Dell Migrate User's Guide

How do I know if I am using OneDrive?

When you sign in to your PC using your Microsoft account, OneDrive might sync some of your files to the OneDrive cloud even if you have not explicitly installed or configured OneDrive on your PC. OneDrive is pre-installed on Windows 10.

How do I find my OneDrive email address?

Perform the following steps:

1. Right-click , and click Settings.
2. Click Account to view your email address.

How do I find my email address if I have signed out of OneDrive?

Your OneDrive email address is the same as your Microsoft or Office365 email address. Perform the following steps to find your email address:

1. Sign in to your PC using your Microsoft account.
2. Click Settings.
3. In the Accounts section, click Email & accounts.

Your email address is displayed in the Email & accounts section.

How do I retrieve or reset my OneDrive password?

Your OneDrive email address is the same as your Microsoft or Office365 email address. You can use the same password that is used in your Microsoft or Office365 account to sign in to OneDrive. For more information about resetting the password for your Microsoft account, see Change your Microsoft account password.

What if I have never signed in to OneDrive?

Check if you were automatically signed in to OneDrive as part of your Windows setup. If you have never used OneDrive on your old PC and have not chosen to back up your files with OneDrive during Windows setup, then no files would have been added to OneDrive. So, you need not sign in to OneDrive for migration. If you are not using OneDrive, but Dell Data Assistant prompts you to sign in to OneDrive, you can skip the sign-in process.

Why should I sign in to the same OneDrive account on both the PCs?

When you sign in to the same OneDrive account on both the old and the new PCs, OneDrive downloads or syncs your OneDrive files to your new PC. This eliminates the redundant work of migrating these OneDrive files by using Dell Data Assistant and avoids migration issues due to conflicts with OneDrive. Dell Data Assistant checks if you have logged in to the same OneDrive account on both the PCs so that the OneDrive files are synced. If you are already using OneDrive on your old PC, but have not signed in, Dell Data Assistant prompts you to sign in at startup.

What if I signed in to OneDrive on the old PC but cannot sign in to the same OneDrive Account on my new PC?

If you are signed in to OneDrive on your old PC, but are not signed in to the same OneDrive account on your new PC, Dell Data Assistant detects this and tries to manually migrate your OneDrive files to your new PC to ensure that these files are not missed. If you plan to sign in to OneDrive on your new PC later, or you do not need those OneDrive files on your new PC, choose to skip those files by manually clearing them from the Let me choose what to move page during file selection. See Select files to migrate.

If you want Dell Data Assistant to manually migrate your OneDrive files to your new PC, continue with your migration. Any file that OneDrive has virtualized and removed the local copy from your old PC, can be downloaded from OneDrive on the old PC before they are transferred to your new PC. Due to this, your migration may take longer time than usual depending on your Internet speed. Dell Technologies recommends you sign in to your same OneDrive account on your new PC before starting the migration.

What if I do not sign in to OneDrive on my old PC when prompted?

If you had previously signed in to OneDrive on your old PC, but were logged out for some reason, for example, the password for your Microsoft account password was updated, then OneDrive does not sync your files to the cloud unless you sign in to OneDrive. Dell Data Assistant detects that you are not signed in to OneDrive and prompts you to sign in. If you still do not sign in, Dell Data Assistant tries to manually migrate your OneDrive files to your new PC. However, OneDrive may not keep the local version of your files on your PC and only maintains a cloud version. As OneDrive is not signed in, it cannot bring back those virtual files from the cloud. Even if Dell Data Assistant tries to manually migrate your OneDrive files to your new PC, these files that OneDrive virtualized on your old PC do not get migrated, and results in migration failure. These failures are not a limitation of Dell Data Assistant, but because you have chosen OneDrive to manage those files but are not signed in to OneDrive to let it complete syncing.

Why do I see a prompt for OneDrive sign in when Dell Data Assistant starts?

If OneDrive is installed on your PC and you have signed out of OneDrive, the sign-in page is displayed on Dell Data Assistant startup. See Why should I sign in to the same OneDrive account on both the PCs?

Why do I see OneDrive error prompt when Dell Data Assistant starts?

If you have updated the password of your Microsoft account and the updated password is not yet updated in OneDrive running on the PC, an error is displayed. Click OK to go to the OneDrive sign in page and sign in to OneDrive using your updated credentials.

Why is the sign-in prompt for OneDrive not displayed on Windows 8.1 operating system when Dell Data Assistant starts?

SkyDrive, an older version of OneDrive, is installed on Windows 8.1 operating system which is not supported by Dell Data Assistant. In this case, your SkyDrive files are migrated along with the rest of the non-OneDrive files. If you do not want to migrate the SkyDrive folder, clear the option to migrate SkyDrive files on the Let me choose what to move page.

What are OneDrive virtual files?

To save space on your computer, OneDrive uses a File On-Demand approach, where OneDrive uploads the file and deletes the contents of the file on the local file system. OneDrive keeps the virtual file on File Explorer which only contains the file details. If you attempt to open or copy this virtual file, OneDrive downloads the file from the cloud, and allows the open or copy operation to proceed.

You can change the File On-Demand option if you do not want OneDrive to make your files virtual by default from the OneDrive settings.

For more information about how OneDrive creates virtual files, see Save disk space with OneDrive Files On-Demand for Windows 10.

Why are there multiple OneDrive accounts on my PC?

OneDrive allows you add one or more accounts to a single PC. However, you can only have one personal OneDrive account and multiple schools or work accounts.

For each OneDrive account, you have a separate system tray icon. You can find the account emails by right-clicking each of the system tray icons and selecting settings as described in the How do I find my OneDrive email address? section.

For more information about adding multiple OneDrive accounts, see How to add an account in OneDrive.

Why are my Desktop, Documents, and Pictures folders under OneDrive?

Your Desktop, Documents, and Pictures folders can be under OneDrive because:

You can change this setting at any time through OneDrive. For more information, see Set where your files are saved.

If you manually sign in to your OneDrive account after Windows has started, the Manage folder backup option to select Desktop, Documents, and Pictures folders for OneDrive backup is displayed.

Select the folders to backup and click Start backup.

Before you click Start Backup, the default location of Desktop, Documents, and Pictures folders is C:\Users\<username>\.

After you click Start Backup, the default location of Desktop, Documents, and Pictures folders changes to C:\Users\<username>\OneDrive\.

If you want to customize the default location of Desktop folder, perform the following steps:

1. Navigate to the location where the Desktop folder is present and right-click on the folder.
2. Select Properties, and then select Location.
3. Click Move, and then select the new path of the location where you want to save the desktop files.

   

   NOTE: Dell Technologies does not recommend to change the default locations. If the location was changed on your PC, click Restore Default to restore the default location.

How do I stop backing up Desktop, Pictures, and Documents folders in OneDrive?

If you want to stop backup of your folders to OneDrive, update your folder selections in OneDrive settings. If you are already using OneDrive, Dell Technologies recommends signing in to your same OneDrive account on your new PC rather than disabling your backups. Perform the following steps:

1. Click in your notification area, click Help & Settings, and then click Settings.

   

2. Select the Backup tab, and click Manage backup.

   

3. Click Stop backup for the Desktop, Documents, and Pictures folders.

   

This restores the Desktop, Documents, and Pictures folder locations to their original location on the hard drive. After you stop backing up a folder, the files that were already backed up by OneDrive stays in the OneDrive folder and is not displayed on your local device folder.

For more information, see Back up your Documents, Pictures, and Desktop folders with OneDrive.

How does Dell Data Assistant migrate Desktop, Documents, and Pictures folders?

Dell Migrate allows you to migrate files by selecting individual files or by selecting all the files at once. The behavior of Desktop, Documents, and Pictures migration differ based on the following scenarios:

Dell Migrate takes the default location of the Desktop, Documents, and Pictures folders for migration. If you have modified the location of any of these paths, then the modified location is picked up for migration.

For example, if the Desktop folder on the old PC is C:\Users\John\Desktop, and the Desktop folder on the new PC is C:\Desktop, all the files are migrated from the old PC C:\Users\John\Desktop folder to the new PC C:\Desktop folder.

By default, Desktop, Documents, and Pictures folders are selected for migration.

OneDrive syncs your OneDrive files if you sign in to the same account on both the old and new PCs. The migration from the old PC OneDrive folder to the new PC OneDrive folder does not happen and the OneDrive files are excluded from migration because the files are already synced through OneDrive.

The files are migrated from the OneDrive folder on the old PC to the <Drive name>: \Users\<Username>\<old PC-Machine Name> OneDrive folder on the new PC. Shortcuts icons are created on the actual Desktop, Documents, and Pictures folders that redirect to <Drive name>: \Users\<Username>\<old PC-Machine Name>.

For example, if the Desktop folder on the old PC is C:\Users\John\OneDrive\Desktop, and the Desktop folder on the new PC is C:\Users\Ross\OneDrive\Desktop, all the Desktop files are migrated from the old PC C:\Users\John\OneDrive\Desktop folder to the new PC C:\Users\Ross\<old PC-Machine Name>\Desktop folder.

All the files are migrated from the old PC C:\Users\John\OneDrive\ folder to the new PC C:\Users\John\OneDrive\Desktopfolder except the Desktop, Documents, and Pictures folders.

A shortcut is created in the C:\Users\Ross\OneDrive\Desktop folder, which redirects to C:\Users\Ross\<old PC-Machine Name>\Desktop folder.

Since the old PC has Desktop, Documents, and Pictures folders in the OneDrive folder, clearing the OneDrive folder automatically stops the migration of all the files and folders in it including the Desktop, Documents, and Pictures folders.

The files are migrated from the OneDrive folder on the old PC to the default location of the Desktop, Documents, and Pictures folder on the new PC.

For example, if the Desktop folder on the old PC is C:\Users\John\OneDrive\Desktop, and the Desktop folder on the new PC is C:\Users\Ross\Desktop, all the files are migrated from the old PC C:\Users\John\OneDrive\Desktop folder to the new PC C:\Users\Ross\Desktop folder.

Since the old PC has Desktop, Documents, and Pictures folders in the OneDrive folder, clearing the OneDrive folder automatically stops the migration of all the files and folders in it including the Desktop, Documents, and Pictures folders.

The files are migrated from the default location of Desktop, Documents, and Pictures folder to the <Drive name>: \Users\<Username>\<old PC-Machine Name> folder on the new PC.

For example, if the Desktop folder on the old PC is C:\Users\John\Desktop, and the Desktop folder on the new PC is C:\Users\Ross\OneDrive\Desktop, all the files are migrated from the old PC C:\Users\John\Desktop folder to the new PC C:\Users\Ross\<old PC-Machine Name>\Desktop folder.

A shortcut is created in the C:\Users\Ross\OneDrive\Desktop folder to which redirects to the C:\Users\Ross\<old PC-Machine Name>\Desktop folder.