OneDrive Message Center Updates January 1st to January 15th
Published Jan 16 2019 11:23 AM 65.7K Views
Microsoft

Hi everyone,

Here are the latest updates to the OneDrive service! We’re excited to kick off 2019 with Mac Files On-Demand becoming generally available and OneDrive Sync Client Mass Delete. As always, feel free to leave your feedback, comments or questions below.

 

Mac Files On-Demand is now generally available

Rolling out in January

OneDrive Files On-Demand helps you access all your files in OneDrive without having to download all of them and use storage space on your device. When you turn on Files On-Demand, you’ll see all your files in Finder. New files created online or on another device appear as online-only files, which don’t take up space on your device. When you’re connected to the Internet, you’ll be able to use the files like every other file on your device.

 

Initially as Files On-Demand for Mac rolls out, the feature will be on by default for new users on macOS Mojave. This feature will be ramped on for existing users over the coming months. Admins continue to have the ability to disable or enable this feature via a preference.

For a device to be eligible for Files On-Demand for Mac, you will need to be on the latest macOS 10.14.2 or higher, and OneDrive version 18.240.1202.0001 or higher.

 

NOTE: As of 1/28 Mac Files On-Demand is fully rolled out and generally available.

 Mac Files On-DemandMac Files On-Demand

 

OneDrive Sync Client Mass Delete Prompt

Rolling out in February

Coming this February, whenever someone deletes more than 200 synced OneDrive or Team Site files at once from their device, the OneDrive sync client will prompt the user to confirm it was intentional. If it was accidental, the user can tap Restore Files to bring them back, otherwise tapping remove will delete them as usual. If a user wants to skip the new behavior, they can select the Always remove files box before tapping Remove to skip the prompt for future mass deletes.Mass Delete PromptMass Delete Prompt

 

 

 

 

28 Comments

The file deletion prompt is going to save people. Thank you for getting that added.

 

Sure would be helpful to see the term "SharePoint" in there somewhere, if the "shared libraries" are on that platform. Lots of people in our company know what SharePoint is. Many would not make the connection to a "Shared Library".

Microsoft

@Kevin Crossman,

 

Absolutely agree! Nothing like accidentally deleting 2000 files and seeing that prompt pop up ;)

 

I'll pass on your feedback on SharePoint & Shared Libraries as well as I know the team loves hearing that kind of feedback. Thanks!

 

Stephen Rice

OneDrive Program Manager II

Copper Contributor

Will the 200 file count be configurable or is that set in stone for now?

 

Copper Contributor

Definitely this new update will be great.

Copper Contributor

I use Files On Demand on Windows 10 and have been waiting for the MacOS production version with the same feature. When is OneDrive version 18.240.1202.0001 expect to be available for download (I am currently on Version 18.222.1104.0007)?

 

Thanks for this.

 

 

Microsoft

@Abul Boshor, the 200 limit is not configurable currently but I will pass your feedback along to the team! I definitely recommend submitting that idea over at onedrive.uservoice.com too!

 

@Sloand, the latest version of OnedDrive on MacOS should be rolling out in the second half of January. Thanks!

 

Stephen Rice

OneDrive Program Manager II

Iron Contributor

@Stephen Rice, will admins be able to prevent users from permanently suppressing the prompt? I can see users in a rush, irritated by the prompt simply dismiss it from warning again, which would put us in a risk scenario where only some of the organization was still getting the prompt. It might even be more helpful if it could be tied to a certain scope, i.e., you can dismiss it for your OneDrive for Business site, but not for SharePoint.

Microsoft

@Dustin AdamThanks for the feedback. Admin control of prompt suppression is not supported at this time, but we'll note your feedback in our backlog for future consideration.

Brass Contributor

OneDrive will push via apple App Store or have to manual uninstall and install again with the new version?

Copper Contributor

What if an account is compromised and files are deleted and confirmed by the attacker? Will an administrator have the ability to restore the files?

Brass Contributor

Looking forward to this file deletion prompt.  We've experienced a few incidents where end users mistakenly mass delete files.  The recycle bin is not structured to easily recover files either.  To fix this, we've been periodically monitoring the recycle bins for mass deleted files from the same user. 

 

In addition to the end user prompt, it would still be nice if an email notification could be automatically sent to administrators whenever someone still chooses to delete 200+ files.  Even better, make this a SharePoint library level setting.

Brass Contributor
+1 for allowing admins to prevent permanently suppressing the warning prompt as well as generating an alert to admins when someone does confirm a mass delete. We’ve had several incidents where users have deleted the local files not understanding that the action will sync to the server.
Iron Contributor

@GregL @Stephen Rice;

 

Just to expand this line of thought a bit: I love the rapid pace of development, bugs and issues typically don't live long these days, which is great. However, releasing any new capability without a corresponding Admin control places undo stress on IT Organizations, I have a hard time understanding why any feature would be released that cannot be immediately managed at the time it's made available.

Brass Contributor

This is wonderful, and long overdue.  We have been tracking issues around mass deletes for over a year, most of which seem to stem from OneDrive.  One use case that is related would be improving the process for un-syncing libraries, as we most often see mass deletions when users are trying to remove synced libraries they no longer need.

Another improvement would be allowing for configuration of the threshold that triggers this alert.  I would suggest options for 50 items, 100 items, 200 items, and 500 items.

Microsoft

Hi all,

 

@Andrew Woo, I will confirm but I believe it is an automatic update.

 

@Zandy McAllister, @Pat Beautz, definitely check out the new Files Restore feature!

 

@Pat Beautz, @GregL, @Dustin Adam, @Matthew Parowski, thanks for all of the feedback! These are all good suggestions and I'll pass it along to the folks who worked on this!

 

Stephen Rice

OneDrive Program Manager II

Microsoft

@Andrew Woo, confirmed it will be via push from the app store. Thanks!

 

Stephen Rice

OneDrive Program Manager II

Brass Contributor

It would be fantastic to have a 25, 50, 100, 200 file options. Or an option to folders back to a specific time period like server drives. As more and more users move to one drive, deletion will continue to be a mess. .... Still need a way to open Adobe file in native program to cut down on syncing. 

 

Thanks for the improvement. 

Copper Contributor

@Stephen Rice 

 

I have update onedrive to 18.240.1202.0004 on my macbook from mac appstore.

 

but there is no files 'on-demand' feature.

 

office 365 individual user

 

 

Brass Contributor

No "On Demand"

Microsoft always gave false release notes.

Same to Office 365 as well. Sensitivity Icon is not in the ribbon.

Every update will not have a complete item.

Screenshot 2019-01-24 at 9.47.29 AM.pngScreenshot 2019-01-24 at 9.55.52 AM.png

Copper Contributor

I think this is a bug

I saw many users that have used this feature on twitter.

@Andrew Woo 

Copper Contributor

@Stephen Rice  Will this feature be rolling out to GCC tenants in February as well?

Microsoft

I like this option as it is confusing when deleting items and understanding the outcomes in the cloud.

 

What I am concerned about is the terminology used and the options provided. It asks a question if they want to remove the deleted files (from this device) from the cloud, however it doesn't give them the option to say "No". the "Remove" option tells me it will delete them from the cloud and "restore files" tells me it will restore the deleted files back on my device, but there is no option to cancel or say no to the question being asked.

 

I understand they should use files on demand when they want to remove from a device but keep in the cloud, however this is being presented as a question and the only answer which seems to be provided is "Yes". I wouldn't like to see a red warning or attention icon in my system tray, it would be hard to ignore.

 

Copper Contributor

@Stephen Rice Even better: simply don't have the checkbox 'Always remove files' available. I doubt there is any business scenario in which a user frequently intentionally deletes >200 files through the synced library and the benefits of having the additional validation check far outweigh the data loss risks. 

Microsoft

Hi @Arie Versluis ,

 

Thanks for the feedback! That is definitely something that the feature team wil look at & consider for future improvement. Thanks!

 

Stephen Rice

OneDrive Program Manager II

Copper Contributor

@GregL Thanks for the info, could you tell me where can an admin prevent the permanent supression of the warning prompt?

Brass Contributor

@FacundoGorla There's no way to suppress the warning message today. I was merely adding my +1 for MS to add this feature. 

Copper Contributor

Great new features!  +1 for the admin controls to set the delete threshold and to suppress the option to not see this message again.  Off topic, but it would also be a game changer if the sharepoint library sync feature could sync file to a common drive letter that can provide a common path for everyone instead of the non-universal location of the user folder.  This would allow people to share the path to files directly via one drive for desktop. 

Copper Contributor

@Stephen Rice The mass deletion confirmation is a nice feature.  I think a very useful addition to it would be a way to view at least some of the files and all of the folders it is referencing.  The number of files doesn't really mean much if a user, for example, moved a couple of folders with a few thousand files out of OneDrive.

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‎Jan 28 2019 08:28 AM
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