Firstly, no, it's not gone forever. It remains in your onedrive recycling bin for a month. Secondly, that behavior makes sense. One drive is a mirror of your synced folders. If you just want to not have the file downloaded in your computer, just right click on the file and select "free up space".

[–] _sideffect@lemmy.world 3 points 4 months ago (1 children)

It's so obvious!

[–] potustheplant@feddit.nl 2 points 4 months ago

It is. Another indicator you get is a status icon next to each file telling you if the file is permanently or temporarily (meaning it will get auto-deleted locally if you don't use it) dowloaded to your pc or if it's only on the cloud.

Oh, and you also get a prompt when you delete a file letting you know that it will be deleted from onedrive as well but it will still be in the recycling bin for a while. The only way to not get that prompt is to tick a box to not get reminded again.

Microsoft software has a lot of flaws but this isn't one of them.