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One Drive

Posted: 11 Oct 2018 10:51
by AndyC
I am confused about One Drive.
In https://www.fhug.org.uk/wiki/doku.php?i ... e_skydrive it states:

a) Use Windows/File Explorer to move your Family Historian Projects folder into the OneDrive folder created in Documents (My Documents) on your main PC.
b) Start Family Historian and via File > Project Window select More Tasks > Project List > Choose Location for Projects and point it to the folder you just moved into the OneDrive folder.

Doesn't this then mean that your master version of your project is the one stored in the cloud and not your original one on your local drive as FH is now pointing at the One Drive folder?

Re: One Drive

Posted: 11 Oct 2018 11:18
by tatewise
Andy, you misunderstand how the OneDrive feature works.
The ...\Documents\OneDrive folder and all its sub-folders and files exist on your PC.
A copy of them all exist in the OneDrive cloud too.
If you synchronise with another PC, then a further copy of them all exist there too.

So the master version is everywhere. If you run FH on any synchronised PC and make changes, then those automatically get copied to the OneDrive cloud and every other synchronised PC when it goes online. That is the beauty of this technique.

The only exception to that is if you enable the OneDrive > Settings > Settings tab Files On Demand option.
Then you can choose whether files exist on your PC permanently or only temporarily when online.
See Learn about OneDrive Files On-Demand for details.

All other cloud services work in much the same way.

Re: One Drive

Posted: 11 Oct 2018 11:31
by AndyC
Thanks Mike.
So once you have copied your files into /documents/onedrive and FH is pointing there you could, if you want, delete the original folder as in effect this is now just a backup on your local drive.

Your working version would now be /documents/onedrive (on any synchronised pc).

Andy

Re: One Drive

Posted: 11 Oct 2018 12:18
by tatewise
Yes, that is advisable, especially as sometimes (often after installing an upgrade) FH reverts to the default ...\Documents\Family Historian Projects folder, and you may not notice, resulting in the wrong Project getting changed.
(Anyway, that old copy is only a backup until you make a change to your master version.)

Before moving the FH ...\Documents\Family Historian Projects folder, consider a new feature in OneDrive.
This is especially attractive if your ...\Documents folder holds less than 5GB and is mainly dedicated to FH or you subscribe to Office 365 with 1TB of OneDrive storage and want all Documents synchronised.
In the OneDrive > Settings > Auto-save tab, the Update folders button allows you to synchronise your default Desktop &/or Pictures &/or Documents folders with the OneDrive cloud, without moving anything into the OneDrive subfolder.

So you just select the desired option on each PC to be synchronised, and then all files in those folders will be synchronised across all those PC, including the FH default ...\Documents\Family Historian Projects folder.

This alternative has been added to fhugdownloads:contents:microsoft_skydrive|> Utility ~ Microsoft OneDrive (SkyDrive).

If you don't want everything synchronised in say your ...\Documents folder, then this option isn't for you, but for some may be handy.

Re: One Drive

Posted: 14 Oct 2018 10:27
by Mark1834
There is a variant of this that works well for me on a desktop PC that I built back in 2011 with a relatively small SSD system disk (C:\ drive) and large mechanical hard disk data drive (D:\). It takes slightly more initial setting up, but is then completely transparent in operation.

My OneDrive folder is mapped to D:\OneDrive
My default Documents folder is mapped to D:\OneDrive\Documents (ca. 5 GB)
My default Pictures folder is mapped to D:\OneDrive\Pictures (ca. 30 GB)

The overwhelming majority of modern applications, including FH, use these locations by default, so I don't have to worry about moving or changing anything. I can also add any other folder I want to back up to D:\OneDrive. I have the Office 365 subscription (via Amazon renewals, not directly with Microsoft!), so there is plenty of storage space available. In principle, I could also back up my default Videos folder (ca. 400 GB) in the same way, but our internet is 4G not fibre, so is constrained by monthly data caps.

I have exactly the same mapping on my laptop, so even with linked rather than copied media files, FH stays fully synced across the two systems. I only have to remember to manually copy queries and add-ins as and when I update them, but recognise that could be automated as well, as Mike and others have described previously.

Re: One Drive

Posted: 17 Oct 2018 10:48
by victor
On this morning's BBC Rip of Britain it interviewed a chap who had a business and stored all his records on One Drive. One day he found they had all disappeared and he contacted Microsoft and asked them to see what happened. They hadn't a clue and after months searching couldn't find his One Drive details. Microsoft couldn't help him any further.
So do make sure you back up all your files. This chap is backing his on flash drive.

A few days ago I checked One Drive on my mobile and there was a link to empty my recycle bin. I checked what was to be emptied and was horrified to find a large number of files which I had no knowledge of deleting them. Checking the titles they were from my FH.

So I opened my FH when I got home and found I no longer had a project folder. I have no idea how that happened.
I went back to One Drive and restored all the files from the recycyle bin. Lucky deleted files are kept for 30 days before they are emptied from One Drive.
There were a huge number of files and it took hours to get them restored. Once this was complete I went back to FH and started a new project folder. Since I have a large FH it again took hours to get the project folder restored. I am happy to say everythinbg is back to normal.
Just don't accept that One Drive is 100% safe. How my FH Project details ended in the recycle bin beats me as I am the only one with access to my details.

Always do a full back up as much as you can.

Victor

Re: One Drive

Posted: 17 Oct 2018 13:33
by LornaCraig
Victor, a few days ago in this topic Best way to move between desktop and laptop (16297) you asked about whether your OneDrive files take up space on your hard drive or whether they are solely stored in the cloud. Mike explained that you can choose whether to have them online only, temporarily available locally or permanently available locally. In reply you said you would check to see where your files are. Did you perhaps experiment with moving them? If so, can you remember what you did? It might have something to do with the apparent deletion of your files.

I'm glad you have now recovered your data. I recommend having the files permanently available locally, as well as in the cloud.

Re: One Drive

Posted: 17 Oct 2018 17:33
by victor
Lorna

I had moved them a week oir two ago and everything was fine. I was using FH a few days agao added a birth and death certificate without any problems.

It was after thius that somehow all the media files entered the recycling bin. I have no idea how this happened as I hadn't deleted any files from the FH folder

Happily everything has been restored thanks to One Drive telling me I had deleted a lot of files which made me check the bin and was shocked to find the huge number deleted

Victor

Re: One Drive

Posted: 17 Oct 2018 18:35
by mjashby
Victor,

You weren't caught out by the Windows 10 1809 Update bug were you? That was randomly deleting user files on some systems when the update was performed and Microsoft quickly withdrew the update when they confirmed the problem to prevent further issues. Some people have reported that HP Computer Systems were amongst those most frequently affected.

Mervyn

Re: One Drive

Posted: 17 Oct 2018 19:36
by victor
Mervyn

I never thought of that. It could be an explanation.

Hope no one else was affected

Victor

Re: One Drive

Posted: 17 Oct 2018 21:05
by tatewise
The Windows Update bug of deleting files was narrowed down to very specific circumstances as described below:
• The data loss that occurred was related to the new Known Folder Redirection (KFR) that was recently made public as part of OneDrive. The three issues identified and fixed were (quoting verbatim to not introduce any interpretation errors on my part):

Using KFR the user redirected a known folder to a different drive. For example, suppose you ran out of space on your C drive. You want to save some files separate from your primary folder, so you add another drive to your system for these. You create “D:\documents” and change the location of the files known folder from the original “old” location c:\users\username\documents to D:\documents. In some cases, if the contents of c:\users\username\documents were not moved to D:\documents, then a user could also encounter this issue. When the October 2018 Update was installed the original “old” folder was deleted including the files in that folder (in this example c:\users\username\documents would be deleted; d:\documents, the new location, would be preserved).

The user configured one or more of their Known Folders (Desktop, Documents, Pictures, Screenshots, Videos, Camera Roll, etc.) to be redirected (KFR) to another folder on OneDrive. For example, the user changed the location property of the documents folder from c:\users\username\documents to another folder. During this process the system prompts the user and asks if they would like to move the files to the new location. If the files were not moved and the October 2018 Update is installed the original “old” folder was deleted including the files in that folder.

The user used an early version of the OneDrive client and used the OneDrive settings to turn on the Auto save feature. This feature turned on KFR for the Documents and/or Pictures folders based on the user’s choice but did not move the existing files from the original “old” location to the new location. For example, if a user turned on Auto Save for pictures the location of the Pictures folder would be changed from c:\users\username\pictures to c:\users\username\onedrive\pictures, but no files would be moved. The current version of this feature moves the files. If the files were not moved and the October 2018 Update was installed the original “old” folder was deleted including the files in that folder (in this example c:\users\username\pictures would be deleted; c:\users\username\onedrive\pictures, the new location, would be preserved).