Forum Discussion
OneDrive Client, Files on Demand and Syncing large libraries
dustintadam is there a way to enforce online/cloud only when using OneDrive vs Files On Demand? I know this is a completely different architecture, but when dealing with all these issues and user complaints, comparing it to a Google Drive implementation for enterprise, Google seems to have gone with a 'make it look/work like a mapped network drive'. They don't need to constantly sync and check what's changed as far as I can tell. Staff who do want to use OneDrive instead of the browser, really just want the explorer view if they are in that transactional type role. If there are staff that want an offline option, they can just do the right-click - keep offline as-hoc (basically as it is now).
Hey Chris;
I'm not sure if this is exactly what you are looking for, but through MDM or ADML templates you can enforce the OneDrive Client to use Files On Demand by default:
https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/onedrive/use-group-policy#FilesOnDemandEnabled
If I misunderstood your question let me know.
dustintadam thanks for the reply. I was actually meaning the opposite and to prevent any local download/offline files using the OneDrive client and keep it as 'cloud only' access. This would be an attempt to prevent performance syncing issues on the client as well as the general conflicts/issues that can occur. I understand the trade-off would be to have reliable internet access. I basically want to replicate the map network drive and file server architecture as in the past but instead use the OneDrive Client and SharePoint online in its place. I feel this would prevent all the issues in this thread (until at least the sync client is reliable and fast when picking up changes). I suspect that is not an option and 'Files on Demand' is our only choice? I want 'Files Cloud Only' in OneDrive.
- Ah, yeah, thats not how the client works. Whether you're using Files on Demand or Full Sync, the OneDrive client is integrated with the NTFS file system and actually uses a number of unique NTFS property flags to set the state of any given file. So in reality, something is always going to be written to disk in some fashion when you sync a library. What you're referring to is only possible in SharePoint and OneDrive if you use WebDAV, and in fact we do at my org so get people into libraries that the Sync Client cant handle yet, it's dirty and comes with it's own set of unique challenges but it does act largely the way you describe.
