Question How does One Drive work?

[Tennis987]

I have a work laptop that syncs to One Drive. Have a good amount of 20+GB folders from my old company laptop that I transferred over. I threw them into our individual One Drive because I do not have enough room for them all locally
However those files not only synced to One Drive, but they also took up space on my hard drive. I'm confused, I though One Drive is the same as an external network drive and would not keep anything locally on the machine. Can someone explain to me in general how One Drive works and if its possible to not have files that I put into OneDrive be saved onto my local drive?

 

[turtletarget111]

Microsoft OneDrive is essentially the Windows equivalent of Apple's iCloud. It will automatically upload files it thinks are important to the cloud, such as photos and documents. Just like iCloud, OneDrive offers 5GB for free, with higher increments of capacity costing a monthly fee. You should see a green checkmark next to any files that have been successful uploaded to the cloud. When inside File Explorer, click on the blue OneDrive icon. Then, navigate to a folder you want to remove from your system, but store on the cloud. There should be a button within the list that reads, "Clear space." That will remove the file from your local machine and put it in the cloud. Windows File Explorer doesn't always tell you exactly which files are stored where, so if you are ever unsure, simply log into the OneDrive website with your Microsoft account. Hope this helped, take care.

 

[Tennis987]

Microsoft OneDrive is essentially the Windows equivalent of Apple's iCloud. It will automatically upload files it thinks are important to the cloud, such as photos and documents. Just like iCloud, OneDrive offers 5GB for free, with higher increments of capacity costing a monthly fee. You should see a green checkmark next to any files that have been successful uploaded to the cloud. When inside File Explorer, click on the blue OneDrive icon. Then, navigate to a folder you want to remove from your system, but store on the cloud. There should be a button within the list that reads, "Clear space." That will remove the file from your local machine and put it in the cloud. Windows File Explorer doesn't always tell you exactly which files are stored where, so if you are ever unsure, simply log into the OneDrive website with your Microsoft account. Hope this helped, take care.

I notice that when i click "free up space" it removes the checkmark which means it's in the cloud. But if i open up the file back up i get a green checkmark meaning it was downloaded onto my drive correct? How do i avoid this. Am i going to have to free up space eveytime It starts getting full? How would this work if your One drive Storage capacity exceeds your hard drive capacity?