What is OneDrive, and do you need it?

What OneDrive does

OneDrive keeps a folder on your PC and the same folder in your Microsoft account in step. Add, change or delete a file on one side and the change reaches the other side, and every PC or phone signed in with the same account. It can also upload the photos from your phone camera and share files with a link.

Why it is on your new PC

OneDrive comes with Windows. When you set up a PC with a Microsoft account, Windows offers to back up your folders with OneDrive, and many people just click Next. From then on Desktop, Documents and Pictures live inside the OneDrive folder (C:\Users\your name\OneDrive) and sync with the cloud. If you never wanted that, you can stop the folder backup one folder at a time.

What it does to your files

With Files On-Demand, a file in the OneDrive folder can be in one of three states, shown in the Status column of File Explorer:

• Blue cloud: online-only. The file is a placeholder. The content is in the cloud and downloads when you open it, so it needs the internet and OneDrive running.
• Green check in a white circle: locally available. It is on the PC, and OneDrive may free the space again later.
• Solid green circle: always kept on this device, because you chose "Always keep on this device".

That is why a file can look like it is on your PC and not be there. And because OneDrive syncs, a file deleted on the PC is deleted in the cloud too: OneDrive is not a backup. A backup is a copy on a disk of your own.

What "Always keep on this device" and "Free up space" do, and which one to choose: Always keep on this device or Free up space.

How much it costs

Every Microsoft account gets 5 GB of cloud storage for free, shared between OneDrive files and the attachments of your Outlook.com email. Microsoft 365 Basic gives 100 GB, Microsoft 365 Personal and Family 1 TB per person. When the storage is full, OneDrive stops syncing and Outlook.com stops sending and receiving email: see OneDrive storage full.

Do you need OneDrive?

You probably want it if:

• you use the same files on more than one PC, or on the phone and the PC;
• you want the photos from your phone on the computer without cables;
• you share files and folders with other people.

You probably do not need it if:

• you use one PC and your files fit on its disk;
• it was turned on during setup and you never use it on other devices;
• it keeps telling you the 5 GB are full and you do not want to pay.

Is OneDrive safe?

The files are protected in Microsoft's data centers. The risks are elsewhere: a deletion on one device reaches all of them, a full account blocks your email, and an account you cannot sign in to locks you out of your files. Whatever you decide, keep a checked copy of the files you cannot lose on a disk of your own.

If you decide to turn it off

Turning OneDrive off takes a minute, but done in the wrong order the online-only files leave your folders: in our tests, 19 of 37 files. Bring them to the PC and keep a checked copy first. The steps are in turn off OneDrive without losing your files.

How Salvako helps

Salvako does not ask you to choose. The free Check reads, without changing anything, where every file really is and how many are online-only. The verified copy keeps all of them on a disk of your own, each one checked by SHA-256 fingerprint, and the guardian warns you before the storage fills up or files become online-only again. You keep OneDrive if you want it, without the worry.