Using OneDrive for backups

Hi all,

I'm planning to upgrade my wife and parents to Office 365 (currently there's a mix of Office 2010 and 2007). One of the big reasons for the upgrade is for OneDrive as a cloud storage and backup solution. Currently I pay for 5 separate Carbonite licenses for backups. I'm hoping to move all this data onto OneDrive - with their family bundle each licenses comes with 1TB in OneDrive.

I had 2 questions before implementing this:

1. One of the machines is a Mac - is it possible to have the iTunes and iPhoto library (as well as any other data) stored locally on the Mac and have a continuous sync between the local machine and OneDrive? I've seen a few articles that mention how to move the library to the OneDrive location, but have yet to find a guide or mention of syncing the library on a local machine with OneDrive.

2. Does anyone know if OneDrive does any type of compression on photos, or are they uploaded with original quality?

I've been doing a lot of reading on Office 365 and specifically OneDrive and I think I have a pretty clear picture of how this all works. I just wanted to hear from people who may already be using OneDrive. I'm specifically interested in Question #1 as I'm not sure I've found a definitive answer on this yet.

Any help would be most appreciated (as always)! Thank you!

I do not use OneDrive but a bit of research turned up this app that will do what you want - if I am reading your question correctly.

https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/onedrive/id823766827?mt=12

As for compression - I seriously doubt it. Most storage services move the total file.

Lisa

lclev said:

I do not use OneDrive but a bit of research turned up this app that will do what you want - if I am reading your question correctly.

https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/onedrive/id823766827?mt=12

As for compression - I seriously doubt it. Most storage services move the total file.

Lisa

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Thanks for the link, I appreciate it. I'm pretty comfortable with the concept of cloud storage for most data files (i.e. Word and Excel). I'm just curious how OneDrive handles libraries like iPhoto and iTunes.

GLaDOS said:

Thanks for the link, I appreciate it. I'm pretty comfortable with the concept of cloud storage for most data files (i.e. Word and Excel). I'm just curious how OneDrive handles libraries like iPhoto and iTunes.

Click to expand...

I prefer Google Drive over OneDrive as it's easier to use. Google Drive gives you 15 GB for free.

I have OneDrive from my Office365 subscription, and it doesn't seem to mount as a drive to which you could do backups or anything else. It's a folder on the MBP that is then replicated to the OneDrive cloud, like Dropbox and other cloud services. If you want to use it for backups, you'd have to make the backup to the OneDrive folder, and from there it would replicate to the cloud. But if you then deleted the backup from the local folder, it would be deleted from the cloud as well.

As for pictures, the same issue applies. You'd still have copies on the local drive, in that folder, plus duplicates in the cloud.

Now, from what I can see you can select what folders you want to sync to OneDrive, so I suppose you could try making that folder your account folder, in which case perhaps everything in that user folder will be replicated up, or maybe even try the root of the drive to see if EVERYTHING will replicate up, but I don't know if it handles hidden files/system files/etc. properly or not. And again, if you delete something in the cloud or on the drive it gets replicated to the other, so it might be a bit tricky, particularly if something critical got accidentally deleted.

You might be better getting a network drive to hold all the backups. I have a WDMyCloud that I am using to hold backups of three Macs and it works well.

I basically want all of the files in her user profile folder to be copied to the cloud via OneDrive. I installed OneDrive on her Mac and see the OneDrive folder that was created. I want to move all her files so that OneDrive is the root folder, so instead of having User\Documents I'd have OneDrive\Documents.

For the folders she created, it's been pretty easy - just drag and drop. But the "special libraries" like Documents, Pictures, Movies, and Music don't seem to work the same. When I drag those folders into OneDrive it makes a copy of them. But she could still save a file in the original location (User\Documents) and it wouldn't show up in OneDrive b/c the copy of the Document library (OneDrive\Documents) is not updated. Is there a way to accomplish this? I'm basically looking to have all files and libraries live in OneDrive and no the local User profile.

Thank you!!

I think you are misunderstanding how the OS X file system works and how OneDrive works. OS X separates users for security and functionality. User1 cannot see User2's files, for example. Each user can then have profiles that change how applications work for them with that profile stored in the individual user's space. That separate function is built in to the operating system. To keep it all sorted, there is a /Users folder on the drive and inside that folder are the individual user home folders. Applications expect to see that structure, the security system is built on that structure and the operating system enforces that structure. So what you suggested of replacing /User with /OneDrive at the root won't work properly. What you MIGHT be able to do is to designate the /User/<herusername> folder as the One Drive location, but leave the name the folder the same as it is now. I suspect what OneDrive would then to (or try to do) is to copy all of the files in her home folder to the OneDrive cloud. However, there are hidden files in each user's home folder that the system uses to administer the individual accounts, and I don't know if OneDrive will be able to see or copy those files up to the cloud. OneDrive wasn't created with the idea of being a backup for an entire system, more to be a synchronizing place so that your Office documents could be shared between devices.

Frankly, I still think you might be better off getting a local cloud device like a WDMyCloud and use something like ChronoSync to keep her local folder and the MyCloud in sync.

GLaDOS said:

1. One of the machines is a Mac - is it possible to have the iTunes and iPhoto library (as well as any other data) stored locally on the Mac and have a continuous sync between the local machine and OneDrive? I've seen a few articles that mention how to move the library to the OneDrive location, but have yet to find a guide or mention of syncing the library on a local machine with OneDrive.

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OneDrive, like Dropbox or Google Drive, just creates a folder on your Mac that is them mirrored with your OneDrive account. So, as long as your libraries are in that folder, that should be fine. One thing to note here though is that since you're technically sending your files to a third party and then using them across devices, that might count as "file sharing" legally speaking. I'm not a lawyer though so you'll have to determine if that's the case or not.

@GLaDOS,

I risk causing offence which is the last thing I want to do; but, as Jake, chscag & vansmith have indicated in different ways, there is a big difference between Backup/Storage strategy and Cloud options for syncing between devices.

OneDrive, Dropbox, Google Drive et al, are principally designed as Cloud syncing services. In each case they not only fail to save space on your Mac, but actually add to it in that they create a Folder on your Mac into which you copy files, whatever they are, thereby duplicating the space taken up by the original files.

What you say you are seeking is a Backup/Storage solution which protects you against loss of data, in whatever form. Time Machine does this to a degree; cloning software does this with the added advantage of being bootable. Then you can copy libraries, (iTunes, iPhoto, Photos, Aperture) and precious documents to an External Hard Drive - and there are Offline, Cloud BU options as well. That strategy applies to Windows and Macs (apart from Time Machine, obviously).

I get the impression that you are trying to combine Backup/Storage with syncing; involving both Mac & Windows' operating systems. This all inclusive cross platform approach seems unlikely to be successful.

As I said, I intend no offence; just how I see things.

Ian

IWT said:

@GLaDOS,

I risk causing offense which is the last thing I want to do; but, as Jake, chscag & van smith have indicated in different ways, there is a big difference between Backup/Storage strategy and Cloud options for syncing between devices.
… … …
I get the impression that you are trying to combine Backup/Storage with syncing; involving both Mac & Windows' operating systems. This all inclusive cross platform approach seems unlikely to be successful.

As I said, I intend no offence; just how I see things.
Ian

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+1. Totally agree.

And I think a bit more reading and investigation would be well worth the effort.

Patrick
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I would encourage the OP to take a look at Chronosync and particularly ChronoAgent to see if that might better suit what they are trying to do, which as you say is combine backing and syncing so that it all happens at the same time.