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Lou_Mickley's avatar
Lou_Mickley
Brass Contributor
Jul 20, 2023

Searching OneDrive files for content in File Explorer when files in "Online Only" mode

I have a PowerPoint file in OneDrive, and in OneDrive via browser, I can search for content within the files and find the needed file. In File Explorer, I search OneDrive for same content and get no results. 95% of my files are Files On-Demand, so they are Online only and dehydrated. 

I thought using Win11 with Cloud content search enabled, I would see all my local and cloud results even when searching by content and not file name. Am I missing something? Running Win11 21H2, and M365 Apps v2305

OneDrive for Business
  • Mike Williams's avatar
    Mike Williams
    Steel Contributor
    Jul 20, 2023

    Lou_Mickley  Obligatory: First check that you have File Contents checked under Search Options on the Explorer menu. I note though that Windows 11 doesn't really pay strict attention to these settings as it returns search results from Zipped folders even when that option is off.

     

    OneDrive search is very slow and anaemic compared to Dropbox, which has a far faster and more powerful search built into its desktop client.  Even after months of installation, when I run search on OneDrive content, Windows starts downloading every file to index despite my having Cloud Search enabled.

     

    So, no you're not really missing anything. Microsoft are currently too focussed on turning OneDrive into a pale Instagram clone to bother with bread and butter search and filtering.

     

     

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