Hi All,


I'm running Windows 10 1909.


I just had a frightening experience with cloud storage, which made me 
realize I don't really understand One Drive and Windows Libraries. If 
anyone can give me a little explanation to get me started, I can read 
more on my own.


So my experience has always been this.


When you go into This PC, you find folders like Desktop, Documents, 
Downloads, and Music, and later you find the official C:\ drive. If you 
put files into Documents, Music, etc., they go into One Drive and are 
synced by Microsoft. If you don't want to use One Drive, you can go into 
the C:\ drive to find Users > your name > and a different set of folders 
called Desktop, Documents, Downloads, and Music, and you put your files 
there. The two sets of folders with the same name (i.e., the two 
Documents folders) are completely unrelated, so you can add files to one 
without the file appearing in the other. When you upgrade to a new 
version of Windows, Windows defaults you to the set of folders that is 
synced to One Drive. If you aren't interested in the MS cloud service, 
you need to get yourself to the folder that doesn't sync.


Since I'm not a One Drive user, I always get myself to the folder that 
doesn't sync. I also empty out the synced folder, and I usually turn off 
One drive though this is sometimes enough of a PITA that I give up at 
some point. Every now and then, I check the synced folder to make sure 
it's still empty, and it is. I don't remember when I last checked, but I 
would say it was probably last spring.


This morning, I had a very different experience.


About a week ago, I updated to Windows 10 1909. Last night, I downloaded 
some files from the web, and when I couldn't find them in the 
non-syncing Downloads folder, I realized I had to set the right folder 
because of the OS update. This morning, I saved an email attachment, and 
the same thing happened. The file wasn't in the non-syncing Documents 
folder, so I saved the attachment again, this time navigating to the 
right folder. What I just described went as expected.


The next thing I did was go into the Documents folder that syncs to One 
Drive. It was full of folders and files, including my BARD and Audible 
books. That was a surprise. I didn't check to find out whether it was an 
exact copy of the non-syncing Documents folder. My quick skim was that 
most things were there but that a few things were missing. Maybe during 
all the Google Drive drama of a few days before, One Drive somehow got 
itself in on the cloud sync action and copied my files. Anyway, I hit 
ctrl+a to select all, and I hit Delete to clear the One Drive folder. 
Then I went to C:\ > Users > Ana > Documents, and ... you know where 
this is going ... the folder, which isn't supposed to sync, was 
absolutely empty and its contents were permanently gone. Fortunately, I 
had copies of the really important things in Dropbox, so I pasted them 
into the non-syncing folder, and a few minutes later, when I checked the 
One Drive folder in This PC, my newly pasted files and folders were there.


So my first question is "Are these two folders now one and the same?"


As I've been exploring, I notice that, when you're in one of these 
syncing / non-syncing folders and press the Applications key on a file 
or folder, there's an item that says, "give access to," which includes 
options like Home Group and Specific Users, and there's another item 
that says "Include in Library," which includes options like Documents 
and Music.


So my next two questions are "What do the 'Give access to' and 'Include 
in Library' items do, and how are they related?"


I know that home groups, sharing, and libraries have been part of 
Windows forever, but I've never understood these features, even when I 
try to do some reading.


Thanks for any wisdom.


Ciao


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