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Ankita Kirti wrote:

Using another volume

 

Sometimes, users choose a path on another volume to set up OneDrive. A typical use case for this happens when a user has a small internal drive on their Mac, but also has a larger external drive attached.

 

This configuration is still supported in the new Files On-Demand experience if an external drive is selected during the first-run experience. A few things change as a result:

• The sync root remains in ~/Library/CloudStorage, on the user’s home volume. As noted above, this path cannot be moved from this location.
• The cache path is on the volume that was selected during the first-run experience. This is located in a hidden folder that’s a sibling of the location that was chosen.
  • This folder begins with the name “.ODContainer”.
• A symlink is created from the chosen location to ~/Library/CloudStorage.

 

For example, if the user selects /Volumes/BigDrive/OneDrive for their OneDrive path:

• The sync root will remain in ~/Library/CloudStorage/OneDrive-Personal
• The cache path will be set up at /Volumes/BigDrive/.ODContainer-OneDrive
• A symlink will link from /Volumes/BigDrive/OneDrive to ~/Library/CloudStorage/OneDrive-Personal

 

Because the cache path is located on an external drive in this scenario, any pinned content will be stored there and not on the main drive.

I am using this configuration and this description isn't consistent with what I've observed.

There is indeed a directory at /Volumes/External/.ODContainer-OneDrive, and it appears to contain the OneDrive cache. There is also a symlink in /Volumes/External that points to ~/Library/CloudStorage/OneDrive. But if a file is downloaded locally, disk usage goes up, NOT on the external drive but on the internal drive housing the home directory ONLY.

Is this the expected behavior? It sounds as if you are saying that cached content will be stored on the external drive where the cache path is located, but this does not seem to be true. In fact there seems to be little point to designating an external drive to hold the cache, as it will not be actually stored there anyway.

Has something changed in the months since this post was written? I have version 22.238.1114.0002 (Standalone) (Apple Silicon).