Forum Discussion
Files On-Demand for macOS QA
Microsoft> From what I read (see below) files will not be indexed by Spotlight. This is
> a MAJOR issue, that will cause me to stop using OneDrive and use alternate services.
Spotlight will index the content in your sync root (the path in ~/Library/CloudStorage). That will include any file metadata there, along with file content for files available in this path.
As far as getting the file content into the sync root, we're looking at ways to make this experience better, but in the near-term, if you want to force files to be available here, you can click the little "down cloud" icon to initiate a download. This works for folders too. For files that we already have in our cache path, this fetch should happen more or less instantly. Otherwise, we'll download the file from the cloud.
I've also shared the gist of your feedback with the rest of our team so we can think about how to better support this scenario.
Jack
Jack_Nichols wrote:
As far as getting the file content into the sync root, we're looking at ways to make this experience better, but in the near-term, if you want to force files to be available here, you can click the little "down cloud" icon to initiate a download. This works for folders too. For files that we already have in our cache path, this fetch should happen more or less instantly. Otherwise, we'll download the file from the cloud.
This doesn't work.
I've marked the root of my OneDrive folder and all the folders within it as "Always keep on this device". A small checkmark icon appears next to each folder, and the tooltip reads "Always Available On This Device". So far so good. A cloud icon with a down arrow appears next to the checkmark, and the tooltip reads "Not Downloaded". These folders are all in my cache path, so they definitely are downloaded. The tooltip is lying. I click the cloud icon, and it changes to a circular pie-shaped progress circle. I wait. The files presumably "download", but also not really, since they're already downloaded. OneDrive shows no progress during this download, and reports "OneDrive is up to date". The faux "download" finishes and I check the folder contents. Everything is there with checkmark icons. The files are indexable by Spotlight. Quick Look works. The cloud with down arrow icon has vanished. All is right with the world.
BUT
I leave my computer and come back a couple hours later. Some or all of my folders that had "downloaded" have now, somehow, inexplicably, reverted to "Not Downloaded" with the cloud and down arrow icon. No changes to my OneDrive were made during this time. I check the folder contents, and anywhere from a handful to over 50% of the files in the folder are displaying the "Not Downloaded" icon. Quick Look no longer works on these. Spotlight no longer indexes these. The files have, without any interaction on my part, reverted to a dataless state. The files are still in the hidden cache path. I go back to the top level and click the cloud with down arrow again to force the "download" to start. The files are, again, not actually downloaded. They are simply copied from the cache path. The down cloud icons eventually disappear and everything is good again. A few minutes to a few hours later, the the down cloud icons return, and I repeat the process. I've probably clicked the down cloud arrows somewhere around 4,000 times in the last three days. I'm at my wit's end. I've uninstalled and reinstalled OneDrive. I've tried the App Store and Standalone versions. I've used the reset script multiple times. I've even deleted every single file and folder in my OneDrive and re-uploaded all 200,000 files (600GB of data) from a local backup. Nothing has worked. The down cloud icons keep reappearing for NO reason. I've lost countless hours to this. I''m going insane. I just switched from being a lifelong Dropbox user to OneDrive three weeks ago. The first two weeks were great. The last week has been hell and I am deeply regretting my decision.
- Jack_NicholsHi rvisima,
> I leave my computer and come back a couple hours later. Some or all of
> my folders that had "downloaded" have now, somehow, inexplicably, reverted
> to "Not Downloaded" with the cloud and down arrow icon. No changes to
> my OneDrive were made during this time. I check the folder contents, and
> anywhere from a handful to over 50% of the files in the folder are displaying
> the "Not Downloaded" icon.
How large is the home drive on this Mac? Is your OneDrive cache path on an external volume?
From what you described, this sounds like macOS is hitting some of the low disk space triggers I mentioned in the blog, and trying to clean up files as a result. The end result is that some of your files become dataless.
Jack- Not for me. I have 2 TB SSD and I have 1 TB free. OneDrive does this exact thing to me. I come back a bit later, and all the files I marked to leave on the Mac are back online only.
Jack_Nichols The internal/home drive on this Mac is 500GB, with 189GB free as of this writing. The OneDrive cache path is on an external 3TB volume, with 338GB free. My .ODContainer-OneDrive folder contains 182GB (I pared it way down from the previous 600GB while troubleshooting). My UBF8T346G9.OneDriveStandaloneSuite directory in my Library folder contains about 100MB of FileProviderLogs, and occasionally when I check it, a handful of files (around 1GB or so) in the Hydrations folder. I never come close to filling up either drive. My internal/home drive should never have anything from OneDrive on it, aside from the settings, logs, etc., because it is way too small (hence the external drive). It sounds like you're implying, though, that OneDrive IS moving files on to my internal/home drive, which I did not give it permission to do, ever, and do not want. Is that the case?
Regardless of what's causing the problem (and I do still need to know) — the broader issue I mentioned here are the icons, the tooltips, and the OneDrive window itself all telling me lies. It's not being communicated clearly at any given time what is going on, making it impossible for me to troubleshoot, let alone provide info to you for potential help. If OneDrive just told me what's going on instead of perpetually saying it's up to date, I could take appropriate action.