Nexus File Space Migration to OneDrive

Overview

Sunday April 30 at midnight, IST will be decommissioning the local campus file servers (fileu) that have been used for Nexus account file space.

On Sunday April 16 we changed the default storage location for Psych Nexus users to use OneDrive by default rather than the old campus file servers (fileu).

If you haven't previously been to a session where we helped individuals with the migration, you'll notice your Nexus Documents, Desktop, and Picture folders will be empty the next time you login to a Nexus station.

You'll need to ensure you copy any files from the local campus file servers - \\fileu\users$\YOURUSERID - before midnight on Sunday April 30, 2023 with the following steps.

As usual, if something doesn't look right, email PsychIT@uwaterloo.ca and we'll help out.

Steps

For the sake of being extra safe consider making an extra copy of everything currently in your Nexus files space before you do anything else. Perhaps copy the entire contents of \\fileu\users$\YOURUSERID to a USB stick (requires at most 10Gb free), external hard drive, or elsewhere.

Also, make a note of items under "Quick Access" in File Explorer as some shortcuts will be deleted and will need to be re-created using the new OneDrive locations.

I'd suggest to start the process early in the day. If you have 10's of thousands of files it can take a while. This also give the opportunity of catching up to us in the afternoon in case you run into any grief.

To copy your Nexus files from the current local campus file servers to your OneDrive space, do this:

  1. Ensure OneDrive is running and you are logged in with your UW credentials. Look for a blue cloud icon in the taskbar beside the clock (you might need to click the ^ to view all icons of tasks running in the background). If you hover over the cloud icon, it should indicate "Up to date".

  2. Open File Explorer and, assuming you are logged into OneDrive, in the left panel you see a folder called "OneDrive - University of Waterloo".

  3. In the "OneDrive - University of Waterloo" folder, ensure the folders Documents, Desktop, and Pictures exists (only the first letter capitalized). If not, create them.

  4. Open a second File Explorer window and go to \\fileu\users$\YOURUSERD - this is the local campus file server location that will disappear at the end of April.

  5. Copy files from your original Nexus Documents/Desktop/Pictures \\fileu\users$\YOURUSERID locations to the corresponding folders under "OneDrive - University of Waterloo". When copying contents, copy only files and folders you recognize (ensure you skip things that might be system or settings stuff). Ensure you copy rather than move the files so that the original files also remain in their original location (makes it easier to re-copy if there are issues).

  6. While copying things, hover over the blue OneDrive icon in the taskbar to check the status. OneDrive works in the background to sync files/folders with the cloud. Copying might take a while depending on how many files/folders you have in each location. If you are copying a large batch of files, check the blue OneDrive cloud icon in the taskbar and wait until it shows "Up to date" before you copy the next batch.

  7. If you see any errors relating to long filenames, invalid filenames, etc., email PsychIT@uwaterloo.ca and we'll do the screen sharing thing to look at things and resolve.

  8. Check for other files and folders in other locations under \\fileu\users$\YOURUSERD that you might want to keep and also copy those under "OneDrive - University of Waterloo"

  9. Once you've done the above, you'll want to avoid editing any files in your original \\fileu\users$\YOURUSERID (N:) locations and instead use exclusively files/folders only under "OneDrive - University of Waterloo".

  10. If you had pinned any shortcuts to your Quick Access list in File Explorer, remove old shortcuts referring to your \\fileu\users$\YOURUSERID locations and update with your new "OneDrive - University of Waterloo" locations.

  11. Hover over the blue OneDrive icon in the taskbar and wait for it to show "Up to date" which indicates all files have successfully been synced to the cloud. Once that appears, right-click on "OneDrive - University of Waterloo" and select "Free up space" which will do an additional pass to confirm that things are synced properly and will also remove local copies of files.

  12. Important: Don't logout of your machine until the OneDrive icon in the taskbar shows as "Up to date". If it does not show "Up to date" it means that all files have not yet been synced to the cloud. If it seemed to be taking waaayyyy too long, email PsychIT@uwaterloo.ca.
You can do the above before April 17 - just ensure that you don't work in your \\fileu\users$\YOURUSERID location. If you do, you will need to copy any files that were changed to your OneDrive space.

On April 17, your Nexus Documents, Desktop, and Pictures folders will then switch to point to your "OneDrive - University of Waterloo" space. The first time you login to a machine after that time, do the following which will delete "Recent Files" shortcuts which might be pointing to the old \\fileu\users$\YOURUSERID location (again, you want to avoid working in that space after the migration) and will also set your Windows Documents, Desktop, and Pictures folders to be pointing to the corresponding folders on youe OneDrive space:

  1. Double-click: Psych Shortcuts (on the desktop) / Programs / OneDriveMigration / UserShellFoldersReset.exe (click "Run" when the dialog pops up)

  2. Double-click: Psych Shortcuts (on the desktop) / Programs / OneDriveMigration / KnownFolderMoveOneDriveU.exe (it'll finish quickly and nothing will appear)

  3. A reboot is also then required so sign-out, then press ctrl-alt-del and instead of logging in, click the power icon in the bottom-right and select "Restart". If you are working remotely, send an email to PsychIT@uwaterloo.ca and we can reboot the machine and send a message when it's done.

Notes