How do I move ODfB with known folder redirection?

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JeffVandervoort-1145 asked Oct 26, '21 JeffVandervoort-1145 commented Oct 29, '21

How do I move ODfB with known folder redirection?

ODfB is set up on all PCs, and Folder Redirection Group Policies are in use to redirect all Known Folders except AppData to appropriately-named subfolders (Desktop, Favorites, Saved Games, etc.) of %OneDriveCommercial%.

On 2 machines, we need to move ODfB from C: to D:.

This article [change-the-location-of-your-onedrive-folder-f386fb81-1461-40a7-be2c-712676b2c4ae][1] doesn't seem to address ODfB with KF redirection. Not even the built-in ODfB redirection, much less by GPO.

Windows isn't too keen on having KFs disappear. Desktop in particular; pretty much nothing works when that disappears. I'd assume the folders themselves are locked anyway while a user is logged on.

Also, Group Policy expands environment variables like %OneDriveCommercial% as they're written to the registry. I don't think there's a way to avoid that (GPP can, but not GP). So HKCU...\User Shell Folders and HKCU...\ShellFolders all point to C:, and still will after ODfB moves.

Is this how I need to do it?
1. Redirect everything for those users back to %USERPROFILE% by GPO.
2. Move ODfB to D:
3. Redirect everything back to %OneDriveCommercial% by GPO.

Or is there a shortcut I'm not thinking of?

windows-group-policy office-onedrive-client-itpro

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Answer 1 · 2021-10-27T06:25:42.96Z

VikiJi-MSFT answered Oct 27, '21 VikiJi-MSFT commented Oct 28, '21

Hi @JeffVandervoort-1145,
Welcome to Q&A forum!

According to my research, if you want to move the OneDrive folder from C: to D:, you may have to sign out of your current account.
So you may have to redirect the OneDrive folder back to the %USERPROFILE% first.

Since we do not have a similar test environment currently , I cannot proceed to the next test.
Thank you for your understanding.

Besides, If your method cannot achieve this, you might try to enable KFM Group Policy to check.

Any updates, please let me know.

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JeffVandervoort-1145 · Oct 27, 2021 at 01:35 PM

Thanks for your reply.

I'm certain my method will work, was just hoping for a shortcut.

I would use the OneDrive Policy, but it only includes Desktop, Documents and Pictures. But even if I was using that Policy, or if the user had elected to redirect those folders themselves through the ODfB GUI, I don't see how these instructions--

https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/office/change-the-location-of-your-onedrive-folder-f386fb81-1461-40a7-be2c-712676b2c4ae

--could work. That article needs an update to address KF redirection.

But I guess I know what I need to do. Tedious, but at least it's only 2 users.

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VikiJi-MSFT JeffVandervoort-1145 · Oct 28, 2021 at 08:01 AM

Hi @JeffVandervoort-1145,
Thanks for your quick reply.
After discussing with my colleagues, it seems that there is no shortcut to do this.
If you have a better solution, welcome to share with us.
Thanks.

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Answer 2 · 2021-10-29T12:34:16.96Z

LimitlessTechnology-2700 answered Oct 29, '21 JeffVandervoort-1145 commented Oct 29, '21

Hi @JeffVandervoort-1145,

Thank you for your question and for getting in touch. My name is Samuel and I would be more than happy to help you with your query.

Well-known folders are global indicators in Windows that represent a location on the user's drive. They help users organize their most important files and access them in different apps.

See the articles below to understand how to accomplish this:

https://techcommunity.microsoft.com/t5/microsoft-onedrive-blog/migrate-your-files-to-onedrive-easily-with-known-folder-move/ba-p/207076

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/onedrive/redirect-known-folders

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JeffVandervoort-1145 · Oct 29, 2021 at 04:29 PM

Thanks...I know about KFs, how the Windows namespace works, and OneDrive. That's also how I know MS's instructions for moving the OD cache to a different drive will not work when redirecting KFs to them--the subject of this thread.

I also know about the ODfB Group Policy to redirect the 3 KFs it supports. I use many of the ODfB policies, but the ODfB redirection policy only redirects 3 folders. I'll keep using the Folder Redirection group policy.

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