2.24.22 UPDATE: We've been listening to your feedback, and we've made some design changes. We're releasing a new version that addresses the most common themes and makes it easier to achieve the previ...
Updated Feb 24, 2022
Version 12.0
Blog Post
Like pretty much everyone here, I was blindsided by the 'new direction' OneDrive was taking. In trying to fix things, not knowing what the hell was going on, I messed a few things up along the way and couldn't get anything to work. After a week or so, I posted (with cautious optimism) 8 days ago, that everything was back on track for me. As of today, and after performing every update, it still is.
I've been reading the pile on here and thought I'd share what eventually worked for me. Disclaimer: I have nothing to do with Microsoft, I'm just a sole graphic designer working from home. For me to be productive, backups and file management systems are my lifeblood. Also I understand that the solutions that worked for me may not be possible or relevant for everyone.
I have around 500gb of files in the cloud. I keep around 150gb of recent/current files such art files, fonts etc. stored as originals on my iMac in the OneDrive folder by selectively choosing which folders are available. Then I select 'Always Keep on this Device' at the setup stage, and originals are maintained and then cloned to external backup drives. The remaining files, I archive on external hard drives as well.
While I initially thought all my files were deleted after the big update, the originals were just shifted to Group Containers in the Library folder and empty link files were in the OneDrive cloud location in Finder. Trying work with these empty link files to download (or have the originals) in this location was a waste of time. Nothing worked. So I duplicated/backed up my current OneDrive folder that was in the cache location in Library to another location on my drive, did a Time Machine backup, and then deleted everything OneDrive related: cached files, empty symlink files and completely uninstalled the OneDrive app and started from scratch.
After installing and reconnecting, all my files were eventually available again, but not downloaded. I selected which folders I wanted available and then right clicked to again 'Always Keep on this Device' and they then downloaded. Fortunately my download allowance made it possible to then download everything I needed.
Checking the cache folder in the Group Containers folder in the library and the new cloud Location in Finder, full versions of the files appeared in both locations, not just empty files. However, somehow it doesn't double the file space taken up on the hard drive which is just as well. The files don't rely on the cloud to be worked on, as I have successfully cloned full versions of my files in the new OneDrive Location folder structure to my external hard drive for backup. With the app off, I've opened and worked on those files successfully from the external drive.
As there was a brief period between backing up to the cloud and what resided in my OneDrive folder on my hard drive, I updated those files manually by dragging the duplicated files from the temp location into my new OneDrive Location and then updated what was in the cloud. Once all files were updated, I deleted the temp OneDrive folder.
I also sync selected folders to my MacBook Air for when I work remotely, and that too allows me to store originals and work on them there.
Some have commented on files being corrupted. I had a file that was created recently that I came across yesterday that had the dreaded Exec icon which I thought was now wrecked...
I did know however it was a png file, so I renamed it with the .png extension that was missing and now I could open it in Preview. That file now needed to sync and when it did, it was fine. Coming originally from a PC background, it took awhile to grasp how Mac files don't always have extensions in their file name. I think OneDrive is a bit inconsistent in how it treats those files and sometimes 'changes' the file type to 'I don't know'. Maybe that's a possible fix to some of the file corruption issues.
My iMac is a 2017 Intel, so I'm looking to hopefully upgrade it in the coming months. I've noticed that the status icons on files and folders sometimes take awhile to update to their correct status, however my M1 MacBook updates pretty quickly. Also while these updates are sometimes happening, Activity Monitor can report some pretty full on CPU % usage but it always settles down once done.
Spotlight works fine now as well, so I am able to use it to search for files using my search app.
Bottom line for me is that the updated OneDrive does work. Of course, as I mentioned in my comments over a week ago, it has been so frustrating that these changes and how they could possibly be dealt with by end users has not been communicated properly at all. Hopefully they will read our feedback and take note in the future. And hopefully my experience getting through this mess may be of help to some of you.