Hi AllIn my company, i use Windows 10 + OneDrive for Business + Files On Demand. The main reason is that i store a loooot of data in OneDriver, most of them i don't need locally and anyway my company laptop hard disk is smaller than the size od data i am allowed store in the cloud.My company IT Dept sometimes need to reinstall out laptops with a fresh Windows 10 install. But in that case, my Files On Demand settings are lost, ie OneDrive on the fresh Windows 10 install will start dowloading again EVERYTHING from the cloud and i have to set-up manually again my folder-by-folder setting of Files On Demand, with is extremely long to do and almost impossible since i can not remember the setting for each folder. It also make the download extremely long for nothing as the vast majority of my data is only needed in the cloud.Is there a way no to loose this Files On Demand setting on a fresh Windows 10 install, ie to have this setting stored not locally on the client side but on the server side ? Most sincerely Gregory

Hi ChrisWebbTech this is really not a great idea not to remember the settings on the server side because :- OneDrive gives 1TB of space which most laptops don't have. Thus, most of us keep most of their data in the cloud only. Having OneDrive trying to re-download everything will fail for users with a lot of data in the cloud since there is not enough space locally.- On a fresh Windows 10 install, OneDrive will start to download everything locolly again, which can take an extremely long time depending on the data size of the data and the internet link speed. And only when this long download is done, the user will start setting again the syncing options to remove from local storage most of the data that was just dowloaded. At least, by default, on a fresh Windows 10 install, OneDrive should set all data to "cloud only" and let the user decide which ones to redowload and store locally.- Having to set the syncing options again from scratch is almost impossible for people like me who don't have a simple organisation of data and syncing settings (for example, one top folder and all its content always in the cloud, another top folder and all its contents always locally… etc).

Not sure what you are talking about great Idea, I said I agree with the idea, I'm just telling you it's not possible now, and I gave you a work around and how you can setup a computer without first downloading everything, turning on the on-demand setting, then selecting all the root folders to now "Sync" the metadata / files to your machine without downloading them.

But as i mentionned, i can not remember my particular syncing setting for each folder and file… and even if i could remember it, it would take an incredible long amount of time to set it again… i feel that i do need the server side to remember it for me :-)Anyway, i followed your kind advice and i created a suggestion on uservoice :-)

No, all OneDrive client settings are local to the OS. I recommend setting up onedrive with your account and using selective sync but not selecting folders to make sure File-OnDemand is on first. Then Adding in all your folders.

Hi ChrisWebbTech First of all, thanks for the very quick reply. But i am not sure to understand how it helps for my issue. Indeed, even if set selective sync (Always keep a local copy, never keep a local copy, or allow the os to delete the local copy if space is needed) on files instead of folders, the issue is the same i guess : on a fresh Windows install by my company IT Dept, all folders/files will be syncdd back on my laptop...Moreover, my OneDrive folder structure is hugely complex, as it is for most people in the world i guess. It is nearly impossible for me to set the syncing files on demande option on a file per file basis… there are indeed some huge chunks of my OneDrive folders tree that i want only in the cloud and thus i have set the "cloud only" option on the top folder. In the same way, i want a permanent copy of more than a few files, so i have to set the option on a folder and can not do it on each file one by one... Sincerely Gregory

Files On Demand settings lost on a fresh Windows 10 install

ChrisWebbTech
MVP
Feb 21, 2019
No, all OneDrive client settings are local to the OS. I recommend setting up onedrive with your account and using selective sync but not selecting folders to make sure File-OnDemand is on first. Then Adding in all your folders.
- GGilbert
  Copper Contributor
  Feb 21, 2019
  Hi ChrisWebbTech First of all, thanks for the very quick reply. But i am not sure to understand how it helps for my issue. Indeed, even if set selective sync (Always keep a local copy, never keep a local copy, or allow the os to delete the local copy if space is needed) on files instead of folders, the issue is the same i guess : on a fresh Windows install by my company IT Dept, all folders/files will be syncdd back on my laptop...
  Moreover, my OneDrive folder structure is hugely complex, as it is for most people in the world i guess. It is nearly impossible for me to set the syncing files on demande option on a file per file basis… there are indeed some huge chunks of my OneDrive folders tree that i want only in the cloud and thus i have set the "cloud only" option on the top folder. In the same way, i want a permanent copy of more than a few files, so i have to set the option on a folder and can not do it on each file one by one...
  
  Sincerely
  
  Gregory
  - ChrisWebbTech
    MVP
    Feb 21, 2019
    Your folder structure is irrelavant to the issue here. You setup sync, by not selecting folders, make sure Files on Demand is on. Then you go back into your options and pick sync folders, and just select all at the root save and done. Now you have a files on demand without downloading everything.
    
    If you're trying to save all your document settings on a per folder basis it's not possible. However it is a good idea and would be neat if they did have a way to flag the folders on the cloud side for the setting to keep local or not so you could have that push down to each device so I would highly suggest adding a uservoice for it and posting it here, I would vote for the idea.
    
    https://onedrive.uservoice.com/forums/913522?query=Cloud%20settings

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Files On Demand settings lost on a fresh Windows 10 install

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