I've had a phone call from a BT agent who read a statement from the BT Cloud gurus. I do not have the exact wording - perhaps someone from BT can post it as a reply - but the gist was as folllows:
If BT Cloud finds duplicate files on the client (PC) and Server (in The Cloud) but not identical, the file on the client will always be marked as a conflicted version and the file on the server will be copied to the client.
BT Cloud does not consider the creation or modification date of the two files.
Thus, when BT Cloud is actively synchronising, if you update a file in Excel, Word or other utility and then save it, BT Cloud will mark the updated file as a Conflicted version and copy the version on the server to the client.
That is how the agent said BT Cloud is intended to work
The work round for Excel or Word is to use Save As and create a new version of the file by a version number, e.g. for file test, save it successively as test1, test2, etc.
But this does not work with an Access database file. In use, the file updates itself whenever a record is changed. For the constituent files of a webpage, the links only work if file names remain the same.
Basically, the current version of BT Cloud sets the file structure on the client in aspic. Once a file has been copied up to the server, it is deemed to be the one and only version the user wants. If the user has the temerity to modify the file, BT Cloud will superceed it by copying the version on the server back to the client.
This is NOT how Dropbox and One Drive work, which I use when I want to transfer a limited set of files between clients. However, I would have to pay a monthly fee to use either of these to synchronise all of the folders I want. It goes against the grain to do so when I am already paying for this service in my monthly BT Broadband fee.
Neither is this how the version of BT Cloud synchronised in the Good Old Days. When a conflict was detected, the newer version would be retained as the main version. If the newer version was on the client, the file would be copied to the server, as a new copy. The old version on the server would be retained, accessible by logging into the web and checking the file for versions available. Having been copied to the server, the new version would then be copied to other clients. If there was an old version on the client, the old version would be marked as the conflicted version (i.e., not deleted but retained in case it was still required). That is how BT Cloud did work, and should be made to work again.
Please produce a non-corrupting version of BT Cloud - is it now 3 years since it worked properly?
@DavidM @NeilO @PaddyB @RTL
