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CAUTION using SyncBack with OneDrive!

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ccclapp
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CAUTION using SyncBack with OneDrive!

Post by ccclapp »

I am writing because of my great concern of using SyncBack with OneDrive as follows:

Like many people, my setup in: I have OneDrive folder as the Root (top) folder of my Data directory (so I can access all my data files from any PC/phone). However, my understanding is 1) the SB default configuration will completely ignore OneDrive files, and/or if you know to change the setting, 2) SB will still have to download ALL OneDrive files to the source PC, even if you set OneDrive not to download until a file is used (keep files in the cloud to free up disk space) and even if you set SB to "Do not copy offline files".

As to #1: SB default settings will filter out all OneDrive files/folders. TO change this go to Compare --> Attributes and un-select "Ignore NTFS junction points (reparse points)". My concerns are:
  • Most users don't know this because it is buried in the documentation and forums. This should be a big warning in the documentation and in the program
  • If you do know to change it there are other issues: All windows Junction Points are copied and I believe this results in several duplicated directories being copied by SB. This could make you backup much larger than it should be. If one is VERY smart and diligent one could manually deselect all the other windows junction point root folders, but I am too scared Id mess that up and end up not copying some important directories, so I live with the duplication to avoid an omission.
As to #2: SB must download ALL OneDrive files to the source, even if you have OneDrive set to keep in the cloud only (to save potentially massive disk space) and even if you have Compare --> Attributes and select: "Do not copy offline files" (which only controls the destination but the source still has to download all files
  • This dramatically slows SB if one has many files in the cloud
  • This removes one major benefit of OneDrive (to keep many files in the cloud and save disk space
Below are two existing posts discussing these two issues for reference...


#1:
bradavon wrote:
Sun Oct 29, 2017 12:08 am
Yes.

You need to untick "Ignore NTFS junction points (reparse points)" in Compare --> Attributes. It exists in older versions than version 8 but maybe shown elsewhere.

It should be noted doing so will also tick all the standard Windows junction points that are usually ignored. So you'll want to untick the folders C:\Users\All Users and C:\Users\Default User which will suddenly be ticked.

C:\Users\All Users is a junction point for C:\ProgramData, so presumably the folder would end up being copied twice if you also had C:\ProgramData ticked.

Also if you tick a folder to backup that contains "Cloud Only" files they will be downloaded when SyncBackSE scans the folder (i.e. no longer cloud only(. There's no way to prevent this. SyncBackSE has to interact with the folder to see what's in it and doing forces the file to download.

If you tick "Do not copy offline files" also in Compare options they'll then not be transferred to the backup drive but you can't prevent them being downloaded. So it's a bit pointless IMO in ticking it as you may as well back them up if they've been downloaded. For me I've unticked the main folder I stored "Cloud Only" files in so SyncBackSE ignores it (which in my case is my phone's Camera Roll).
ccclapp
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Posts: 8
Joined: Thu Jul 06, 2017 4:15 am

Re: CAUTION using SyncBack with OneDrive!

Post by ccclapp »

I don't see an option to edit my post after it was posted so wanted to add:

The quoted post can be found here:
viewtopic.php?t=13125&p=49667#p49667

That post also described the offline file issue described in #2 of my post.
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