Why is it that when I moved my users directory to another drive, now all my OneDrive files are empty?

Question

I was running out of space on my OS drive, so I followed the instructions at this answer, by copying the files to another drive, then replacing C:\Users with a <JUNCTION> pointing to the location on the new drive. Everything seemed to work fine, until I noticed that every file in OneDrive is now empty. All the files are still there, they just are all now zero bytes.

In the web UI, it shows an edit to each file at the time that I made the change. I know I can restore each file individually, but there are 975 files, and I'd rather eat rocks than spend a day clicking through 975 files to restore them one at a time.

OneDrive has a help page for restoring OneDrive to a previous time, but this option is not available because, as that page notes, I must have a Microsoft 365 Subscription.

This option is only available with a Microsoft 365 subscription. If you don't have a subscription, see available plans.

Interestingly, on the available plans page, it does list a free option as one of the Microsoft 365 subscriptions, but apparently that doesn't count. Clicking the link to sign up, takes you to a page where only the paid options are available - the free one is no longer listed. And trying to follow the instructions without signing up for a paid plan just leads into an upsell loop. No thank you please.

Is there any other way? Is there an API I can hit?

• spikey_richie: Can't you just restore from the backup you took before hand?
• LPChip: Onedrive will use links to files for files that haven't been downloaded, and once you move onedrive away from its original location without actually telling OneDrive, it will assume you deleted the files and sync that to the cloud, deleting them there as well. Because they are links, you end up with empty files. First check in your online location if all files are gone, or only some. If gone, restore from trash. Once done, remember, you can always right-click files in OneDrive and delete the local copy to free up local space, but if you want to move, move through OneDrive client.

Answer 1

As far as OneDrive knows, you deleted all those files that you moved on your local computer. Deleting the files locally tells OneDrive to begin deleting them in the cloud storage. You could look through the OneDrive Recycle Bin, but, what you really need to do it use the correct method for your system and needs to free up space.

Compounding this issue is that we do not know which of the files were stored completely locally and which were just stubs pointing to the actual files in the cloud. Those files that were only stubs locally need to be restored from the OneDrive Recycle Bin, because that's the only place they may exist right now.

First, BACKUP ALL THE DATA YOU'RE MOVING.

Second, go through the OneDrive Recycle Bin on the OneDrive website and restore all the files there to their original locations.

Third, move everything back to its original location and let OneDrive re-sync to get good copies of everything safely stored away in OneDrive.

Fourth, make sure everything has good copies, that sync errors have been resolved, etc.

Fifth, MAKE ANOTHER BACKUP NOW THAT YOU'VE GOT ALL THE DATA. This may involve downloading a lot, but you need to do this or you risk losing more data.

Finally, choose the right method to free up space based on your specific needs and requirements:

• Keep most of your files on the OneDrive servers: OneDrive can keep most files out in the cloud and leave only those stubs locally. These don't take up much space, but you need an internet connection to download them when you want to access them. Right click on files or folders and make the appropriate selections based on your needs.

• Move the files on your computer in a way that OneDrive recognizes so that it will sync the files to/from the right place on your computer. Here's a couple guides on how to do this: In Windows 10, change location of both OneDrive and Documents folder to another hard drive and How do I move my OneDrive from C:\ to D:\?