On January 26 th , we released a new version of OneDrive sync (22.002) on macOS 12.1+ with an updated Files On-Demand experience. Prior to this release, OneDrive used a kernel extension for Files On-...
Updated Mar 01, 2022
Version 4.0
Blog Post
Gregleleu Yeah--that was kinda obscure. I wanted to cache my OD files on an external drive, and Apple File Provider wants to cache them in my Library folder on my system drive. I've got a 1TB internal drive on a recent Mac Mini, which can handle a local cache fine. The problem for me is that it only caches some files, and it breaks Spotlight, Time Machine, Carbonite, and a whole bunch of other stuff. On demand files aren't ready for prime time under any operating system.
OD has a hack that lets you cache files on an external drive, but I've found it to be really unreliable, and I can't get files to stay local even when I mark them to be. It also breaks the file status icons that let you know if a file is local or in the cloud. Worst of all, it corrupted files, and I didn't have backups because my local copies were whisked away to the cloud with no warning when OD started using AFP. That was the origin of the whole heated thread several years ago.
I tried Mountain Duck as well, and it seems like a good app, mostly. However, I had the same kinds of issues with large OD downloads either taking forever or not finishing at all, and I had the same issues with StrongSync and other apps I tried. GoodSync is different in that it doesn't even try to use AFP—it just monitors your cloud services and local folders and keeps the most current versions in both places. I currently have about 586GB of data on OD, and I keep about 500GB of that in a local mirror. Files on demand works for most things, and I keep a local copy in case of internet outage or MS skullduggery. It's a kinda geeky solution to the problem, but it lets me sleep at night.
One other advantage to GoodSync is that you can even use it to sync between different cloud services. That requires you to download the files and re-upload them across your Internet connection, but I've got a fairly fast connection and schedule the jobs to run overnight. There are cloud services to do this as well, but GoodSync works for my purposes.
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