Microsoft One Drive for Dummies

[mythbuster]

Our Uni rolled out One Drive this past year. I'm only now trying to use it as a way to link my home and office computer. But I'm having  many issues and can't seem to find answers to what I'm guessing are really stupid questions. So does anyone have a resource on how to use One Drive for folks who are new to cloud stuff? To start off with here are two issues that might give you a sense of my newbie-ness to this.

1) I tried to get all my work files to copy onto One Drive. For some folders, they did, but on others they copied the folders but not the files within them! So now I'm suspicious that other files may be lost. How do I effect a large scale transfer (everything in my Documents folder on my hard drive) and be sure it all gets copied?
2) If I'm collaborating with someone on a document- do I have to save my changes to the document at some point? Or does it just save along the way? I only see "save as" as an option.

[Parasaurolophus]

Ugh. We have it too, but OD won't recognize my login info, and I can't be bothered to fix it (I suspect this is due to an early IT screwup as part of an attempt to fix another screwup with my info, but I don't have the energy to take it on). I conclude that MOD is not for dummies like me.

(Sorry, no advice. Just sympathy, and I'll follow the thread with some interest.)

[spork]

Same as above. No advice. Sometimes my university-issued laptop freezes because it enters a constant syncing cycle with the MOD cloud.

I haven't noticed any files not getting synced, but I don't trust it and manually back up to Google Drive.

My university's MOD implementation has screwed up my use of Skype; it tries to default me to logging into a Skype account using my MOD credentials, which never works. I have a previously-created Skype account not connected to the university, and I have to go through a circuitous path to get into it.

[downer]

I have found many aspects of Office 365 to be badly designed and I often find simple things, like copying sentences from an email, to be impossible. I have occasionally used One Drive in connection with email, but I try to avoid it as much as possible.

Wish I had helpful advice to offer. Sorry.

[Cheerful]

Another down vote for One Drive.  Do not like at all. 

[spork]

I will add that compared to the desktop client versions of Outlook, Word, and I assume other applications, the functionality of the 365 versions is limited.

[mamselle]

Sometimes with my external hard drive, if the file string of names is too long, it will balk at copying the final file itself in the string.

Shortening the names, or pulling the longer-named file into a shorter nest one-up from the one it's in sometimes works.

But it's maddening, and baffling. If the string isn't too long for the original hard drive, why is the XHDD balking?

Silly question, I know.

Because it can.

But, anyway, that's something to try.

M.

[polly_mer]

At one point, 32 characters was the limit for Windows filenames.  If the names aren't unique at that cutoff, then bad stuff happens.

I am another who gave up on One Drive a few years ago after a couple weeks of frustration.

[Vkw10]

We've been using MOD for two years as part of Office365.

I recommend copying one folder at a time. If you have muti-level file system, you may want to create the main folders, then copy over one sub folder at a time. MOD is less likely to choke. When it does choke, it's easier to identify and re-upload missing items. MOD will tell you about files that don't upload, if you do in small chunks. (I spent a couple of weeks uploading, doing a few folders a day.)

MOD automatically saves. You can turn off auto-save if you open file in desktop app.

Our campus Office365 includes right to download apps (Word, Excel, etc) onto a several devices per user. If you have Office365, try downloading the apps you use most. That lets you "open in desktop app" so you have all the features. I have Outlook, Word, Excel, and Teams on my work desktop and personal laptop. I'll do minor tasks online, but any real work happens in desktop app.

Collaborating on shared documents can be tricky. If two people are working on MOD document at same time, then A can be typing away on page three and suddenly find his work is appearing on page two, because B scrolled up to edit and the online app got confused. You can edit simultaneously, but I slow down and watch for jumps if two of us are working in same document online.

Copy and paste online is frustrating. Copy and paste from online doc to doc open in desktop app is beyond frustrating. Open both docs on desktop app.