OneDrive Message Center Updates August 1st-August 15th

[Stephen Rice]

Here are the latest updates to the OneDrive service this month. We’ll be releasing some great improvements to the OneDrive iOS app, including the much-requested Camera upload for OneDrive for Business feature and a dialog box update to make granting file or folder access in OneDrive and SharePoint easier.

• Coming soon: Camera Upload for ODB on iOS
• Coming soon: Camera Roll for ODB now uses nested folders on iOS
• Coming soon: Easily find past searches on OneDrive iOS
• Rolling out: New grant access dialog in ODB and SPO 

• Camera Upload for OneDrive for Business on iOS
  • Begins rolling out to customers in late August 2018
  • As we announced at SharePoint Conference North America 2018, the team has been hard at work on the most voted for feature on the OneDrive for iOS User Voice: Camera Upload for OneDrive for Business! This feature will automatically upload all photos in the device Camera Roll to a selected OneDrive for Business account. Please note that OneDrive only supports one account (business or consumer) to be used at a time for the Camera Upload feature. This will begin rolling out to customers later this month.

Camera Upload on OneDrive for Business

• Camera Upload for OneDrive for Business now uses nested folders
  • Begins rolling out to customers in late August 2018
  • We’re also making some changes to how photos are organized in your OneDrive. Photos uploaded through the OneDrive for Business Camera Upload feature will automatically be sorted by Year and Month into nested folders in the Camera Roll folder. This feature will also apply to our OneDrive Consumer customers as well. *Please note that moving, renaming or deleting these folders is not supported or recommended at this time. This feature will begin rolling out to customers later this month.

Example of Nested Folders in Camera Roll

• Easily find past searches on OneDrive on iOS

  • Begins rolling out to customers in August 2018
  • We’re making search work even better on OneDrive on iOS. OneDrive will now automatically suggest your most recent local searches when you start to type in a search. This will help you quickly and easily get to the files you’re looking for. This feature will begin rolling out to customers later this month.

Example of past searches 

• New Grant Access dialog in OneDrive for Business and SharePoint Online
  • Rolling out now!

We’ve updated the “Grant Access” dialogue that is accessible via the Details Pane in OneDrive and SharePoint. The new dialogue is simpler and easier to use, giving users the ability to directly permission users to a document or folder. The dialog also allows the sharer to choose not to notify the recipient if desired. This feature is rolling out now!

New Grant Access Dialog

[Deleted]

Some very nice features right there. Looking forward to it. Thanks for updates!

[wroot]

So, after reading about the updated Grant access dialog i was wondering what is this new dialog i haven't heard about. I have checked the web version and found out that my guide for my users is already outdated and sharing dialog is completely different now.. Anyway, while updating the guide i got confused. What is the difference between Share and Grant access? Or maybe what is the purpose of additional Grant access dialog? I kind of already grant access by sharing documents (if i set it to particular accounts, thus requiring sign in). Maybe it is part of SharePoint Online? As desktop variant doesn't have such option, is it really needed by adding confusion for users?

[Stephen Rice]

Hi @wroot,

We have two experiences here that we generally call the "Share Dialog" and the "Grant Access Dialog" and they serve related but slightly different purposes. We generally promote "Share" as the primary option as it works in the way many end users expect.

The Share Dialog helps the user get sharing links. These links convey access to people who use them. Links can have restrictions on them (ex. only works for people in your organization or only grants edit permission) and can be individually revoked. Links can be e-mailed directly from OneDrive & SharePoint or copied and sent via the app of your choice.

The Grant Access Dialog helps users grant permission to other users directly. Think of each item as having it's own list of people who are allowed to access it. Grant Access is all about putting the user into that list. Granting access offers some flexibility as well (permission level for example) and you can choose to notify the user (via an e-mail from OneDrive or SharePoint) or not.

Hope that helps!

Stephen Rice

OneDrive Program Manager II

[wroot]

I kind of understand the slight difference, but can't see a very strong reason to have 2 dialogs here and if it warrants possible confusion. I am and IT admin and i'm still confused :) Maybe you can give examples of real world usage cases for both? Because if i want to give someone access without a sharing link, how can this user know or find the shared resource? I still have to inform him/her somehow that i have actually already gave the access :) Is it shown in Shared with me menu like it does with regular Sharing or there is some other indicator?

[wroot]

Thinking more about this i think i get it. So, a user won't get access when sharing link is used until he uses a link. And grant access gives the access without even using a link and probably you can even send such user a direct link from your browser and he will be able to open it. And it probably appears in the Shared with me menu. I can see why you have it, but there is no way i can explain it to regular users. I might even have a hard time explaining it to my head of IT.. Maybe you should stick to one variant. Say always use grant access and only use links for anonymous access (of course renaming Grant access to Share). 

[Stephen Rice]

Hi Oleg,

If you e-mail someone a sharing link (via OneDrive), OneDrive is intelligent and knows the user has the link (even if they haven't clicked it yet) and will also show it in Shared With Me. Sharing links tend to work more like users expect (they can be passed on to coworkers and others) while grant access is a little bit more rigid.

You're absolutely right that there is still some overlap and this is why we promote Share (via link) as the primary method of sharing. Grant access is only accessible via the information pane and we expect it to be used far less.

Hope that helps!

Stephen Rice

OneDrive Program Manager II

[Jozef Kapsiar]

Hi, is it possible to disable camera roll sorting and nesting ? as i am using multiple devices to upload where some has this feature enabled and some not, it is just making mess. 

[Lauren Khoo]

Hi Jozef, 

Unfortunately it is not possible at this time to disable camera roll sorting and nesting for ODC and ODB Camera Upload. We are actively working on adding this functionality to Android in the coming weeks improve this experience. 

Hope this helps,
Lauren

[Yaniv Vararu]

Hello,

I noticed that my iOS uploads are now being nested by year and month as you've published.
Will there also be a way to define separate destinations to different mobile devices?

It's very annoying that all the devices are backing up to the same folder. This is quite a basic functionality that you lacking for years now...

Thanks,

Yaniv

[Ferguson Broadhurst]

The update to the forced use of nested folders is rather irritating and I can see no way to turn it off.  Did you not think that perhaps people might have systems in place that rely on the single folder upload functionality!

Classic developers deciding what people want with little forethought to how it might affect users.

[Stephen Rice]

Hi @Yaniv Vararu and @Ferguson Broadhurst,

Thanks to you both for the feedback on the new ODB camera upload feature. I'm sorry to hear the feature isn't quite working as you'd hoped and the team will consider these areas for future improvement. In the meantime, I recommend you head over to onedrive.uservoice.com and suggest these improvements as well. This is incredibly helpful in letting the team gauge the importance of these changes for future work. Thanks!

Stephen Rice

OneDrive Program Manager II

[Kelley O'Leary]

Is there a way to have OneDrive organize all of your previous photos into folders? Or just from now going forward?

Thanks!

[Lauren Khoo]

Hi @Kelley O'Leary,

Currently, only photos going forward will be organized. We’re working on a solution for you to organize existing photos if you so choose, but don’t yet have a date to announce.

Hope this helps,

Lauren