“Add to OneDrive” 🎙 – The Intrazone podcast

Mark-Kashman gacarini (Can't find Katy to @ her here. )

This episode was super helpful and brought clarity to the direction sync is headed. I'm disappointed to learn that the 'Sync' button is on its way out, in deference to 'Add to OneDrive,' though your explanation as to why makes a lot of sense. Allow me to present why I'm disappointed and hopefully this can help inform your continued development of 'Add to OneDrive.'

The reason so many of our users tend to prefer using the Sync button is the built-in separation in File Explorer, denoted by the office building icon, for files they've synced from Teams (see first image, below). This is a useful separation as we think about which files are exclusively our own and which are shared files to which we have access. Instead of this separation into a different folder strucure, 'Add to OneDrive' surfaces these synced folders in OneDrive web by mixing shared (Teams) files under "My files" (though with a slightly altered folder icon), and this doesn't provide the full separation that helps users stay organized. In fact, every time one clicks 'Add to OneDrive,' they've just created yet another folder in the root "My files," likely just named "General," which they now have to move to a subfolder, or rename, or both.

Perhaps there could be an option for users to choose whether or not to they wish to lump all of these together or not, both in File Explorer and OneDrive web. This would make it an easier change to swallow. Maybe a change in terminology to something like "My OneDrive Files" and an additional option for "Files I've Synced." Or, even better, perhaps an easier design change would be a new blue-colored folder at the top of "My files" in OneDrive web and File Explorer called "Added to OneDrive," where these synced folders would be created, by default. (See my mock-ups, below). Similar to how all teams meetings recordings automatically go to an auto-created new folder called 'Recordings.'

Thanks for listening.

I am really disappointed that Microsoft's chosen direction is in favor of "add shortcut to OneDrive" with plans to ultimately remove the more traditional sync button. We disabled "add shortcut to OneDrive" because it was creating chaos in out tenant due to unintentional file deletions and the little understood concept that you can either sync OR add the "shortcut" but not both. My disappointment stems from three main points.

First, the paradigm in use with "add shortcut to OneDrive"  is unnecessarily confusing by calling it a "shortcut." People know what a shortcut is and it's NOT a sync.  A shortcut is simply a pointer. People believe they are dealing with a pointer and they have no reason to believe that deleting said pointer will DELETE all files for everyone...until it happens.  If you insist on going this direction, at least rename it "sync to OneDrive."

Second, we have made significant investment in guiding users to SharePoint for collaborative purposes and to reserve OneDrive for personal items, work in progress, or simple, one-off or ad hoc sharing. "Add shortcut to OneDrive" violates this second paradigm by moving collaborative artifacts into personal storage. Why?! Especially, when we have a more sensical option available through traditional sync where the content is logically separated in File Explorer?

Finally, the argument is made that "add shortcut to OneDrive" offers some features that are not available through sync. I'm a bit baffled by this logic. Why not apply those same features to sync? And then get rid of this confusing "add shortcut to OneDrive" instead of the other way around?

It sounds like the ship has already sailed but I do still sincerely hope you reconsider.

GAIA CARINI: “Eventually, the goal is to fully replace the sync button, and so stay tuned for more information and timelines on that. We don’t have timelines on it right now. Again, the – the current focus is really addressing the feedback so we can really make the Add to OneDrive experience the best possible one for users across different scenarios.”

I didn’t see this podcast and post until yesterday.  From the way things have been presented by @Katy and @Gaia I’m concerned, and I align with contributor @m36five and the comments that person posted.

In the end, the user acceptability, will depend on the final implementation of how those links are surfaced in OneDrive.  Currently the two methods serve two different ways of working (scenarios) well.  There is just the problem of the conflict on occasions between trying to use the two methods for one SharePoint library.

My role at Cardiff University is Collaboration Enablement Manager within the university IT department.  At the university we have over 6000 staff members in a large variety of roles working in very different scenarios.  We have people working in some roles which are very similar to those in a commercial business, but of course we have academics, researchers and teachers.  Thus my team, in conjunction with other central teams, serves what is a microcosm of how people work digitally across the world, but certainly US, UK, EU etc.  I’ve been in the role since at least 2010 and related roles previously. 

Microsoft 365 has been shaped with some useful design principles and a key one which has been clear since 2017 is the separation of “individual” work from “group/team/community/org” work.  In between these two is ad hoc or small chat group collaboration, but that logically hangs off “individual” work and has been implemented that way in Microsoft 365 with small chat groups and standalone (non-channel) Teams meetings, when on-the-fly shared files and standalone meeting recordings are held in the OneDrives of the people sharing or clicking the meeting record button.

This division between OneDrive for the individual and SharePoint for the group/team has made sense and aligned with the old home drive and shared drive provision at many institutions. 

The sharing permissions policies for OneDrive and SharePoint in our tenancy are different.  With OneDrive you can share files with “Anyone” and the responsibility for that rests with the individual.  With SharePoint you cannot share with “Anyone” because the responsibility rests with the group.  You can invite someone as a guest to that Teams or Group space but then there is some transparency and sight of what is being shared at a group level.

There are clearly scenarios when having all the shared links in one view is the best for certain users.  My most recent example was for the director of a research centre who needed a single “dashboard” of all her file content.  The renamable shared folder links in OneDrive worked well, but at our institution she is much more the exception as staff are used to the separation.

As m36five states “This is a useful separation as we think about which files are exclusively our own and which are shared files to which we have access. Instead of this separation into a different folder [sic] strucure, 'Add to OneDrive' surfaces these synced folders in OneDrive web by mixing shared (Teams) files under "My files" (though with a slightly altered folder icon), and this doesn't provide the full separation that helps users stay organized.”  

So, if for technical reasons Microsoft doesn’t have the resource or capability to get the two methods to work in tandem then we would need some way of placing by default all the shared content links separately to the individual’s folders. 

Effectively you would be stopping having two sync locations and concentrating on one, requiring imho an extra level separating Shared Content and Individual Content under the OneDrive client icon.  Ideally Microsoft would keep that icon just for individual and ad hoc shared content from colleagues OneDrives and devise a new icon branding for Cloud files.

Thx, but I don't want to disable the "Add to OneDrive"-Button. I want to disable the Sync-Button so that the user can only use "Add to OneDrive". In 00:13:48 she says that "There is a script in our documentation to turn off the Sync-Button for the whole site" - so I am looking for this script 🙂

Hopefully, this script does something different than offline availability (see https://sharepointmaven.com/how-to-disable-sync-in-sharepoint-and-onedrive ) because switching this off also disables the possibility to get the library to Windows Explorer over "Add to OneDrive".

So long story short: What we need is to just disable the classic Sync-Button without disabling anything related to the "Add to OneDrive" functionality.

Mark-Kashman Great info, thanks for sharing! PDF scan & sign is big for me too. Just some feedback from a mixed environment to pass along - A significant design improvement opportunity. When our folks use Add to OneDrive on a folder they're already Syncing (common scenario due to folder nesting), the product prompts to "Unsync conflicting folders" without any other viable option. Then, the real trouble begins. Sync folders are disconnected but not cleaned up, so people unknowingly keep using them, because they don't understand what happened and old familiar folders are still there. The prompt window only offers an Unsync button - can we please have a more prominent way to Cancel and gracefully exit? Early Christmas present?

Just came across this after seeing the AMA. Have to be honest, a bit shocked that anyone who uses SharePoint thinks that "Add to OneDrive" is better.  It's like the consumer team has pushed their way in and steamrolled the business team as this whole process makes zero sense to business users.  If I need to have access to SharePoint libraries available wherever, then that's what Intune is for, automatically setting this up for users so they don't even have to think about it. Adding shortcuts to a users OneDrive folder where they already have 100's of files and folders is just insane.

For those interested in this topic, be sure to sign up for the OneDrive Customer Office Hours, where you can connect with the OneDrive product group. Introducing OneDrive customer office hours - Microsoft Community Hub

Anne_Lohuis and simpkinspete - some of us remain with the view that deprecating the sync button and replacing with "Add to OneDrive" would be a retrograde step - unless there is something like a "Show as SharePoint in OneDrive" still viewable via the separate 'Building' icon.

I've not had any reassurance that the concerns I and others have listed above have been taken on board.

You mentioned a PowerShell script linked in the docs to disable/hide the Sync button while not disabling the sync over "Add to OneDrive". Can you please share a link to the script / docs page?

It's been about a year since this episode aired. Is there an updated timeline when Add to OneDrive will replace Sync? 

Quick clarification - Does hiding the Sync button with the mentioned PowerShell script still allow users to use Add to OneDrive for SharePoint locations?