe and well!

Sincerely,

Waqas Muhammad

Hi Simone, as Waqas as explained you can do what I think you want to do. Click on the OneDrive Icon on the taskbar>Click on>Open Folder. There you will see all your files syncing with OneDrive>Double click on the files. Your files will then be on your computer, but still syncing with OneDrive. You can work on them, you can add new file etc. So, your files will be on your computer and on OneDrive. You can sign into OneDrive online on another computer and access your files on OneDrive.

Also, Open File Explorer>Left hand side>See Blue OneDrive folder>Click on it and it will take you to the same folder.

Note: C:\Users\UserName. There you will see the Blue OneDrive folder in the list of files. Everything in the Blue OneDrive folder, is syncing with OneDrive. Everything not in the Blue OneDrive Folder, in on your C: Drive and are not syncing with OneDrive.

Dear all,

thanks for your suggestions, but what I would like to have stored on my disk the whole size of the folder (18.4 GB in this case). In fact, I would like to use Onedrive more as a cloud backup than as a saving-space device. Do you know how to recover this initial situation?

Thanks.

Best,

Simone

Simone, I have explained above, not only can you do what you want, OneDrive is designed to do just that. What do you not understand?

Imagine that I stop to sync my folders on Onedrive: they will be available only on Onedrive section and not on my Pc Desktop (in example). You said, everything which is not in my Onedrive blue folder is on my PC and not sync, but what if I want to get off one folder from my Onedrive blue folder and have it exclusively on my PC disk? More specifically, ho to restart from the situation in which the folder on my PC disk (outside the Onedrive blue folder) is 18.4 GB sized? Then, I can maybe decide to back it up on Onedrive as well, but in this moment the folder outside of the Onedrive blue folder (the one on PD desktop) is the result of the "save space on the disk" variant.

IDK, if I well explained.

Basically, I would like to restore the entire size of the folder (18.4 GB) also on my non-Onedrive Pc desktop. None of the instructions that you gave me permits that.

Thanks,

Simone

Hi Simone, I actually use OneDrive, but I also store all my files on my internal D: Drive, which I backup to an external hard drive. I do this by setting the default save to my PC rather than OneDrive.

In you case you will need to go to the OneDrive Folder on your PC double click on the files to download them onto your PC. You then can copy your files onto C: Drive outside of the OneDrive folder, that is>C:\Users\UserName>Create a Folder where you can store all your files. Instead you can if you wish delink OneDrive so that they are no longer syncing with OneDrive.

Open Word>File>Options>Save>Default save location. See below my default file location is on D: Drive:

I am really sorry to insist, but I cannot find any "download" option for the folder in the Onedrive section. And of course I cannot make double click for every file inside the folders since are dozens of thousands.

Theoretically I could download them from the online Onedrive version, but as I told, I get partial jobs all the times, like 1/18 GB downloaded or something like that.

I would be tempted to ask to some of you who knows how to solve it to connect to my pc from remote and show me.

I attach the picture with all the right-click options on the Onedrive folder.

Thanks one more time for your patience and help.

Simone

Imagine that I stop to sync my folders on Onedrive: they will be available only on Onedrive section and not on my Pc Desktop (in example). You said, everything which is not in my Onedrive blue folder is on my PC and not sync, but what if I want to get off one folder from my Onedrive blue folder and have it exclusively on my PC disk? More specifically, ho to restart from the situation in which the folder on my PC disk (outside the Onedrive blue folder) is 18.4 GB sized? Then, I can maybe decide to back it up on Onedrive as well, but in this moment the folder outside of the Onedrive blue folder (the one on PD desktop) is the result of the "save space on the disk" variant.

Simone, you are not listening. "what if I want to get off one folder from my Onedrive blue folder and have it exclusively on my PC disk? ". Then copy it to>C:\Users\UserName and paste it there. You can create a folder to put it in.

See this video about unlinking OneDrive and note in particular this:

This means that if you go to your OneDrive Folder on you computer and double click on the files to download them onto your computer, these files will not be removed from your computer the only files that will not be available on your computer are the files that were still syncing. You will still be able to sign into OneDrive online to access the files on OneDrive.

Link or Unlink OneDrive with Microsoft Account in Windows 10 - YouTube