Forum Discussion
Sync Problems, again, and again, and again
OK I think I see the issue here - we all do use the new sync client - but groups seem to insist on using the old Groove one to do the sync, which is probably why we see so much trouble.
It does not seem to be that obvious how to disable the sync using Groove, and force it use the One Drive - company name client.
the online guides indicate it will automatically work it out but not seemign to work. Could I ask if there is a known working guide as to how to force the old client to stop working - or is it safe to try to uninstall the Groove client that 2013/2016 presumably is bundled with?
MicrosoftGroups still firing the groove.exe sync client is indicative that your SharePoint admin has not yet configured SharePoint to use the next gen sync client for library syncing. This is not turned on by default.
You need to have your SharePoint/Office 365 Admin follow the instructions in this article: https://support.office.com/en-gb/article/Enable-users-to-sync-SharePoint-files-with-the-new-OneDrive-sync-client-22e1f635-fb89-49e0-a176-edab26f69614?ui=en-US&rs=en-GB&ad=GB
Specifically, this section:
Set SharePoint to sync with the new OneDrive sync client
Open the SharePoint admin center.
In the left pane, click settings.
Make sure "OneDrive Sync Button" is set to "Start the new client." To sync SharePoint files with the new client, you must also sync OneDrive files with the new client.
For "Sync Client for SharePoint," select Start the new client.
Click OK
These changes take several hours to propagate. To check that they've propagated, go to a SharePoint Online site and click Sync. In the browser dialog box that confirms the request to open a program, the "Program" should appear as "Microsoft OneDrive" and the "Address" should start with "odopen://"
Thanks - a combination of forcing the use of new client and forcibly reinstalling the new client, and uninstalling the old one has fixed this.
Not a particularly intuitive or easy user process, and I can see why it causes the staff so much trouble.
If I am honest I thin kMS have a responsibility to make this easier and more reliable. Even the MS support techs were struggling to move folders around to make it all work. 4 reboots, and an hour on the phone with tech does not sound like a "new sync client" experience that is seamless.
I am grateful for all your help guys - got there in the end. Many thanks
- Yea. If you run the RegFix to sync the SharePoint sites, you should not have any issues with Group sync.
Does setting the "OneDrive Sync Button" to "Start the new client" instead of "Start the old client" have any effect on users still running the old client? I want to make sure we don't cause any issues for systems that still have the old client installed as we test the new client. Will users notice when we change this setting?
I would think your users that are still using the old client should already be syncing, so they should not have to hit the "Sync" button. So, no, it should not affect those
I can tell you that you should update ASAP to the new client. You will save a lot of headach and troubleshooting.
I have been running the new client for over 6 months and have had 0 issues. We have also been installing it on all of our cusotmers that have submitted tickets with issues over the last few months and it has fixed 100% of the issues. Any of our customesr that call in or submit tickets to us now, we just install the new client and it fixes everything.
And we have over 40,000 customers
- David Rosenthal
I would echo and agree fully with davidpetree1 - the new client is far superior.
By flipping that setting your users will automatically trigger a takeover process as well the next time they press that Sync button on a SharePoint library. Any supported libraries they are currently syncing with groove.exe will transition to the next gen sync client and become much less susceptible to errors and conflicts as a result.
You can find a ton of detail in this article: https://support.office.com/en-gb/article/Transition-from-the-previous-OneDrive-for-Business-sync-client-4100df3a-0c96-464f-b0a8-c20de34da6fa
- Is this thread still live? We've installed the new OneDrive for Business client across our organisation (about 5000 users), and are using SharePoint Online. OneDrive sharing has taken off and is working very well.
We're only now starting to roll out SharePoint Online, and are finding library/folder sync problems, with between 3-5% of files reporting sync problems.
