Microsoft Money vs Windows 11 OneDrive backup

[Doris Tomlin]

I have Windows 11 installed on my laptop, and recently was offered the opportunity to back up my laptop files to OneDrive. I actually was under the impression that I was just getting more information about what this would entail, but unfortunately OneDrive has taken over, and my laptop now seems to be under the control of someone or something other than myself. 

What I am most concerned about with respect to Microsoft Money is that OneDrive's interference will cause Microsoft Money to try to access a .mny file that is stored in the cloud rather than stored locally. I have gathered, while using MSMoney for decades, that each transaction is written to the .mny file as you hit "ENTER." I want to make sure that the working file is local to my computer, not being written to the cloud with each transaction. Does anyone know if that is how OneDrive works? Am I endangering my .mny file? 

I would dearly love some OneDrive help, but I know that is not the purpose of this group. I have been trying to find more general information about what is happening between my laptop and OneDrive, but I haven't found the answer to my specific MSMoney question yet. I don't yet know how to exclude particular files or file folders from the backup, and although I've found places to click to "Stop OneDrive" or "Pause Syncing" neither of those commands seems to do what I would expect given their titles. 
Thanks in advance for any MSMoney vs. OneDrive advice you can give me!
Doris Tomlin

[Doris Tomlin]

Just to clarify: I don't want to uninstall OneDrive. I'm glad I have it, and I use it for certain things. I also have a robust backup routine for my MSMoney file.

The problem I am looking for advice or information about is that the OneDrive syncing function seems to have taken over the paths to all of the files stored on my computer. There is now a \OneDrive\ inserted in each path that is in a folder that is being backed up. Example: ["C:\Users\doris\OneDrive\Documents\MSMData.mny"] Since my .mny file is in the automatically backed-up Documents folder, the first time I tried to open MSMoney after activating OneDrive syncing, my file wasn't found, and I had to go looking for it. That's not the problem. 

The question/potential problem is: Does OneDrive, now that it has taken over, try to sync files WHILE THEY ARE BEING USED? Will it cause MSMoney to try to write to the OneDrive cloud every time I enter a new transaction? Or will MSMoney continue to write to a local file on my laptop, and OneDrive (when working properly -- which it is NOT at this time) will back up the .mny file once it is closed? 

I hope there's someone out there who knows the answer to that question! 

Thanks!  
Doris

On Sat, May 18, 2024 at 7:37 PM ronald brandman <ronw...@gmail.com> wrote:

I do not store any files on one drive.I use a usb flash drive once a month for money back ups other than the back ups on the computer itself.

Also your money file should have password protection,so it cannot be opened from wherever it is stored without the password.

I believe that it is possible to uninstall one drive from your computer.Go to control panel …..programs …..find one drive and uninstall it. 

Buy a 125gb usb flash drive and back up your money file

Regards

Ron b

Sent from my iPad

[Doris Tomlin]

Thanks Doc AS. I think you are saying that once the .mny file is backed up or located on the OneDrive server, then each transaction that I enter in MSMoney attempts to write directly to that OneDrive cloud server. That is NOT the answer I was hoping for, but it's encouraging to hear that you have been using MSMoney this way for some years. 

Some time ago I tried locating my .mny file on a Google Drive server, and it seemed to work fine. But then I read a warning in this forum that advised against using anything other than a local .mny file because that's what the MSMoney program was designed to use. That's why I was particularly worried about this seemingly glitchy OneDrive sync.  

I actually have a number of my important Excel workbooks that are primarily stored on OneDrive, and what I observe when using those files is that I can make changes to the spreadsheet without regard to whether I'm connected to the cloud or not, and if/when I am connected, then the workbook is intermittently "saved" while I am working on it. I assume that the instantaneous changes are kept in RAM or on the local storage media, and from time to time that is written to the OneDrive cloud. I wonder if the MSMoney file would be saved in that same way, despite not having been designed for cloud storage or backup. 

Doris

On Sun, May 19, 2024 at 1:12 PM <adrian.s...@gmail.com> wrote:

I have used MSMoney (UK) via Onedrive for yonks without problems. Autobackup to PC desktop, periodic backup to removable media. I *think* MSMoney writes transactions to the Ondrive data file as they are entered. I sometimes access via my laptop; in this case MSMoney sometimes (one cannot predict) writes to a new file “MSMoney ASUS Laptop”, ignoring the main file, so I tend to avoid this. The files are indeed stored via the onedrive path.

 

Doc AS

[Mike Wylde]

It's taken me a while to get to grips with OneDrive. In fact it's very flexible. The default is to save to OneDrive. When you're working on a file it will try to update OneDrive on the fly but if you lose connection it will keep a local copy until it can upload. You can mark any particular file as make always available on this device (may not be the exact words) that means it will keep a local copy. You can also change the default to keep a local copy of any file generated on that particular device. OneDrive is then a backup (and allows you to get that file using another device that is logged into your OneDrive account. You can also unlink from onedrive and ignore its existence if you prefer. There is good documentation available from Microsoft if you search.

[Doris Tomlin]

Mike Wylde,

Thanks for your encouragement regarding using MSMoney with OneDrive. I have been looking at online information about OneDrive and have found it confusing so far. I haven't yet figured out how to specify which files and folders are to be synced and which are to also be kept on my local system. It's helpful that you mentioned that this can all be customized. 

It doesn't help that when the OneDrive app is running on my Windows 11 device, the whole system is very slow and unresponsive, and the actual syncing appears to have gotten stuck in the same place for the last few days. I've used "Quit OneDrive" a few times to get things moving again. Apparently I need to do some troubleshooting.

Thanks again for your help. 

Doris

[Dick Watson]

Despite a lot of trepidation, I’ve been running with my Money data file in my OneDrive documents (“backed up to OneDrive) as Microsoft somewhat misleadingly phrases it).

First, Money is working with a local copy of the file. Even if you don’t have the file set to be available offline, OneDrive still copies it to local storage before letting the app have its way.

Yes, OneDrive tries to send transaction-level changes on the fly. It’s too stupid to figure out that some apps, Money and Access come to mind in my frequent use cases, really only make sense to sync when not open from an app. That having been said, when you exit Money, OneDrive syncs the same file it synced maybe just seconds previously.

There are two issues I’ve experienced and try hard to avoid. First is that having the app open against local copies of the same Money file simultaneously on two machines (laptop and desktop, say) will cause bad voodoo to the file(s). But OneDrive is less bad in this scenario than either using the file over LAN/WAN and/or just having teen instances of the app (laptop, desktop, say) banging away at the same file on a local server or one of the machines serving it to the other. I have a script file that creates or checks for a lock file, stored alongside the data file, to try to preclude the two opens simultaneously since sometimes I forget I have the file open on one machine before opening it on another.

The second issue, unique to OneDrive, is that it can take tens of seconds from, say, waking up the machine, for OneDrive to figure out it has a sync to perform. If, say, I entered some Money transactions late last night on the laptop, wake the desktop up this morning and too quickly fire up Money, I can end up with “files can’t be synced so we created two of them” problems. By the time I notice it is in this state, I may have lots of transactions or updates in a file that doesn’t have whatever I did last night that I don’t remember now exactly what that was. The only way to prevent this is patience and checking OneDrive sync status and being skeptical if it say it’s synced. I’ve seen it say that for ten or more seconds when I knew it wasn’t true before seeing it say it’s syncing stuff.

With all that, I’ve still got my file in the OneDrive backed folder tree because, net, it’s less bad than what I was doing before.

[Dick Watson]

Win 11 has Settings>Accounts>Windows backup>Manage sync settings. It has some advanced settings like "Files on demand" hidden at the bottom.

From the OneDrive tray icon, r-click>gear icon, Settings (another gear icon)>Account (on the left)>Choose folders, you can more granularly control what folders do and don't get managed by OneDrive. (They hide this, I think they want 99% of users to just use it the way it comes out of the box so they hide the fancy settings pretty thoroughly.

For individual files backed by OneDrive, R-click Always keep on device can assure that you can work with a the last synced copy of a file even if you are offline.

From your description, I wonder if you have a relatively low bandwidth Internet connection. But, yeah, I've also seen cases where OneDrive just gets wedged syncing and can't finish. Google will reveal lots of solutions to that.

[Tom Roberts]

Very useful.

Thanks Dick.

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[Doris Tomlin]

Dick Watson,

I appreciate all your insight and help with OneDrive. I still can't quite find all the settings and places to put things in place, but I didn't want to ignore your very helpful message. I'll have to come back and refer to it again when I can figure out what is happening on my machine. 

Doris