Microsoft Onedrive lost my files ?

[woodieallen]

I have a Samsung Smartphone and just got this message

The OneDrive storage bonus you redeemed by activating OneDrive on your Samsung device will expire 3/20/2022 and you'll be over your new storage limit.

So I go into OneDrive and there are no files. So how come ? How can I be over my storage limit!

 

[paulrbarnard]

I have a Samsung Smartphone and just got this message

The OneDrive storage bonus you redeemed by activating OneDrive on your Samsung device will expire 3/20/2022 and you'll be over your new storage limit.

So I go into OneDrive and there are no files. So how come ? How can I be over my storage limit!

Perhaps the limit is zero and it is counting the hidden file information as data.

 

[woodieallen]

It says I've used 0 out of 5GB.

 

[MARK.B.]

That's the problem when you store files/images to cloud based data storage,people can and do, lose everything that they thought was safely stored. True the offer of free storage may be tempting,but is it worth the risk . A small high capacity external storage drive can be bought fairly cheaply and gives you full control of those precious files . Also when using the cloud you have no clue who might be viewing your stuff or what is done with that info .
Sorry I can't help with your problem except to say, try looking on the Samsung web site ,you may find an explanation there

 

[user 35906]

You haven't got more than one account on Onedrive have you? I set myself up in Dropbox and on Onedrive, downloaded photo's to them and then forget all about them. Eventually when I remember about them I can't remember which email address and password combination I used to set them up so end up trying several Email addresses and passwords and after a few tries its easy to make another empty account. Good luck getting your files back.

 

[woodieallen]

That's the problem when you store files/images to cloud based data storage,people can and do, lose everything that they thought was safely stored. True the offer of free storage may be tempting,but is it worth the risk . A small high capacity external storage drive can be bought fairly cheaply and gives you full control of those precious files . Also when using the cloud you have no clue who might be viewing your stuff or what is done with that info .
Sorry I can't help with your problem except to say, try looking on the Samsung web site ,you may find an explanation there

Hard drive backing up a smartphone ? Tell me more

 

[woodieallen]

You haven't got more than one account on Onedrive have you? I set myself up in Dropbox and on Onedrive, downloaded photo's to them and then forget all about them. Eventually when I remember about them I can't remember which email address and password combination I used to set them up so end up trying several Email addresses and passwords and after a few tries its easy to make another empty account. Good luck getting your files back.

That's a good thought but I am logging in using the same email address that the message was sent to. Strange one.

 

[Spectric]

If you want a decent backup system then use hardware, USB pendrives, SSD's or just a good old fashioned hard drive but don't trust something that is not in your possession and that you do not have full control over. If you want further information then digital asset management (DAM) is worth reading up on because at the end of the day if you have put time and effort into producing something then you want to ensure it is safe.

 

[Garno]

Hard drive backing up a smartphone ? Tell me more

https://www.amazon.co.uk/SecureData...ds=Bluetooth+Hard+Drive&qid=1645182879&sr=8-3
The 500GB is a lot cheaper

 

[Spectric]

Hard drive backing up a smartphone ? Tell me more

I am not an Android specialist but have spent a lot of time hacking smart phones trying to make them fit for navigational use in the outdoors with limited success. It can be done in several ways, have you tried MobiKin Backup Manager for Android: MobiKin Assistant for Android - Backup, Restore, Edit & Manage Data on Android Device

You could go via a google account, put your data into this new account on the phone then access the account on your Pc and download from here.

If you want to you could use a cable to connect the phone to the pc and then just use drag and drop.

 

[MARK.B.]

You need to tell your phone that you want to send your files to Onedrive , instead simply send them to your laptop/desktop etc where they can then be stored on any plug n play removable storage device . Ok it may take a few seconds extra, thus becoming a very minor irritant ,but your files are safe and only you can get at them when needed. You are not then at the mercy of Samsung or any other provider when they decide to change terms and conditions .

 

[Just4Fun]

The way I look at it is there is no such thing as the cloud, just someone else's computer. If I put stuff on the cloud I am really putting it on someone else's computer and assuming they will do a better job of looking after it than I would. I believe safeguarding my files is more important to me than it is to someone else, so that logic seems flawed. Hence I don't use those facilities and don't ever take up those offers of free storage.

 

[woodieallen]

I think we're going off topic now.

My basic question is....the message tells me that my storage requirements will be over my storage limit when the 'deal' ends. Yet there is nothing there.

 

[Droogs]

Try resyncing on both your phone and also on any pc that you have. I have noticed occasionally that my phone onedrive doesn't always show the stuff my laptops have been hoicking into onedrive as they are used

 

[porker]

I've had this before and I reinstalled the OneDrive app and it resynced correctly.

Incidentally you are far less likely to lose your data on a decent cloud backup than your own hardware as a cloud setup will have much greater resilience to loss. Granted I understand the security concerns as these are difficult to really assess and also the way you are beholdent to the provider. Alas this type of model is bcoming more and more prevalent - you don't buy software outright these days, its all on a pay as you go or SaaS model.

 

[D_W]

I back up nothing. Even when you pay for those services, I doubt their obligation to indemnify you for lost data is much.

Well, I shouldn't say I back up nothing. I have two 2TB drives that I use to back up old information from PCs ,etc. They dupe each other in case one fails. The cost to do this is about $25 per year on average and the drives don't spam me with email.

 

[Richard_C]

Rather than enter the debate* about how to backup/store here are some practical suggestions for the OP.

Cloud storage for your photo gallery can work in diferent ways - some synchronise fully, so if you delete from phone it deletes from the cloud. Others backup - I have mine set that way so I can declutter my phone but everything I delete from it still exists in onedrive. So you might have things you have deleteed from your phone still up there in the cloud. Here's a way to have a look:

(I don't have a Samsung but assuming the android implementation is similar to my Huawei)

On the phone:

• access settings, normally via a pulldown from the top then the settings cog but yours may differ
• scroll down to accounts, sometimes called users and accounts
• scroll down that to onedrive and click the arrow. It will tell you with certainty which onedrive account you are using to backup your phone.

From a web browser, ideally on a PC of some kind

• search for onedrive login, go to it (make sure it looks like a proper microsft page) and put in your account email (the one on your phone) and password. (You might need to recover password if you have forgotten it, or you might be able to find it on your phone under settings-privacy or settings-security, look for password vault, you might get lucky).
• By logging in to onedrive this way you are looking at your whole onedrive account not just the simplified version the phone lets you see.
• First you should see 'my files', top left: have a poke around in the folders inclusing looking in the recycle bin to see what's there. You might find a lot of pictures you thought you had deleted sitting in the pictures folders, and look out for videos which can take up a lot of space.
• second, go to the settings - cog top right - then options, you should see 'manage my storage' which has a sub heading whats taking up space. See if there are any clues in that.
• Scrolling down that page should also show you how much additional storage you own under various offers.
• Next, still in options, open the plans and upgrades menu and it will show you what you have and when it expires.

If you do want to buy some onedrive storage, a home and family office 365 account is stonking value (not for commercial use etc). Its about £80 a year and you get the full suite of MS Office applications - excel, word etc., plus 1 TB of storage. And even better, you can do that times 5 so a family can have the applications and 1 TB each with seperate logins. And even better, yoiu can have the office stuff on 1 main machine and one small one each, so I have them on my phone and laptop. It almost seems too good to be true compared with just buying extra storage on dropbox or whatever.

* OK, I will join in. But its off topic and I've tried to address the original question first. The late great Jack Schofield of the Guardian coined "Schofield's Law" a very long time ago. Data doesn't exist unless its in at least 3 places. In my case its the originating device, be that phone or laptop, the cloud, in this case onedrive, and an NAS disc for the important things. It could just as easily be google drive, apple or dropbox and a USB stick or disc. Physical media like NAS or USB drive is fine but unless you can afford offsite storage it has the same total loss (fire, theft, flood) risk as your main computer, so cloud is a useful 3rd part of the strategy. We all have our preferences and views, but the important thing is to think it through and find a solution that suits you. When you see people being interviewed after fire or flood, they often say "The worst thing is not the stuff, its the family photos that are gone forever". Cloud storage is a pretty good solution now most of out images are digital.

 

[D_W]

>>it has the same total loss (fire, theft, flood) risk as your main computer<<

Sort of, but maybe not. It certainly doesn't make sense to have a PC with two digital backups residing at the same place as the PC or even in the same place as each other.

My PC and two drives are in three different parts of the house. It's unlikely that all three would be destroyed. It's possible, but far less likely than destruction of all three if they were residing in the same spot.

I have had loss of data on cloud services twice in the last five years, both in email services that advertised their ability to back up and store basically limitless information. When I lost a decade and a half of emails on one, their attitude was "we tried to recover the data, but for a group of account holders, it is not recoverable". Some of it was later restored, but it's not searchable. So I have some tens of thousands of emails from the past that don't respond to the search function on the email service.

At the very least, if someone is relying on cloud, I'd have physical duplicate storage of anything that's actually important as it's cheap to advertise for someone offering cloud storage, and free to not provide anything meaningful (even in effort) if data is lost.

 

[Inspector]

I have an iPhone and anytime I receive messages like that I get suspicious that they are phoney and are trying to get you to click on or go to links that put hidden programs in the phone that data mine your information. If there is a possibility it is legitimate I go to the site via the website itself that I type in and look into it from there. I never click on the stuff in the messages unless I am absolutely certain it isn't foul.

Pete

 

[Spectric]

I think handing over what could essentially be your interlectural property to a third party is like handing over your house keys to the local burglar. Stop and think about DATA, it is now a commodity with value and unscruperlous people will do anything to collect it and will be more than happy to have you just hand it over.

We have secure broadband connections and should be shredding anything that could result in identity theft yet people all jump on the cloud bandwagon without giving it enough thought, if you insist on using it then at least encrypt your data.