SharePoint without Sync (Advice Needed)

Yes, many orgs do disable Sync for large SharePoint libraries in real life. At this scale, users working from File Explorer often cause sync errors, accidental deletions, or offline overwrite issues.

A few key points to be aware of:

1. Disabling Sync does not delete content and does not stop existing syncs — it only prevents new ones.
2. Existing syncs must be manually stopped in the OneDrive client.
3. The OneDrive sync client has a ~300k item limit, and that includes everything: OneDrive, synced libraries, and even “Add shortcut to OneDrive”.

What usually works best is a tiered approach:

1. Disable Sync for large libraries is recommended.
2. Allow Sync only for smaller, well-scoped “working” libraries where desktop editing is really needed.
3. Push users to the web/Teams experience for large libraries.

Sync is convenient in some cases, but at the scale you’re describing, disabling it for large libraries often reduces incidents and support noise rather than creating new problems.