Forum Discussion
Sync external OneDrive shared folders
You cannot sync folders shared from a user belonging to another organization.
This feature is called "B2B Sync" and more information on it is available here:
https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/onedrive/b2b-sync
That doc also contains links to joining the Windows or Office Insiders program.
HTH,
SA.
Thanks Sven -
So let's see if I understand this -
Microsoft is enabling this feature but ONLY on a B2B basis - in other words, they will only allow this if both ends have a Microsoft licensed account. That's better but only slightly.
If I use one of the competitors - BOX, DropBox, Google, etc., we can share to someone without them having a license - they only need to create a free account.
There are some that require a license of course. The issue is maintaining those accounts and subscriptions. This partial method will help on occasion but is unpredictable - I might as well go about creating and paying for 'guest' accounts so that we know it will work. Although that might lead to email address conflicts with existing accounts.
Example - we have our sharing set to allow external users but the share to email must match the MS account to be used. This allows for better security and matching of accounts as you manage your shares. So what if the email isn't the same as the guest's 'business' MS account? Probably not common but that's one hurdle for the user/admin. What if they don't have an MS account at all? That's another hurdle for the user/admin. Oh, let's not forget that we have to instruct users to instruct guests to click the link for 'organization' account or they'll be lost down another rabbit hole. It's pretty ridiculous to allow web access but not sync. Users should be able to expect consistent behavior and not have to wonder if the share will work.
Again - I'm only trying to give users something that works and not have them coming back to me asking why they can't use brand X that they have seen which doesn't have any of these restrictions.
Also - am I missing something in this document? It talks about the Windows Insider signup but doesn't explain where it is used. The Office Insider link just spins. They talk about several admin portals for sharing but don't point to specific settings that enable B2B functions. Is there no further setup needed? Is it enabled for 'Insiders' only??
-Choking
We are working on a large study that involves sharing a large number of photos on OneDrive. We have added quests via Active Directory who are able to edit files and create directories. But they have not been able to move and reorganize photos as they need to. We would like them to be able to Sync to their desktop so that they could cut and paste files as they can with a GoogleDrive. I have people in my organization that want us to move all of our files to GoogleDrive for this reason.
When will guests have the ability to sync to their desktop and move or copy files as needed for them to be able to collaborate with us on this project?? Isn't this a primary objective of Office365? To allow multiple people within multiple organizations to collaborate on projects??
Thanks
No Joy -
So this is still in beta and to use it you must be an 'Office Insider'. Except the portal to sign up for Office Insider has been down for several days - I assume it is offline intentionally given the large roll-out of various changes in the Office suite happening lately and there being no interest in dealing with test subjects at this time.
Anyway, you can use the reg key to push your OneDrive client to an Insider version without registering as an Insider - except that does nothing for the mobile client on iOS or Android or MAC OS for that matter. And of course there is no one in support that has knowledge of this topic.
Still Choking
