# OneDrive 86 Hacker News commenters recommended OneDrive and 370 criticized it, November 2025 to November 2026. It was recommended in 12 of 13 months; owners who said how long report a median of 8 years (6 owners). **Verdict:** People recommend OneDrive for reliable file sync, version history, and easy access across devices and Office documents. Critics agree it is pushed aggressively and has had sync and data-loss problems. ## Why people recommend it - Reliable and good enough for most (4 comments): "nowadays it's reliable. We use it at work and I don't feel any pressure to move to Dropbox. It's also much cheaper." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48283730)) "OneDrive, for all its many shortcomings, is well and truly into good-enough territory to cover the 80% case." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48443226)) "it works, is reliable, and requires no technical knowledge of running your own service" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46252627)) - Easy access across devices (3 comments): "The "Files-On-Demand" feature of OneDrive makes it possible for everyone in the family to login into any computer with OneDrive and quickly access all their files" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46529707)) "moving to a new computer is absolutely painless now with a Microsoft Account because of OneDrive and Winget" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48540953)) "I use OneDrive for easy replication of lots of stuff between my own devices" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46527385)) - Version history and recycle bin (3 comments): "I've had some irritations with it, but overall having versioning has been a much bigger benefit than the hassle." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46205215)) "You also get version history of files and the recycle bin of files deleted from the cloud" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48472858)) "all of these systems have version history and document recovery built in" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46598376)) - Office collaboration and enterprise controls (2 comments): "if more than one person opens an Office document that is stored in OneDrive we can see each other inside the document" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46797634)) "heavily vested in SharePoint, OneDrive, OneNote, Outlook, etc. specifically for their enterprise controls" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49899232)) ## What people warn about - Aggressive pushing and default-on setup (6 comments): "Microsoft aggressively attempting to convince you to use OneDrive, no matter how many times you turn it off." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46528452)) "I rather like having this stuff in OneDrive. I do not like that it is pushed so aggressively." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47545514)) "The problem comes when people who don't want to use it are tricked,.manipulated, fooled and dark patterned into using it against their understanding." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46527394)) - Silent data loss and corrupted files (3 comments): "While the migration is occurring, the operating system is optimistically re-mapping them all to a cloud URL and/or deleting them entirely." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46527475)) "OneDrive silently corrupted hundreds of my files, replacing their content with binary zeros while retaining the original file size." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47766876)) "They locked me out without any explanation and without any notificaiton, ended my subscription and I lost valuable photos forever." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48443039)) - Uploads files without clear consent (3 comments): "What was not fine was moving files there without user informed consent." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46527156)) "OneDrive on some Samsung phones recently started uploading user photos on their own, despite user never granting apps the permission to do so" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48278304)) "The problem is also how much MS pushes Onedrive. In Outlook for example its very easy to accidentally upload your attachment to onedrive" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48975411)) - Sync bugs and reverted local changes (2 comments): "onedrive seems to be particularly bad in terms of reverting local changes, not syncing changes, and generally messing things up" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48444628)) "onedrive folders were indeed problematic, causing cyclic updates on access and random metadata changes for no explicit reason" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47763196)) ## Alternatives hackers recommend - [Apple iCloud](https://hackerapproved.com/p/icloud.md): 144 recommend - [Dropbox](https://hackerapproved.com/p/dropbox.md): 140 recommend - [Google Drive](https://hackerapproved.com/p/google-drive.md): 66 recommend - [rsync.net](https://hackerapproved.com/p/rsync-net.md): 34 recommend - [Hetzner Storage Box](https://hackerapproved.com/p/hetzner-storage-box.md): 27 recommend ## Where to get it - [Visit the official site](https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-365/onedrive/online-cloud-storage) ## Cite as Hacker Approved, "OneDrive", https://hackerapproved.com/p/onedrive/ (counts from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026).