How to select Mac folders to sync with OneDrive without duplicating

Question

Level 1

8 points

How to select Mac folders to sync with OneDrive without duplicating

Sorry if my post is misplaced, and if my question is inappropriate...

Having an iMac (1 TB) and a Seagate NAS (2 TB) as the central brain of automatically syncing files / pictures / videos in our home (e.g. using Photosync to automatically upload new files / photos / videos from iPhones, iPads, Macs to the NAS, using Power Manager and Sync Folders Pro to automatically sync between NAS and iMac, we have found our desired "sync-world", but we´ve identified some additional need for back-up security in case an accidental fire in our home.

Happen to be, as an Office 365 Personal subscriber, I have a 1 TB OneDrive (SkyDrive) account. I have downloaded the OneDrive app for Mac, but not sure how to set this up optimal, as the OneDrive folder needs to defined at a specific folder location on my Mac (per now, under "My documents"). Apparently, there is only an option to choose which folders to sync in an OneDrive --> iMac world, not the other way around. Having 3 folders (+ several subfolders) at different folder locations within my iMac undergoing the auto-sync process described above, I want these folders also to be synced/updated to OneDrive. Without coming up with alternative ideas, or alternative (or better in your eyes) sky storage places, could anyone help me with the following:

1. How to choose iMac folders (specifically) to be uploaded/synced with OneDrive without having to duplicate/copy files to the OneDrive folder on my iMac

2. For Dropbox (not an alternative to use for me, as I´ve too little space, and because of my 365 subscription space I´d rather use OneDrive), it is possible to right click on an internal iMac folder and choose Dropbox. Why isn´t this possible with OneDrive. Is it possible to install an OneDrive "addition" to make it possible?

iMac (27-inch, Late 2012), OS X Mountain Lion (10.8.3)

Posted on Jun 7, 2015 3:59 PM

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Answer 1

jon1425

Level 1

4 points

Aug 13, 2017 5:41 AM in response to Ken Gee

This only allows you to select folders already in the onedrive folder. The OP wants to sync files outside of the onedrive folder. In other words, he does not want to reorganise his whole directory structure to use one drive as a backup, which I can understand.

As a general comment it seems to me that the cloud providers either do sync like dropbox and onedrive or they do backup like Idrive. Perhaps one of them will realise that they should be providing both services in one package. Perhaps one of them does but I do not know about it.

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Answer 2

kjoglum Author

Level 1

8 points

Jun 8, 2015 6:14 AM in response to Csound1

Sure thing, but instead of ending up in a Mac / PC compatibility discussion on a Microsoft forum, I wanted to check if other Mac users have found a workaround. I would guess I`m not the only Mac user using Microsoft OneDrive...

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Answer 3

Jun 8, 2015 8:34 AM in response to kjoglum

One drive creates a single folder into which all synced items must be kept.

Just the way it is on both PC and Mac. You cannot pick any random directory

anywhere on any drive to sync.

I have used One Drive to sync files between computers in both Mac world and PC world

and this is just the way it works.

BTW, SkyDrive was deprecated and changed to OneDrive by Microsoft for all applications

due to a copyright lawsuit.

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Answer 4

Oseborn

Level 1

4 points

Nov 17, 2016 5:27 AM in response to kjoglum

How to Move Special Folders on OS X to Cloud Storage

http://www.howtogeek.com/204595/how-to-move-special-folders-on-os-x-to-cloud-sto rage/

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Answer 5

kjoglum Author

Level 1

8 points

Jun 8, 2015 9:59 AM in response to woodmeister50

Not the answer I was hoping, but thank you!

So then I guess the options are (a) make a copy of the folders / files to be backed up into the OneDrive folder or (b) move the specific folders / files into the OneDrive folder and have the OneDrive as a "mother" directory.

I´ve read something about symbolic links, but it seems as if symbolic links are no longer compatible with OneDrive.

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Answer 6

Ken Gee

Level 1

9 points

Sep 11, 2015 7:28 AM in response to kjoglum

Click on the OneDrive icon on the menu bar, choose Preferences and then switch to the Choose Folders tab. If you select the Choose folders to syncoption on the subsequent screen you can untick any folder that you don't want to be synced. The unselected folders, complete with their contents, are still available everywhere else you have OneDrive installed.

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Answer 7

Tricky57

Level 1

113 points

Feb 4, 2017 1:36 PM in response to kjoglum

OneDrive won't sync unless you have started the OneDrive app found in your applications folder.

1) Start the OneDrive App

2) Sign in to your Microsoft Account

3) If requested by the App, show where your OneDrive folder is. This is necessary if the OneDrive folder is on a different drive or an external drive.

4) Drop (i.e. move) / (or copy) any folders you want synced to the OneDrive folder.

5) Check the OneDrive icon on the top right of your Mac monitor. It should show how many files it has synced and the progress. (You will only see the icon if the OneDrive App is running.)

6) Wait...wait...wait.... until all your files have synced. Now you can find them on the Web

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Answer 8

eldustin

Level 1

4 points

Dec 18, 2017 8:34 AM in response to kjoglum

Check out this youtube video, fast forward to 9:30. They set it up for choosing exactly which folders. Microsoft OneDrive Mac Tutorial - YouTube If you cannot get it to work, I suggest deleting the app, re-install it, then go through the new setup menu.

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