Windows 11, 10, 8, 7, and One Drive - How to Synchronize Your Data Across All Devices 

Thank you!

Thank you for watching.

Thank you!

Thank you!

Nice. Is that in addition to the folder(s) already being synced?

@@frankwestphal8532 Yes, anything that isn't covered by their default selections. I assume it could be on another drive if needed but I haven't tested that.

Hi, thank you for watching. Great question here. A couple things: The very first thing that is an issue here, is that there is a seamless way to this without using OneDrive to begin with. And that is Google Drive. And the reason for this, is that Android is a mobile operating system which was created by Google, and it integrates absolutely seamlessly with Google Drive and Google Photos. What you want to do can still be done, but I highly recommend that you just set up Google Drive instead of OneDrive. I use both on a regular basis, and they are both HIGHLY useful/functional. However, If you are running an Android phone, Google Drive with Google Photos, is the way to go. Here is my Google Drive video if you want to go this route. ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-dO-dOeKc8iY.html With that said, here's how we can resolve this specific issue... 1. The very first step here is to ensure that you have multiway synchronization set up between your PC, and OneDrive online storage and application servers. To test this, go into your local (on your physical PC) OneDrive folder and create or copy/paste ANY random file. Then, log into OneDrive online application and storage through a web browser, (like I do in the video), and verify that whatever random file you created/copy/pasted has shown up in your OneDrive online. If it has, you have synchronization in place. 2. You're mentioning a couple default folders on the phone and PC. These default folders are just recommendations for people to store data. It could be any data, but in this case we're talking about photos. These default folders will not see each other as the same location (one is called "camera roll", and the other is called "photos"), while they have different names and exist in different file system locations, when a synchronization server tries to look at them. Because of this, the photos you have in one folder, will not show up, or be deleted (through synchronization), in the respective other folder. I.E. synchronization will not happen because the servers are looking in the wrong places. 3. To resolve this, I would make sure you first have a copy of your photos on your PC. You could download them all to a temp folder that you create, or any other way to just make sure you have them, on your physical system drive(s). Backup is always the first step, before changes are made. 4. Once you have made sure you have a physical copy of all your photos, go into your OneDrive folder on your physical PC and delete any and all of the default folders that are there. Remember, these are just "recommended" storage locations. What we are doing here is clearing out ALL default or recommended storage locations, and/or folders, so that we have a perfectly clean storage location, which has already been verified (step 1) to be successfully synchronizing. 5. Then create a folder simply called "photos" within your local (physical PC) OneDrive folder. Copy the photos that you backed up temporarily in step 3, to your new "photos" folder. And from this point forward, when you upload photos from your phone, make sure that the storage destination is "OneDrive > photos". The new "photos" folder will be the synchronization point for photos, within OneDrive. Don't even worry about a random recommended folder on the phone anymore. That is irrelevant at this point. Your "photos" folder that you created on your PC, will be within the OneDrive application on your phone, and anything you put in that folder on your phone or PC (or any other device or additional phones or computers), will synchronize seamlessly. I know this is a lot, but I hope I have been able to clarify some of the backend concepts that are in play here, and the specific steps to get your photos synchronized across your devices. If you have any further questions/issues, just respond with details, and I will do my best to help.

Hi and thanks for watching. Yes, there are a couple ways around this. I'm not sure why it didn't preserve the date stamps, but you can get them on your new win 11 computer. I just played around with a couple options. And this one is by far the easiest. It's easier than it looks... don't worry. It's just copying all your onedrive folder to an external USB drive, using a copy tool that preservers time/date info, then copying it on to your win 11 computer and letting onedrive application sync that data with the correct time/date stamps. The exact steps are: 1. Make a copy of your entire one drive folder with just plain old copy/paste, and store it on your win 10 computer anywhere (this is just a temporary backup just to make sure no data is lost if the step 2, safecopyfree tool gets an error). 2. Copy your entire one drive folder from your win 10 computer, on to an external USB drive, using this "safecopyfree.exe" copy tool (it's legit and free, I just tested it, it worked great). Make sure to click on the 2 boxes, "process subfolders" and "include the folder itself". www.elwinsoft.com/download.html Verify the time and date stamps are preserved for all folders all files that were copied on to the external USB drive. 3. Uninstall OneDrive on your win 11 computer and restart. 4. Delete your OneDrive folder on your win 11 computer. It's located at: C:\Users\YOUR USER NAME 5. Log into one drive web application (online version) and delete everything in it. 6. Plug that USB drive into your win 11 computer and use the safecoyfree.exe tool again, to copy your entire OneDrive folder into the exact same location it was in when you deleted it: C:\Users\YOUR USER NAME 7. Download OneDrive and install it on your new win 11 computer. Then sign in. That should do it. All your data should have the correct time/date stamps on your local OneDrive folder on the win 11 computer. And OneDrive file sync application will then sync that local OneDrive folder, with OneDrive servers, and include all the preserved time and date stamps. If everything looks good, go ahead and delete the temporary copy of your OneDrive folder on the win 10 computer that you created in step 1.

The easiest way to do this with all windows operating systems is the Ctrl + Alt+ Delete hotkey combination. This will give you the option to power off the computer. And anytime a windows operating system is powered off through windows (meaning you don't hit the actual power button on the computer itself) all logged in users are automatically logged off during the shutdown process.

Hi, and thanks for watching. You have just identified one of the most important concepts for all of us to understand regarding tech, in general. I want to go deep into this because there is a lot to say. But to (try) and keep it short and simple, I will say these things: 1. A lot of it is marketing, and perceived relevance, to the consumer. A different user interface (perception of "newness"), and an attempt to consolidate existing Windows OS deeper functionality in a way that is more easily accessible to everyday users (ease of use and decrease of learning curve, is what I believe Microsoft was/is shooting for with with Win 11 (and in previous versions of windows OS). In some ways, that objective as been been accomplished. 2. With number 1 said, there are fundamental security improvements in Win 11, (TPM 2.0 requirements and UEFI boot requirements). These improvements absolutely DO matter regarding overall long term security, particularly in business environments. 3. Although there is always a public beta testing timeframe of couple of months, or even a year/years, (that no tech company will ever admit to), Win 11 was highly functional, even before it was publicly released. For me, Win 11 was the first Windows OS that I could use a pre-release version of, and still got the job done as a daily driver computer, handling everyday workloads. The long story short here is that Win 11 does have significant security improvements, which DO matter. But Win 10, still absolutely dominates world desktop/laptop OS market share with 70% (as of May2024).

@@frankwestphal8532 My win 10 had a folder named "One Drive" within file explorer. Win 11 doesn't have a "One Drive" folder it was changed to "Edwards Personal" Microsoft has this new laptop locked.