File system - "Onedrive" is a folder listed on Macintosh HD - Is it backed up by time machine then?

[Marty_Macfly]

Hi All,



More newbie questions

I've set up the Windows OneDrive - Is the below going to cause issues though?!

Path:
I placed the "OneDrive" folder under: Macintosh HD > Users > [me] > OneDrive

Issues:
E.g. Is time machine going to throw a fit about this etc?



Hope you can advise

Kind regards
Martin

 

[BigMcGuire]

I use OneDrive as well - I put the OneDrive folder in the same place that you did. TimeMachine backs it up for me - no complaints.

The only thing I tell TimeMachine to ignore is my Parallels folder .

Been working for me like this for years now. Should work for ya.

 

[Marty_Macfly]

I use OneDrive as well - I put the OneDrive folder in the same place that you did. TimeMachine backs it up for me - no complaints.

The only thing I tell TimeMachine to ignore is my Parallels folder .

Been working for me like this for years now. Should work for ya.

Thanks for the quick reply Borg,


Cool, I'll leave as is then!

Right I'm off for a cuppa, this Mac world is alien to me, getting there though 😀

Best wishes
Martin

 

[BigMcGuire]

Thanks for the quick reply Borg,


Cool, I'll leave as is then!

Right I'm off for a cuppa, this Mac world is alien to me, getting there though 😀

Best wishes
Martin

Haha I’ve used Windows my whole life - know it like the back of my hand (I work in it for my job). I hear ya. I got my first personal Mac in 2015 - and was hooked. Lol. Now I try to use my Mac as much as possible - but still use Edge, OneDrive, Word, Excel, VS 2019 lol .

It’s a lot of fun to learn Mac OS. Best wishes

 

[chrfr]

Hi All,



More newbie questions

I've set up the Windows OneDrive - Is the below going to cause issues though?!

Path:
I placed the "OneDrive" folder under: Macintosh HD > Users > [me] > OneDrive

Issues:
E.g. Is time machine going to throw a fit about this etc?



Hope you can advise

Kind regards
Martin

You probably should avoid the OneDrive folder for Time Machine, especially if you're using "Files on demand." If you do, then Time Machine will do one of two things: it'll either back up the placeholder files which are of no value in a backup, or it'll cause OneDrive to download all those files to your computer.

 

[BigMcGuire]

You probably should avoid the OneDrive folder for Time Machine, especially if you're using "Files on demand." If you do, then Time Machine will do one of two things: it'll either back up the placeholder files which are of no value in a backup, or it'll cause OneDrive to download all those files to your computer.

Good point. My work folder is <5GB so I make sure to download all my files.

But when I had Files on Demand - it didn't force oneDrive to download them all. But that makes them useless for backup. Totally forgot bout that.

 

[Marty_Macfly]

Hi again Guys,


Argh, I thought there might be issues 😆


I'm happy to have the 2 backup methods totally separate.
I'm not after Time machine backing up the files already on OneDrive



So.....
Where is the best place to set the one drive directory on my laptop?!


The laptop is mine, I'm the administrator.
I may set up the missus with a "non admin" account but that would be it. (If it is possible to set such user accounts on MacBooks.)


The obvious path for me would be:
The "OneDrive" folder under: Macintosh HD > Users > [me] > OneDrive

But what do people do for their personal OneDrive?



Hope you can advise
Regards


Martin

 

[BigMcGuire]

Hi again Guys,


Argh, I thought there might be issues 😆


I'm happy to have the 2 backup methods totally separate.
I'm not after Time machine backing up the files already on OneDrive



So.....
Where is the best place to set the one drive directory on my laptop?!


The laptop is mine, I'm the administrator.
I may set up the missus with a "non admin" account but that would be it. (If it is possible to set such user accounts on MacBooks.)


The obvious path for me would be:
The "OneDrive" folder under: Macintosh HD > Users > [me] > OneDrive

But what do people do for their personal OneDrive?



Hope you can advise
Regards


Martin

That's what I do for my personal one drive. I put it under my users folder. My wife has her account (Users > Her > OneDrive).

My business accounts - work the same way - (Users > Me > OneDrive - Company Name).

You can tell TimeMachine to ignore OneDrive if you want.

We let Mac OS do whatever it wants with the user accounts - and just use our iCloud account as the login accounts - just like using Outlook accounts for your Windows login.

 

[Marty_Macfly]

Thanks for the sanity check Mr Borg! 😀


Hope you have a nice evening, roast chicken for me now 😀



Martin

 

[James_C]

Yes @BorgCube has the correct Answer, by default Time Machine will backup everything on your hard drive, incrementally every hour, including files in the OneDrive Folder. You can exclude any folder on your drive from Time Machine, by going into Preferences, Time Machine. Click the options button in the bottom right.

Click the + button and browse to the location of the OneDrive folder to exclude it from the backup.

 

[ght56]

Do note that OneDrive has a setting similar to iCloud where it may only download items you need on-the-fly (to save hard drive space). If you are connecting to an existing OneDrive account with a lot of files on it (that were created on a computer other than your current Mac), then the Mac may NOT automatically download these files to the local drive (and subsequently will NOT back everything up stored on OneDrive). You have to change the settings so that it does download all files. By default, my business OneDrive account was set to not automatically download all files and I had to change these settings.

It looks like the name of this is called Files on Demand and can be accessed through the preferences for OneDrive