this post was submitted on 25 Aug 2024
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In Windows 11, the Documents you see by default is actually just a shortcut to OneDrive bloat ware.
You need to fiddle with that thing online using your Microsoft account, while being careful not to delete anything there. If it's gone from your OneDrive, it's gone from your PC as well. More Microsoft fuckery is likely needed if that happens, with little chance for success.
Plenty users lost their shit to OneDrive crap, myself included.
Windows/OneDrive stealing my files was the tipping point to push me to Linux. I’d disabled OneDrive as much as I could like a year ago with a new install, and I simply opened it to check that it was all still disabled after seeing the headlines somewhat recently. Turns out that’s all the permission Windows thought it needed to start siphoning files off to somewhere else, since it got to work moving and uploading my documents immediately without warning. So thoroughly completely unacceptable, how could I possibly trust it with anything after that? I open a program once and my documents are immediately being sent to a server somewhere. That’s how a freaking virus acts! This was weeks ago and I’m still annoyed.
For what it's worth, you are supposed to be able to access documents stored in OneDrive in Linux. (I haven't tried it myself; I'm just aware of it.)
Basically: Go to GNOME's settings, then select online accounts, and sign into OneDrive.
Here the same instructions with lots of details and screenshots: https://www.omgubuntu.co.uk/2024/04/set-up-onedrive-file-access-in-ubuntu (Nothing in that link is Ubuntu specific. This applies to other distros too, like Fedora, Debian, Arch, Mint, etc. — as long as you have GNOME 46.)
Other desktops have to use various other options, but aren't natively integrated: https://linuxstans.com/microsoft-onedrive-on-linux/
Of course, once you have access to files like this, you'll probably want to copy them locally and back them up yourself.
(I suspect Microsoft was trying to make it so people don't lose their files, ironically, by handling document storage themselves? It's still absurd that they do this so aggressively.)
My favorite backup software is Pika. It's powered by Borg, has a friendly UI, and supports both local (including USB drives) and remote locations. https://flathub.org/apps/org.gnome.World.PikaBackup
Deja Dup is also good and uses Duplicity behind the scenes. https://flathub.org/apps/org.gnome.DejaDup
There are a ton of other backup solutions too, including Vorta (another UI for Borg) and a bunch of command line tools, like rclone, rsync, etc.