Syncing "Documents" folder between two PCs 100% automatically

Semple · 24 Jun 2019 at 10:07

NeilFawcett said:
Yeh, it's sound more and more like the safest option is to:-
1) On one PC, move all existing documents from the traditional old "Document" folder into "OneDrive".
2) On both PCs, make that OneDrive documents folder the default document location - https://www.windowscentral.com/how-set-onedrive-your-default-save-location-windows-10
3) The documents on both PCs should now be identical (after some sync'ing time), and be kept identical/sync'd.

So I amend a document on PC X, the change will automatically appear on PC Y. If I create a document on PC Y, the document will appear on PC X. (Obviously with transfer times...)

Good! Thanks!

Yes

Once setup you'll laugh at how un-complex the whole thing is

NeilF · 24 Jun 2019 at 10:11

Semple said:
Yes

Once setup you'll laugh at how un-complex the whole thing is

Thanks... The last think I want is more hassle and wasted time after spending 3-4hrs (including 2hrs with MS staff) trying to get Office 365 installed and running on one of the PCs in question... Grrr

Deleted member 77746 · 24 Jun 2019 at 10:11

why are you complicating things? Just select a folder on both PC's and it will sync over no problems.

-- > Select folder on computer A > It will sync to computer B
-- > Select folder on computer B > It will sync to computer A

It's really as simple as that. Just make sure it's logged in with the same account.

NeilF · 24 Jun 2019 at 10:50

mrbell1984 said:
why are you complicating things? Just select a folder on both PC's and it will sync over no problems.

-- > Select folder on computer A > It will sync to computer B
-- > Select folder on computer B > It will sync to computer A

It's really as simple as that. Just make sure it's logged in with the same account.

Hmmm... Not sure if that will achieve what I'm after?

We're talking about a stand alone traditional "Documents" folder sitting there on PC A and PC B, that I want to keep automatically 100% in sync.

You're suggesting I go into OneDrive on PC A and tell it to included "Documents" (which is not in the OneDrive folder).... and then I go onto PC B and into its OneDrive and I'll see what? That I can point the "Documents" folder selected on A to the "Documents" folder on PC B so as to keep them sync'd up? If you can do that, lovely... But as a couple of other folks have suggested it sounds like you can't?

I'll try it tomorrow if I can...

chroniclard · 24 Jun 2019 at 11:00

Really over complicating this.

Deleted member 77746 · 24 Jun 2019 at 11:03

So you are talking about 'merging' + 'Syncing' a single folder on 'Computer A' and 'Computer B' then? I get you now!

EDIT: I'm going to test it now... one moment.

NeilF · 24 Jun 2019 at 11:04

chroniclard said:
Really over complicating this.

Not sure I am TBH!

I don't think (from what people have said) it's possible to simply get OneDrive to seemlessly sync up a folder across two PCs which has nothing to do with OneDrive?

So the outcome is (given we're talking about a "Documents" folder) is with the two machines in question, to move the documents into OneDrive's dedicated "Documents" folder... And apart from then making OneDrive's documents folder the the default location... Done...

mrbell1984 said:
So you are talking about 'merging' + 'Syncing' a single folder on 'Computer A' and 'Computer B' then? I get you now!

Yes... The person in question has a desktop PC... and now also has a new laptop. I want to make it so their documents are seemlessly sync'd across those two machines. So a new/amended/deleted document on one, magically also happens on the other.

Currently both PCs have a stand alone "Documents" folder. I want to sync this folder across the two machines so changes on one PC seemlessly sync over to the other.

It's sounding like the best (only?) way to do this is to simply move the documents into OneDrive's Documents folder, change both PCs default document folder to be that OneDrive folder, and done...

Deleted member 77746 · 24 Jun 2019 at 11:12

Right I set up 2 machines with OneDrive, it appears you can't do it as when you select a new folder it just puts 'OneDrive' as a new location inside that folder. It appears that you MUST create a folder which is always called 'OneDrive' then everything syncs inside it.

You could just take the files from 'Computer A' and 'Computer B' - Merge them into one then copy it into the new 'OneDrive' folder and it will always sync to 'Computer B' which has already been suggested.

chroniclard · 24 Jun 2019 at 11:13

Its a 10 minute job, people over complicating things, the steps are above.

NeilF · 24 Jun 2019 at 11:23

mrbell1984 said:
Right I set up 2 machines with OneDrive, it appears you can't do it as when you select a new folder it just puts 'OneDrive' as a new location inside that folder. It appears that you MUST create a folder which is always called 'OneDrive' then everything syncs inside it.

You could just take the files from 'Computer A' and 'Computer B' - Merge them into one then copy it into the new 'OneDrive' folder and it will always sync to 'Computer B' which has already been suggested.

Yes, this is what I've understood from people's comments.

eg:Currently we have two PCs with two standalone local "Documents" folders, each with a copy of the same documents currently (as they've just been copied across yesterday)...

PC X
.../Documents [...hundreds of documents and folders...]

PC Y
.../Documents [...hundreds of documents and folders (same as PC X currently)...]

So put/enable OneDrive on both PCs, and copy/transfer those "hundreds of documents and folders" to the OneDrive document folder:-

PC X
.../Documents [No longer used]
.../OneDrive
.../OneDrive/Documents [...hundreds of documents and folders...]

PC Y
.../Documents [No longer used]
.../OneDrive
.../OneDrive/Documents [...hundreds of documents and folders...]

Done! Apart from making the OneDrive documents folder the default documents location on both machines - https://www.windowscentral.com/how-set-onedrive-your-default-save-location-windows-10

Apart from ensuring both machines all "My Documents" shortcuts etc now point to the OneDrive documents, suspect it should be straight forwards etc...

Deleted member 77746 · 24 Jun 2019 at 11:32

It looks like things have moved about in the latest version, there is now a tab called 'Backup'.

It looks like if you select 'manage backup' you can now sync the 'documents' folder correctly. This has now appeared under 'choose folders' and it's now sync'd across both devices.

I think this is what you are trying to achieve.

This is now what my 'documents' folder looks like on both PC's in test.

NeilF · 24 Jun 2019 at 11:39

mrbell1984 said:
It looks like things have moved about in the latest version, there is now a tab called 'Backup'.

It looks like if you select 'manage backup' you can now sync the 'documents' folder correctly. This has now appeared under 'choose folders' and it's now sync'd across both devices.

I think this is what you are trying to achieve.

This is now what my 'documents' folder looks like on both PC's in test.

Thanks for that! So you're doing exactly what I wish to do. Simply keep automatically 100% in sync the "documents" folder on two PCs...

And to clarify, the "This PC > Documents" folder on your two machines, are stand alone folders (eg: "C:\Users\Bob\Documents"), or are they "Documents" folders in/under the OneDrive folder?

Is your "Test Document" in a "One Drive>Documents" folder? Or some sort of "C:\Users\Bob\Documents" folder?

Because it seems most people are suggesting the latter is what is required.

Deleted member 77746 · 24 Jun 2019 at 11:44

Just tested this as well for you and it's under 'C:\Users\localuser\Documents'. It looks like this new feature is called 'backup'. Onedrive is for the 'onedrive' folder and 'backup' is where you select custom folders.

I got a conflict and what it's done is added -copy on the end of every file that was duplicate on 'Computer B' ! Which is perfect as what you could do is search for all files with -copy in it and delete or move them to a new folder.

It looks like things can get pretty messy though so make sure you only select the folder 'my documents'. I just did a sync of my desktop as well it started transferring 6.3GB of crap lol.

NeilF · 24 Jun 2019 at 11:49

mrbell1984 said:
Just tested this as well for you and it's under 'C:\Users\localuser\Documents'. It looks like this new feature is called 'backup'. Onedrive is for the 'onedrive' folder and 'backup' is where you select custom folders.

I got a conflict and what it's done is added -copy on the end of every file that was duplicate on 'Computer B' ! Which is perfect as what you could do is search for all files with -copy in it and delete or move them to a new folder.

Ahh... Well, that's not perfect for what I want.

Quite simply if a document say called "A Document.doc" is amended on PC A, I want that changed version to seemlessly appear on PC B in its documents folder. So PC A and B are in effect working (amending/creating/deleting) exactly the same documents, all sync'd by OneDrive.

It sounds like the "Backup" feature you mentioned where you simply point to an arbitrary folder for OneDrive to "backup" won't achieve this. But I assume the "OneDrive>Documents" approach will!

Hence we're seemingly back to:-
1) On one PC, move all existing documents from the traditional old "Document" folder into "OneDrive>Documents".
2) On both PCs, make that OneDrive documents folder the default document location - https://www.windowscentral.com/how-set-onedrive-your-default-save-location-windows-10
3) The documents on both PCs should now be identical (after some sync'ing time), and be kept identical/sync'd.

ps: Thanks for clarifying that the "backup" option is not suitable!

Deleted member 77746 · 24 Jun 2019 at 11:51

Yeh well you would just delete the files with -copy as this is a duplicate. It won't put duplicate files in the same folder if there isn't any.

This link you are reference looks out of date now...
https://www.windowscentral.com/how-set-onedrive-your-default-save-location-windows-10

It's working from what I can tell with the 'backup' option. It's merged my files into one simply because there are discrepancies on both of my machines. Once it's merged once that's a job well done. They both stop in sync.

NeilF · 24 Jun 2019 at 12:02

mrbell1984 said:
Yeh well you would just delete the files with -copy as this is a duplicate. It won't put duplicate files in the same folder if there isn't any.

It's working from what I can tell with the 'backup' option. It's merged my files into one simply because there are discrepancies on both of my machines. Once it's merged once that's a job well done. They both stop in sync.

Sorry, you've seemed to contradict yourself there? Or I'm misunderstanding it?

Ultimately, if the "Backup" option does not seemlessly copy/keep in sync documents between two machines (without creating "-copy" versions) then it's not suitable for my needs.

I believe using the "OneDrive>Documents" folder method, would mean a total seemless/magical syncing of the documents across two (or more) PCs. So any change done to documents on one PC, would seemlessly appear on the other(s)!? As if by magic!

Deleted member 77746 · 24 Jun 2019 at 12:05

It creates a copy on first sync if it detects and documents that are the same on both machines, you simply delete the ones that have the same name on first sync. This will only be the first time that both systems synchronize though. You don't want a copy of two files the same do you?

After this anything put in C:\Users\[User]\Documents will be synced perfectly fine.

NeilF · 24 Jun 2019 at 12:13

mrbell1984 said:
It creates a copy on first sync if it detects and documents that are the same on both machines, you simply delete the ones that have the same name on first sync. This will only be the first time that both systems synchronize though. You don't want a copy of two files the same do you?

After this anything put in C:\Users\[User]\Documents will be synced perfectly fine.

Oooooooooh! So that's perfect then! No moving of documents or changing of default document locations?!!?

So question... Let's assume on the two PCs in question their current document folders are as follows:-
- C:\Users\Bob\Documents\
- C:\Users\Bobby\Documents\

How does OneDrive on the two PCs know the folders to keep in sync are "C:\Users\Bob\Documents\" <--> "C:\Users\Bobby\Documents\"

And if you log into OneDrive (say of over the web interface, or in over an IPad) under what folder name/structure is it stored under?

Webzta · 24 Jun 2019 at 12:29

Setup onedrive on both then set your documents location on both PCs to the onedrive folder/documents.
Example:
C:\Users\%username%\OneDrive\Documents

NeilF · 24 Jun 2019 at 12:31

Webzta said:
Setup onedrive on both then set your documents location on both PCs to the onedrive folder/documents.
Example:
C:\Users\%username%\OneDrive\Documents

Agreed! That was the route I was going down until mrbell1984 implied no movement of the existing document folder(s) were even necessary. You could simply "backup" between the existing document folders and they'd be perfectly sync'd.

I may still do the OneDrive\Documents route though because it just feels safer! But I'm concerned about the hassle/issues of ensure the PCs in question then treat the "OneDrive>Documents" folder as the default location for documents, through all apps and shortcuts/links.