Dodgy computer use- or totally innocent?

[Underpressure13]

I was on my computer earlier ( I don’t use it for anything personal , just for Netflix, Kids programmes etc , very occasional use) when I noticed an update from ‘ Onedrive’ . I’ve never used or downloaded this programme. I delved a bit further to find three files: documents , screenshots and personal vault . Went into the first two but nothing in there- went into the third and it led to two emails my boyfriend has . Tried to access the emails but it said ‘ we will have sent you a code, please enter’ so I couldn’t go any further .
When he got home from work, I told him what I’d found and asked him about it all , but he said he doesn’t understand , cane up with lots of reasons why that could be there . He admitted it looked dodgy. Said there’s probably an easy explanation etc .
Last weekend , however , I was doing an iPhone update into my iCloud whilst we watched Netflix . My phone was linked to his WiFi connection and he had his phone ‘ charging’ ( apparently ) in the computer as no sockets were free at the time. I remember thinking , I wonder if he’s downloading something off my phone ?! ( then felt immediately paranoid!) so I thought nothing of it.... but now I’m wondering . Is it all just too much of a coincidence? Since our chat he’s been grumpy . He said he trusts me and has laughed it off , but I’ve said I’d like to look at it later and maybe he can access it , passwords and all , infront of me 🤔
Am I overthinking this ? I don’t want to ruin our relationship or our weekend together. Any advice anyone ?! Anyone had similar happen ? 😬

He definitely knows what the emails are
Sounds very shady to me

This all seems like extreme paranoia on your part to me, and if your boyfriend has picked up on it i wouldn't be suprised if it had made him grumpy! Onedrive installs things on my computer all the time.

One Drive is a Microsoft backup service (very similar to icloud) which often cones preinstalled on phones, laptops, pcs and tablets.

You said that you had your phone "connected to his WiFi" - I assume you mean to the WiFi at his house? In theory there are programs which you can use to access unprotected devices connected to your network, but unless he's really techy he's unlikely to be doing anything like that. Even if he was, he certainly wouldn't need to plug his phone into his pc in order to do so!

Wait, is your phone an iPhone? Unless you've jailbroken it, he wouldn't be able to access your phone via an external device without physically having your phone to hand.

That’s what I hope , I’ve been reading up about similar situations on MN last few days so it may have made me extra paranoid - I hope so ! But he has told me in the past that he struggles with trust - and he’s a real computer whiz. Why would the files be connected to his emails then ? He doesn’t use the computer for work . That’s the bit that makes me wonder . I do hope it’s just me being stupid as everything is great apart from that . He does have two sims in one phone and 5 email addresses ?!

My OneDrive is always telling me that it needs to send me a passcode. I've no idea why since I always use the same devices to access it. Drives me mad.

I have no idea why you would think that charging his phone using the computer meant he was downloading something from your phone.

So, in summary I can't see anything here to worry about, so perhaps you should consider whether you have trust issues in general or whether there is something to genuinely worry about?

It was on my computer in my house - we were using his hotspot / data to watch something . His phone was charging from the computer .It just seems weird to now have onedrive installed when I didn’t install it and for it to be linked to 2 of his emails. The programme installed the same time as I was uploading to the cloud- so could totally have been my phone doing that . Wish I knew more about this stuff ! I’m probably just way overthinking this 🤦‍♀️

OneDrive is Microsoft's cloud storage service, similar to iCloud, Google Drive, Dropbox etc.

If you have two-factor authentication set up (which is good practice on any website), it will send a code to your phone before you can log in.

My phone was linked to his WiFi connection and he had his phone ‘ charging’ ( apparently ) in the computer as no sockets were free at the time. I remember thinking , I wonder if he’s downloading something off my phone ?!
I use my computer to charge my phone all the time.

He does have two sims in one phone and 5 email addresses ?!
This is perfectly normal, even though not everyone needs it.

There's nothing to worry about.

OK, I'd assumed as you said you were connected to his WiFi that you were at his house. So you have discovered that One Drive is installed on YOUR computer, at your house, but you've never used it? That actually is more worrying. I take it you don't know too much about tech? Do you have someone you trust who does (not him obviously) who could take a look at your pc and try to work out what's happened?

If you think he’s backed your phone up to his cloud so all your info contacts and photos are now in his possession ask to see what’s in his cloud?

If he has trust issues though it may not go down well. Although if you word it like:

‘ in just worried, you says yourself it looked dodgy, can we check your cloud and see if my contacts and stuff are in there, I just want to know what’s happened coz neither of us expected this”
Then it won’t seem like you are blaming him? Your just being silly kind of thing and he can show you to reassure you...
If he won’t show you then you’re no further forward. If he throws a strop it could be to hide his guilt. Or it could be as he’s offended. This could mess up your relationship. He should buy his own Netflix !

Thanks for the replies - all of you ! It really has made me think and actually I feel a bit foolish and a bit guilty for suspecting him- it’s really probably nothing . I will ask him later - in an easygoing kind of way - and see how he responds . Or I might first wait to see if he brings it up as we’ll be watching something together later . I do think , on reflection , that lockdown is playing with our minds a bit and I’m probably just more paranoid that I really need to be. I think I probably have trust issues ( my past thread would explain why -EA marriage in the past which ended 2 years ago when I discovered stuff on ExH’s phone ) . I don’t want to tarnish this lovely man with the same brush , he has been a ray of sunshine after years of sorrow. So Thankyou for helping me to see its prob just me being a bit bonkers ! If something does come to light I’ll keep you posted ! Fingers crossed it’s just all nothing and I’ll learn to keep spidery senses in check when barking up the wrong tree

It’s just part of Outlook. I’m often required to send attachments via OneDrive for work for GDPR reasons. Nothing interesting or suspicious. Just usually boring work files.

Onedrive is a normal cloud-based software that many employers use. Needing an activation code is part of 2-step verification. I have to use it every single day. I don't know the background and from your paranoia I would guess other things are going on? I sometimes charge my phone on my laptop too if I want it near me....

I have 4 email addresses on my phone too lol

I don't think it's inherently dodgy. I have four email addresses! Every couple of years I make a new one (because they get clogged up with spam) but I never delete the old ones just in case. Also Onedrive/Microsoft email always asks for a verification passcode, it's a new feature they're rolling out. That's not something your boyfriend has done.

Ask someone in real life who works in IT. It's odd that he's installed things on your computer however innocuous they can be. I'd be concerned he's using it to check up on you, and if he is, that's a huge red flag.

Onedrive backs up stuff on my laptop all the time, and my daughters.
No idea what it backs up lol but i've been getting the warning pop up for a while saying mine is nearly full

Oh and I think onedrive is linked and set up automatically when you set up a new laptop/PC with windows, maybe not all windows but we have windows 10 on ours and you need an email address to set up each user on the laptops!

Yeah I'm not sure about this. Why would you store emails in onedrive? And in a locked part (vault)? I use Dropbox and onedrive for documents (images etc) because I share folders with people who won't use Dropbox. But no one has emails in there. I also think it sounds like he's putting software on your phone/computer.
The digital age is just such a curse in some ways and this could be totally innocent too. He probably has stuff he doesn't want you to see, but don't we all? He knows you looked on your exes phone and doesn't want you to find his stuff. Usual boy shit probably. Porn, emails from exes etc.

If he has a vault .. what is he using it for.. that is the only dodgy thing

Ok so I just checked and onedrive is definitely already with windows 10, however when I went onto mine and clicked personal vault it tells me I have to set up the personal vault.
However it's possible when windows was being set up there was an option to do that and some people might have done it for security reasons and not remembered whereas in my case I might have just clicked that I would do it later.

I have to say though....if I had a boyfriend and he demanded to see my emails based on something as simple as that and didn't have any other reason to suspect me i'd be furious even if I had nothing to hide!

Really, you'd be furious if someone questioned you about stuff you'd installed on their computer?!

If it was onedrive and my email somehow got linked to it then I wouldn't be furious about some curious questions, but if there was demands to see my emails then yep i'd be furious.

He would still need your password to link this up, to be totally honest I work in IT and a lot of the people responding angrily clearly have no idea how onedrive works, doesn't sound dodgy at all.

If he was a computer whiz he could just folders to be invisible and you'd never see them, much ado about nothing.

Yep great point ArthurBloom, I'm not a computer whizz but i'm sure if I wanted to I could find a good invisible programme to install in a few minutes.

A computer whizz would know exactly what to look for and what to use. They wouldn't use onedrive....and they wouldn't use an email address so easily linked to them.

I hadn’t really given this much more thought since , but one thing which struck me as odd the other day was that I came home late one night and noticed that the personal vault had last been modified that evening when I wasn’t there . I asked him about that in an ‘ that’s weird , I wonder why that happened’ sort of way and he just said that he must have logged on to the computer at that time so various things got modified at that time - which seemed reasonable enough. Have checked that theory out a couple of time since though and it hasn’t done / said the same thing when just logging on generally . I’m not particularly bothered about it anymore as it says there’s only 2kb of info in the vault and it’s his one drive linked to his email account/ Microsoft account - but the date and time of last modification threw me off kilter a bit 🤔 does that still sound like nothing to worry about ? He has also since downloaded Firefox and Microsoft edge On there now too- I can’t keep up ?! Hope I can just draw a line under it and move on 🤞