OneDrive OCR

[Kevin Mort]

Alright, I have an O365 E3 sub for 5 users.  Some time back I wanted to use the OneDrive, or Lens apps to scan into OneDrive for Business. However, amazingly, what I read was that the OCR functionality is only present in OneDrive Personal.

Pretty incredible that was the case, as this function is a clear win for business.  It seems like now it should be there, but my experience using it off the iOS app is that it does not scan the docs when they're imported, thus meaning no searchability.  It does't seem to matter if it's Lens or the OneDrive app itself doing the import.

On the flip side, scanning with Lens or the OneNote app into OneNote works like a champ.

So what's the story. OCR to work in OneDrive for Business or no?

[#2]

That's why we have UserVoice - request and vote for a feature so that the team can prioritize it. In this particular instance, there are already several items about OCR: https://onedrive.uservoice.com/forums/262982-onedrive/category/86090-onedrive-for-business?query=OCR

Vote/comment in one of them.

[#3]

Ok so I take it the answer then is "nope, doesn't work" - prioritizing the personal OneDrive over the business service. Got it.

No issue voting on something everyone's been looking for, for apparently several years now. Which ultimately is why I asked the question, as I wasn't finding a clear answer via search.

So hey, off to vote on UserVoice.

[#4]

It's just the way things work with most of the MS teams nowadays - having dozens of people/organizations request a feature on the forums or in person amounts less to votes on a uservoice page...

[#5]

True - however my first question really was "does this work at all" - to which the answer appears to be "NOPE!" - which when you really think about it, is amazingly silly on MSFT's part, not that it's the first time.

I have no interest in opening another OneDrive account - which has to be a personal account, to do what I'm looking for here. Crazy. So yes, I did upvote on a uservoice page, but it seems no one in the business realm has a need for this but me and maybe two others.

[#6]

I think there is definitely a need. I think most people....like me come to look and see if the feature is there (OCR) and if not, move on to something that does have it. Google Drive. Built in and searchable OCR. So Microsoft....your loosing business by not listening to your customers concerns.

[#7]

You could insert a scan into OneNote and it will OCR the text for you.

[#8]

I'll need to try that again, as in the past I have not seen that being the case. Could not search at all, which it should be able to if it's reading the text.

[#9]

You need to right click on the image to enable the OCR "Make text in the image searchable"

[#10]

OCR in Office Lens (Android) works fine for me to ODFB - you just need to add the account (using the elipsis menu, settings, manage accounts). If you then save as a Word document it will OCR and appear in the Office Lens folder on ODFB.

[#11]

Unfortunately if you are a business user with a large number of files you are not allowed to use One Note.  There is some limit like 20k files or something.  Unsure why anyone would need that many files apparently, so if you're in business please use Evernote or something else.  Not to be too much of a complainer but just like with this personal one drive offering free OCR it also offers free email encryption.  And MSFT made it look this way to O365 Business users until I spent three hours trying to figure out how to turn it on and ended up calling support only to find out that my particular O365 package (the highest priced package) could only access email encryption by paying more money for something called Azure.  Clearly because no one in business needs to encrypt emails. 

[#12]

Hi, I realise this is an old thread... I just wondered if there have been any developments on the OCR for OneDrive ? I'm finding it increasing frustrating how my iphone can search multiple images, but Office can not.. @Jeff Cotton  @Kevin Mort