- A redditor was moving a great data slab of old units to a new
- They used OneDrive as a midpoint in a poorly thought strategy that temporarily left all the data in the Microsoft cloud service.
- When they came to download the data, they were blocked from OneDrive and cannot get the Microsoft support to address this problem
A Reddit shared warning story tells the story of an owner of the Windows PC that OneDrive used to store 30 years in his data and lost the lot when his Microsoft account was blocked, without an apparent way of recovering access.
This is an unpleasant sound situation (highlighted by Neowin), to say the least, with the loss of what is described as three decades of “urgent photos and work” that was transferred to OneDrive as a temporary storage installation.
The idea that Redditor had was that they needed to move that huge collection of files of multiple old units where they were stored to a new large unit, and OneDrive was selected as a midpoint in that data migration trip.
Therefore, all the files of the old units were transferred to the Microsoft cloud storage service and prepared to transfer the data to the new unit, when they found a huge block of stumbling blocks. The Redditor was suddenly blocked from his Microsoft account (and, therefore, OneDrive and all Microsoft services).
Now, this is not a sensible way to manage this data transfer, of course (and I will describe again why at one time, in case it is not sure), but the point here is that the error occurred, and the Redditor cannot get any joy of Microsoft in terms of trying to solve the problem.
In its Publication of Reddit, which is gaining close attention, they say: “Microsoft suspended my account without prior notice, reason or any legitimate resource. I have presented the compliance form 18 times, eighteen, and every time I do not have an automated response that does not lead anywhere. Without human contact. Without real help. Only emails and canned radio silences.”
They continue: “This feels not only not only ethical but potentially illegal, especially in the light of consumer protection laws. He cannot keep all the hostage of digital life of someone without due process, without warning and without responsibility,” and added that Microsoft is a “Kafkaesco black hole of corporate negligence.”
Analysis: Microsoft needs to do better
Agree, first, very fast, because I do not want to work on the mistakes made by the unfortunate redditor, this is not a good way to proceed with a impulse migration.
When transferring a great data slab like this, you should never have a single failure point in the process. For which I refer to pushing all the data to the cloud, in OneDrive and having that as the only copy. Obviously, that is the crux of the problem here, because once the user was blocked from OneDrive, he no longer had access to his data.
When performing this operation, or as a general rule for any data, you must always maintain multiple copies. In general, those would be the original data on their device, a backup in an external unit separated in the home (preferably two units, in fact) and a copy out of the site in a cloud storage locker like OneDrive. The point is that if it loses the original data, it can resort to, for example, the external unit, but if that has also gone to the great technological cemetery in the sky in some way, it can go to the second unit (or the cloud).
Anyway, you get the point, but the Redditor touched this way of doing things, thinking, without a doubt, that, as a temporary measure, it was well to trust only on OneDrive, but clearly, that was not the case.
There are a number of problems with the scenario presented here where Microsoft has been below the standards that a client would rightly expect.
Why did this happen?
First, there is the fact that Microsoft’s account was simply blocked without notification or message provided why. The OneDrive user can only guess why this prohibition was promulgated (and the obvious assumption is that some copyright, or other content that envied Microsoft’s policies, was marked in the charged files, which would trigger that the account is automatically blocked). It is worth making it clear that (obviously) we have no idea about the content of this data.
Secondly, since this happened, the most worrying part here is Redditor’s description of how they feel they are hitting their heads against a brick wall to try to talk to Microsoft’s support staff on how to solve this. After all, this is essentially the data value of his whole life, and there should be some way to discover at least what is the problem, and give the person who has been locked up the opportunity to explain and potentially recover access.
From what we know, it could be a mistake that has caused this. But if nobody is listening to Microsoft, nobody is probably investigating. And if you use OneDrive as a backup of the cloud, not having access to your data at a critical moment is a terrifying perspective. (That is why you must solve those other local backups such as an alternative, or in fact, another cloud service if you really wanted to take out the “data redundancy ‘boat).
With luck, the Redditor can eventually speak with a Microsoft support agent, a real person, to iron this. In theory, all these data could still be on Microsoft servers somewhere.
This incident has occurred at a time when Microsoft is pressing its account services in Windows 11 users, since it cannot install the operating system without one (well, you can use lagoons, although the company is busy eradicating some of those fudges). Not to mention that Pushing OneDrive, Microsoft 365 and other services with Windows ads, of course.
That wide impulse is an unfortunate backdrop here when you consider another recently fake in light. That was the highlight of a potential problem with the eliminated accounts of Microsoft (eliminated by the user, that is), which could lead to the loss of the key to the default unit encryption applied with new Windows 11 24 H2 24 hours.
Again, that little unpleasant scenario (although niche) could lead to all the data in its impulse to disappear in a black hole, to never see each other again. It is another strange situation that could end without resorting to at all in this case, and this, along with the horrible situation of the redditor, are predicaments that Microsoft clearly should not inflict consumers.
We have contacted Microsoft to comment on this specific case, and we will update this story if we receive a company’s response.
