Microsoft deleted my account and OneDrive | Hacker News Reader

Microsoft deleted my account and OneDrive

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86 pointsnixass77 comments

This is why I always ensure I have a big enough HD. I've used my current cloud backup for almost 15 years, and am really happy with it. But I never rely on them exclusively. If they go out of business tomorrow, I still have all the data locally!

And of course, if my HD crashes, I sync back all the really important stuff.

(OK, I would lose prior revisions of a file - I can live with that).

I don't know about in this case, but I've heard of both Apple and Microsoft "cloudifying" then deleting local files just found on your drive. I think with Apple, it was music.

The lack of control with closed platforms is staggering. Best make those offline bsckups.

With Microsoft, you can control it - they have to let you control - at least for enterprise use.

I assume Apple give you control as well.

Sane people like me use Linux, though.

> Best make those offline bsckups.

I have that too! A separate HD that I mount and clone to once a week.

That's only if you point the cloud at the directory with the files. For example, if your ~/Documents is on iCloud, it'll happily remove the copy from the actual ~/Documents folder after syncing to the cloud.

However, if you have an external drive at /Volumes/MYSHTUFF, you do not point iCloud at /Volumes/MYSHTUFF. You maintain a copy of ~/Documents at /Volume/MYSHTUFF/Documents. Maybe you use that as your primary work space an sync to ~/Documents periodically. For some apps and workflows (Logic projects, git repos), you don't want your live copy to be the cloud-sync'd copy.

Same with Apple Music. Keep your MP3s on an external drive, place a copy on the internal drive, drag the internal copy onto the Music app.

It's called Virtual Files on macos. In general it's a very useful feature because it keeps files local while they are being accessed which makes them super snappy to work with, and then offloads them automatically when disk space is low.

It does mean you need a separate backup process though.

It is probably not what you are taking about, but apple itunes deleted my entire music collection, first on my iPod, then on my hard drive, as I tried to sync one to the other. That was around 20 years ago.. when I stopped trusting tech.

So when Microsoft force updated my entire office to windows 11 and force uploaded their desktops to onedrive and locked them out because the cloud drive was now full.. I was uneffected (apart from having to fix the mess).

This happened on iPhone, paid-for music gone. Expect companies to shit on you as they grow, Apple and Microsoft are two of the biggest.

Well it's not a 'backup' if it's a single point of failure, something you rely on exclusively, is it!

Yep, I remember a couple of years ago Google Drive started flagging 1 byte files as pirated content - shortly after I bought a 6TB hard-drive and two 5TB portable hard-drives.

My progress in getting everything off Google Drive and OneDrive has slowed due to real life but all the important stuff is backed up offline now.

1 byte files? I guess there’s only 256 options, someone probably copyrighted them :)

I don't know if an explanation was ever given but I assume their pirated content scanning algorithm inadvertently dropped a file size check and their other checks passed.

Is there a viable alternative to the sync clients - pc/android with cloud/ghost files etc?

No idea, or at least I haven't looked into it. I just manually sync to my drives.

Late last year I could see where all the stuff was starting to go with storage and bought up a decent little amount of HDD's to get a full multi backup setup done. Worth it.

I also have a silly box that I call the 'T Box Series T' that is made out of loads of old PVR HDD's that were donated or found on the side of the road, if they burn out there is no big loss.

Some stuff is online but I have copies of copies of everything now.

Shit happens. I had my iMac and Time machine hard drives died 2 days apart...

Man, I love the PlayStation is going purely digital, who needs physical media for the games or movies you buy, nothing like this ever happens

That's a compelling argument (or for how it should be but I bet it isn't) for local play I suppose, but surely the volume's in online multiplayer, where physical media really doesn't save you because you're reliant on server etc. anyway.

(And arguably why not download the game assets or whatever if you're going to necessarily play connected anyway.)

Pretty sure they were referring to the more than 500 movies that PlayStation deleted after people had purchased them.

I forgot about that (and missed 'or movies'), but the news this week was that they'd stop making physical games, download only.

This has nothing to do with physical vs "digital" (CDs are digital anyway), but with owning. CDs can have DRM and only work with keys from whitelisted systems that might even have to authenticate online or trigger a time bomb and wipe their keys and downloads can be in a DRM free format that can be copied, archived and played on any capable device forever.

How're they gonna do that to an offline system like the PS2 or NES? Why should I simply just give up the rights I had on those systems because Sony and Microsoft want more money?

This isn't about these systems. The context here is Sony announcing the end of physical disks for future games/consoles.

Yes. I'm pointing out that Sony ending physical disks for future games and consoles is shite.

Modern disks are not the same as PS2 and NES disks. The difference between owning something and not owning it is not whether it's on a dedicated physical medium. The PS2 disks are irrelevant to Sony's decision to discontinue disks for future consoles.

Disks with games you own have already been discontinued. Arguing about the format (disk vs downloads) is a distraction.

People don't understand the difference. They talk about preservation, without acknowledging that a PlayStation can refuse to play a disc if servers say so.

That PS thing is so dumb. People really have trouble letting go of the illusion they've been living under for a long time now. Those disks might as well be random hunks of garbage. It be hilarious if PS starting shipping old AOL CDs from a dump instead. They'd probably be more useful and help reduce landfills.

Remember 15 years ago PSN was down for between 24 and 76 days (depending on region). But that stuff will never happen again. Nope... never ever again! It is bullet proof just like everything else online.

I could understand locking the files. Having this compromised would be devastating and you should have a backup of them elsewhere.

But locking the games out is unacceptable since you can not back these up and they are not sensitive data. At the very least Microsoft should either offer a new account with all the purchases included, or a full refund.

> "This action is irreversible and ensures that your data remains protected."

This amounts to "We deleted all your data in order to keep it safe." WTF.

Personally I would much rather Google delete my files than hand them to an attacker. I can restore them from a backup. Tech companies need to do better at encouraging users to keep their own local backup alongside the cloud one.

It became necessary to delete the data to save it. (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_B%E1%BA%BFn_Tre)

Baby pictures.. That's really sad… Reminds me of when the executive editor of wired magazine, Matt Honan, trusted all of his baby pictures and movies to iCloud only for it to get hacked and have it all deleted. Always have that off-line back up.

3-2-1 rule still alive and well

3 copies, 2 different media, 1 off-site

But also, what a fucking disgrace, Microsoft

Edit to add: cloud plus synced hard drives do not count as separate copies

This is a good opportunity to shill for Immich

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48761944

With the barest of config, it's almost a drop-in replacement

I bought a Synology Beestation just for this purpose. I don't need it to do anything else, just keep my pictures backed up.

Even enterprise M365 solutions dont have backups unless you pay extra. Always have your own separate backup, ideally offline.

This is one of those things a shockingly large number of businesses do not understand. The cloud has been sold as magic, people don't realize you have all of the same needs as you do on-premise, you're just also paying rent.

Often they do not even know where the data is. It only becomes a problem if it is not available all of a sudden.

My most recent - "I can't search my mailbox because exchange online is broken?" - new outlook + 180days offline cache max + online only search

This should be illegal. No two ways about it. Companies should not be allowed to do this.

Back in college, I did a hackathon where I striped data across different clouds like OneDrive and Dropbox so that even if one of the providers went down you would still be able to recover your data. Had the additional benefit of no single provider being able to read your files because none of them had the full data set.

Ended up not pursuing it but every time I see a story like this I think I should have.

If you're talking consumer, there are a plethora of solutions already that are much simpler. If you're talking enterprise, there's no way the cost will make sense for TBs of data as enterprise backup solutions have existed since forever.

I mean it couldn't be any worse than a stripped RAID setup and a HDD decides to blow up.

#1 This sucks

#2 This is the personal version of what europe is going through now, with the realization that those cloudy cloudy services may be convenient, but don't bet your life on one.

Keep a local backup!!!

In fact, local backup first, with the cloud as a backup of your backup.

Self-host your data. I like Immich for personal photos: https://immich.app. And VisualDrive Server in corporate environment as a self-hosted replacement for cloud-based OneDrive: https://www.axiorema.com/visualdrive-server/.

>If you used this account for Minecraft, we regret to inform you that the game cannot be recovered. A new purchase will be required on a newly created account.

Welcome to the club of people who Microsoft stole Minecraft from. They deleted my copy since I did not migrate my account in time.

I’ve bought Minecraft like 5 times in my lifetime at this point if you could the multiple times I bought the OG version and lost access, then Microsoft accounts, then console versions… probably spent $150 buying Minecraft over and over

After I migrated mine I still had to contact support and send a half dozen messages because I didn't verify my email after accepting the migration and the link expired.

Me too. But Minetest is good enough, plus way more performant.

Yeah, of course you should keep your own backups of important files, but we’re in a time that tech companies—including Microsoft—are causing hardware prices to skyrocket.

Price out a beefy home NAS in 2023 prices vs today. It’s absurd.

My good, when will people finally realize that local accounts are the only rational option?

Like, do people have to learn in such a needlessly painful manner?

Microsoft doing Microsoft things. That being said, I hope this gets enough visibility to force Microsoft to be better. Doubt it.

Have a TrueNAS server at home with a bunch of drives in a RAID-Z array. Backups go there. My pictures, which are probably my single most important item, are also there but get cross-backed up to a very good friend’s NAS in a different city. And his to mine.

My wife’s backups also go on BackBlaze because she would be much, much, much less tolerant of a local glitch than I would.

TL;DR local-first backups here. Time Machine makes it trivial except when it falls on it face and has to start over. Highly recommended if you can put up with replacing a hard drive every few years.

It is not "your account", it is literrally called "Microsoft account".

A bitter reminder for all of us that we don't own digital content at all.

Unless you download it to your own hardware.

Still DRM can revoke rights, depends on what form we download it as, but yeah, downloading locally is generally much better than keeping it "in the cloud" (which is just someone else's computer).

Technofeudal overlords pick and choose what customers can lease temporarily when they erroneously believed they bought ownership.

Another reason why no one should use OneDrive and ignore all the damn prompts by Windows telling you to use it.

Check the TOS, it was never the user’s account.

microsoft "permanently suspended (his) account ... (to) ensure (his) data remains protected". but microsoft cannot give him his data. therefore microsoft stole his personal property and are protecting it for their own use. this is legal because he agreed to it. everybody has to use windows, and microsoft account creation is now forced by windows - therefore I call this slavery coercion

>everybody has to use windows

I don't. What makes me so special!?

Grow a spine, LOL. It was never, ever his account.

I consider it appropriate to stand up for those who haven't had the fortune to be educated as to the extent of slavery agreed to by clicking that little check box during sign up. i find it amusing, you calling me spineless for standing up for the uneducated. are you really that callous or was this simply an opportunity for a drive by? you do know the average person is forced into this flow by windows sign up right?

Everybody knows their cloud / online stuff isn’t theirs, and tough love is really the best kind. Perpetual victims who repeatedly seek out and excuse abusers made their choices.

companies worth billions are capable of exacting abuse on a scale that no one man can resist, for example by hiding the fact you confidently claim everyone is so aware of, and forcing customers onto the cloud by default. if you want to blame the victims of a scam engineered by thousands of very smart people and lots of money, that's your prerogative. personally I spend a lot of time unfucking the PCs of my friends/family and teaching them how to teach others, instead of pointing the finger at them on internet forums

Just opt out, don’t be a cuck. Nobody NEEDS a Google account. Nobody. I de-Googled, feels great. Did it a decade back. If you want to fix up people’s PCs that’s great for you, personally I tell my people that if they want free tech advice to talk to me before a purchase becomes a problem so I can advise them on what to get. If they choose not to ask me first, they know not to bother me with problems they created themselves by failing to seek my free advice in the first place.

Much better than spending every free waking moment trying to teach people stuff they clearly have no desire or aptitude to learn. They can buy whatever garbage and get stuck with it on the whims they have, lol.

I truly hate the selfishness of humanity in its maximal form which is structural dominance, if you prefer to spend time hating smaller expressions of selfishness like not reading the fine print then yeah cool, take care

I don’t “hate” like you do, you seem awfully young and frustrated. You’ll mellow out, just steer clear of the shrinks and brain pills, they cripple your mind and depersonalize.

Since he spent Euros, he must be somewhere on the EU. This is a GDPR violation and I bet he can reach actual people that are able to help by mailing their GDPR legal contact.

What a bunch of wankers ...

Timely reminder to back every fucking thing up.

Trust none of these valley assholes to do the right thing.

Just make sure YOU do the right thing.

I truly hope you get this resolved if it is at all salvageable. The more stories I hear like this the less I am inclined to do any kind of backups with these companies because they are notorious for not giving a single fuck.

dead-pigeon.jpg

Who the fuck designs these flows...

Someone who knows that there's absolutely nothing this guy can do about it. Maybe he could sue, but really if a major company like Microsoft, or Google, decides to delete all of your data, and doesn't want to give it back, there's really nothing you can do about it. We really do need a law protecting consumer's data from arbitrary deletion.

Some random Brazilian disagrees.

It's designed by committee, with n stakeholders with n+1 opinions and motivations and pressures from other business units over 17 workshops and governance decisions

Reply on news.ycombinator.com