Forum Discussion
Change in Files On-Demand behaviour in recent update to OneDrive for Windows
Hi Richard_Gration,
To disable Files On-Demand in OneDrive, follow these steps:
- Click on the OneDrive icon in the taskbar corner.
- Select the Help & Settings (gear) icon, then click on Settings.
- In the Settings window, go to the "Sync and backup" section.
- Under the "Files On-Demand" sub-section, click on the "Download all files" button.
By doing this, all your OneDrive files will be downloaded to your local hard drive, and the Files On-Demand feature will be turned off.
If you prefer using the Group Policy editor to disable Files On-Demand, follow these steps:
- Press Win+R to open the Run prompt.
- Type gpedit.msc and press Enter to open Group Policy Editor.
- Navigate to Computer Configuration > Administrative Templates.
- Scroll down to find OneDrive and double-click to open it.
- Open the "Use OneDrive Files On-Demand settings" policy.
- Choose the Disabled option.
- Click OK to apply the changes.
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Kindest regards,
Leon Pavesic
(LinkedIn)
LeonPavesicRichard_Gration I can confirm that using this option is vastly different than being able to disable Files On-Demand entirely and is having quite the impact in my work space, especially since the Files On-Demand system doesn't seem to allow two people to operate in the same document at the same time. Its possible that it would be better if all of the computers were changed to this system, but if it isn't then we're essentially going back in time 10 years in OneDrive functionality.
Has anyone come up with a solution to solve this problem, or is this another case of Microsoft handicapping their users for no apparent reason?
This is a joke!
I have thousands of files in my OneDrive and every time I reboot my machine it takes hours to 'Process Changes' before any changes to existing files I make uploads, rendering OneDrive a much worse experience to what I had before without the ability to disable files on demand.
Not to mention, half the 'Status' icons are just incorrect:
I figured this one out!
You want to navigate to
C:\Program Files\Microsoft OneDrive\Build Number\adm\
Or
%localappdata%\Microsoft\OneDrive\Build Number\adm\
If it is a user installation
Make sure build number is replaced with the build number.
Then you should copy the ADMX file to C:\Windows\PolicyDefinitions.
After that copy the ADML file to C:\Windows\PolicyDefinitions\en-US
With that done you should be able to go to administrative templates then OneDrive and set "Use Files On Demand" to disabled.
After that you should be able to re-open OneDrive and it should work.
I hope this guide helped someone out :).
Also this is my first post on the forum so sorry if its bad
Edit: Sorry I didn't mention that this was on windows 10 the behaviour might be different in windows 11
- Thanks for posting this. I gave it a try and, as expected, it does make the OneDrive administrative template appear in gpedit.msc. However, setting 'Use Files On Demand' to disabled makes no difference, even after rebooting the machine. I presently have OneDrive version: Build 24.101.0519.0010 (64-bit).
So, unfortunately the problem still persists as per my original post. It is clearly possible for the previous OneDrive behaviour to still work with the current version of the OneDrive software as my work PC continues to allow 'Files On Demand' to be toggled off with exactly the same version of OneDrive installed.
It is disrespectful of its customers that Microsoft forces these changes on users. Users should be able to select whether they want 'Files On Demand' or not, and not be forced into a change they don't want or need.
