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Microsoft OneDrive Blog
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OneDrive for Mac Now Supports Removable Drives

Jack_Nichols's avatar
Jack_Nichols
Icon for Microsoft rankMicrosoft
Jun 12, 2025
Earlier this year, we announced support for several improvements to OneDrive for Mac, including support for external, non-removable drives. We’ve heard feedback about the differences between “non-r...
Updated Aug 29, 2025
Version 3.0
onedrive
Jack_Nichols's avatar
Jack_Nichols
Icon for Microsoft rankMicrosoft
Sep 09, 2025

I just tested this and it works for me. A few things to keep in mind:

  • Make sure you have updated to the latest macOS. I tested on macOS 15.7 just now. Some earlier versions of macOS have bugs related to Spotlight and OneDrive.
  • Spotlight, the search in Finder, and `mdfind` all have different backends and can return different results. In particular, folders that you haven't browsed into yet don't always appear.

If you are still having trouble, open Feedback Asssistant and file a feedback on Apple. DM me the FB number and I'll make sure it gets to the right folks at Apple.

yzy's avatar
yzy
Copper Contributor
Oct 22, 2025

https://discussions.apple.com/thread/256170631?answerId=261645549022&sortBy=rank

Subject: Inconsistent discovery of CJK-named files in cloud-synced folders on macOS

  • Issue summary: Searching by Chinese (CJK) keywords in file names returns inconsistent results between a OneDrive-synced folder and a regular local folder. The same PDF may be found locally but not in the cloud-synced path. We also see occasional localization-related messages in Chinese environments.
  • What we observed
    • Rebuilding/refreshing does not reliably resolve the discrepancy.
    • Files in purely local folders are typically discoverable; files in OneDrive-synced folders are more likely to be missed.
  • Impact: Users cannot reliably locate documents, disrupting daily work, automation, and collaboration, and increasing time and frustration.
  • Broader pattern: Similar reports appear with Dropbox after recent updates (example: Alfred Forum). This suggests a cross-provider issue affecting macOS search behavior for cloud-synced content.
  • Current workaround: Adopt workflows that don’t rely on Spotlight (e.g., Alfred + fzf) as a temporary measure.

(Refs: Dropbox report example — https://www.alfredforum.com/topic/23051-since-recent-dropbox-update-alfred-stopped-indexing-it/ ; Non-Spotlight workflow — https://alfred.app/workflows/yohasebe/fzf/)