Forum Discussion
MacOS Monterey - Disable Files on Demand
- That sounds strange. I would expect it to be one or the other as you say. On my own Mac running Monterey I cannot duplicate your issue. As you say, you can't disable FOD from the OneDrive client settings but you should be able to do this with a PList as per https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/onedrive/deploy-and-configure-on-macos#filesondemandenabled
Starting point: a Mac machine that had to be taken out of "Files on Demand" mode, and the option to do so disappeared from the systray menu. Marking all folders in OneDrive as 'local' changed their onedrive icon, but DID NOT result in actual download of Files to the local machine.
BUT: the extra onedrive icon has appeared in finder (cloud + down arrow with "waiting for download" tooltip. AFTER (double)CLICKING THIS ICON for each of the key folders it changed to a "progress pie chart" (think: itunes track download), the tooltip changed to "downloading" and the hard drive stats indicate that the files are being, in fact, downloaded.
As this seems to be a new (confusing) UI for local files and not a hack, I am hoping it will result in local copies of Files updated or uploaded form other machines to these folders, but can't confirm yet.
Please note, the os language on the machine in question is not EN so the exact wording might be off.
Hope that helps somebody, cheers P
- Thanks for this, this is what I found too. Only remaining problem I found is that new files don't seem to be downloaded by default (as in the past) even when you select "Always Keep on This Device" for the folder that contains it. If this is what MS wanted, then I think it's a bug.
I updated OD on my M1 MackBook yesterday and discovered the above problem today. However I updated Monterey to V12.2 a couple of days before so I don’t know if this is an Apple or MS issue. Because the option to NOT use files On-Demand is no longer in OD preferences my bet would be it‘s an MS issue. I do know that even though there is a little cloud beside each folder and file in Finder the files are actually still on the hard drive. When I clicked on the cloud in the highest level OD folder OD started to “download” all the files, in fact it was just recognising them as there already because the operation took a couple of minutes instead of the couple of hours a full download would have taken. So, I am safely back to where I was pre-updates.
As and old mainframe sysprog I can only say no matter how wonderful one may think the cloud is, always keep up to date physical backups. 🙂
- This makes sense, if you have had to re-install OneDrive in the past (as I have many times) then it does not delete the physical files on your machine (although it looks like they are not stored locally because of the icon). Once you have re-installed OneDrive it will sync up the files. I have to say what every the rights or wrongs of this new approach it only seems for the Mac and not the PC (why?) and (as usual) the way MS have rolled this out is appalling!
- For me reinstalling did last in a "sorry, onedrive can't add your folder right now"-error. I had to reinstall the previous version.
This is a real pain because it disturbes any workflow: All my tags (and I rely on them) are gone, although I chose the „keep always on drive"-option there is always some delay and it seems that every file has to be downloaded. The preview-function doesn't work. This is pretty useless.
JCS-DragiB You all seem to be overthinking this. It”s not a problem and easly fixed.
- Do share the solution please
