Inside the new Files On-Demand Experience on macOS
Published Jan 12 2022 10:28 AM 254K Views
Microsoft

2.24.22 UPDATE: We've been listening to your feedback, and we've made some design changes. We're releasing a new version that addresses the most common themes and makes it easier to achieve the previous experience. Please read the latest blog post for more details.

 

2.15.22 UPDATE: We're actively reviewing feedback and are aware of the difficulties some users are experiencing with the recent update. We working as quickly as possible to resolve these issues. We will share an update soon.

Additional information can be found in the FAQ updated on 2.1.22.

- Team OneDrive 

 

 

In June 2021, we announced several important updates for OneDrive on macOS, including an update to our Files On-Demand experience. This new experience is better integrated with macOS and will also help enable new features like Known Folder Move for macOS.

 

Today, we are excited to share that we have begun rolling out the new Files On-Demand experience to all our customers using macOS 12.1 or later. We also want to share some additional details about how the new Files On-Demand experience works, what changes you can expect, and when you can expect them.

We know that many of you are supporting organizations with lots of Macs that run OneDrive, and the more information we can provide you, the better you can serve your users.

 

Why we are building a new experience

 

In 2018, we shipped the first version of Files On-Demand for macOS. Since then, we’ve rolled it out for everyone using macOS 10.14 (Mojave) or later.

 

We are building a new experience for several reasons. One of the most important is that the new technology stack (based on Apple’s File Provider platform) is much better integrated with the operating system compared to the first version. This means a better user experience, better application compatibility, and better reliability. This technology stack also enables us to offer new features that we couldn’t offer before, like Known Folder Move, along with lots of other little improvements that you probably won’t notice right away!

 

Because the new experience is more integrated with macOS, it will have long-term support from Apple. The first version of Files On-Demand is built on several pieces of technology that are now deprecated. Moving to the new platform enables us to support this feature for years to come.

 

Supported macOS versions

 

For users who are not part of our Insiders program, the new Files On-Demand experience requires macOS 12.1 or later. Users on our Insiders program can continue to use macOS 12.0, but we strongly encourage them to update to the latest version.

 

macOS 12.2 will be the last version that supports the classic Files On-Demand experience. For macOS 12.3 or later, this means:

  • Files On-Demand will default to on for all users and cannot be disabled.
  • Devices will migrate automatically to the new Files On-Demand as soon as they receive a macOS update. You cannot delay this update without also delaying an update to macOS.
  • Both our Standalone and App Store versions of OneDrive will have the same behavior.
  • Users running a developer or beta version of macOS will have the same experience as a release version of macOS.

 

If you are concerned about application compatibility with this change, we strongly suggest that you install macOS 12.3 or later and test your workload. Depending on the results of that test, you may want to delay updating your Macs.

 

File system requirements

 

The new Files On-Demand experience requires a volume that is formatted with APFS. HFS+ volumes are not supported.

 

We are ending support for HFS+ after macOS 12.3 or later. A very small minority of customers are syncing OneDrive on HFS+ volumes today. As we roll out the new Files On-Demand, these users will first experience a warning in the OneDrive activity center telling them to upgrade to APFS. Once the new Files On-Demand experience is fully rolled out, OneDrive will not launch until the volume is upgraded to APFS.

 

You can use Disk Utility (built in to macOS) to determine which volumes are running APFS, and upgrade any HFS+ volumes to APFS.

 

Sync root location

 

When users set up OneDrive, they must choose a location where files will sync. This is called a sync root. Historically, we’ve allowed users to choose any location on any fixed volume mounted on their Mac.

 

With the new Files On-Demand experience, the sync root is always located within users’ home directory, in a path such as:

 

~/Library/CloudStorage/OneDrive-Personal

 

As part of the upgrade, the sync root will be moved to this location. This location cannot be moved or changed and is controlled by macOS.

 

This path is a little cumbersome for users to use, so they can access this directory in two other ways:

  • Under Locations on the Finder’s left navigation pane.
  • Via a symlink at the original location the user picked when setting up OneDrive. For example, if the user chose to sync OneDrive at ~/OneDrive, then a symlink will be created from here to ~/Library/CloudStorage/OneDrive-Personal.

 

Cache path

 

To support the new experience, OneDrive maintains a cache path in a hidden location. This path contains a replica of the file tree that the user is syncing. Most of the files in this location are usually dataless and don’t consume disk space, but occasionally files here can have data, such as if a user pins a file or if a change is being transferred to or from the cloud.

 

OneDrive tries to maintain as little data here as possible, and instead prefers to keep data in the sync root. As such, file data is not generally kept in both locations unless a file is marked as “Always Available on This Device.” In that case, the file’s data will sometimes be retained in both the sync root and the cache, but the files will be linked using a clone, so they do not occupy any additional space.

 

Using another volume

 

Sometimes, users choose a path on another volume to set up OneDrive. A typical use case for this happens when a user has a small internal drive on their Mac, but also has a larger external drive attached.

 

This configuration is still supported in the new Files On-Demand experience if an external drive is selected during the first-run experience. A few things change as a result:

  • The sync root remains in ~/Library/CloudStorage, on the user’s home volume. As noted above, this path cannot be moved from this location.
  • The cache path is on the volume that was selected during the first-run experience. This is located in a hidden folder that’s a sibling of the location that was chosen.
    • This folder begins with the name “.ODContainer”.
  • A symlink is created from the chosen location to ~/Library/CloudStorage.

 

For example, if the user selects /Volumes/BigDrive/OneDrive for their OneDrive path:

  • The sync root will remain in ~/Library/CloudStorage/OneDrive-Personal
  • The cache path will be set up at /Volumes/BigDrive/.ODContainer-OneDrive
  • A symlink will link from /Volumes/BigDrive/OneDrive to ~/Library/CloudStorage/OneDrive-Personal

 

Because the cache path is located on an external drive in this scenario, any pinned content will be stored there and not on the main drive.

 

The cache path folder is hidden by default. Users should not modify this folder or its contents.

 

User consent

 

For OneDrive to complete setup with the new File Provider platform, the user must consent to allow OneDrive to sync. This experience is like the experience of allowing an application access to the Documents folder or the user’s Contacts.

 

AnkitaKirti_0-1642011516079.png

 

Consent is not required in the following cases:

  • If the user previously opted-in to use the Finder Sync extension. This is set by default for the Standalone build, and the vast majority of our App Store users have opted-in as well.
  • If the OneDrive app was deployed and managed through an MDM tool. MDM-managed applications are considered to have implied consent by the administrator.

 

If consent is required, the user will be prompted to provide it during the first run experience when setting up OneDrive for the first time.

 

The user can withdraw consent from the System Preferences -> Extensions preference pane. If consent is withdrawn, OneDrive will display an error dialog, an error in the Activity Center, and an error icon, until the user provides consent again. OneDrive cannot run without consent.

 

Always Keep on This Device

 

A standard feature of Files On-Demand on all our platforms is the ability to mark files as “Always Keep on This Device.” Internally, we call this operation “pinning.”

 

AnkitaKirti_1-1642011516145.png

 

 

When a file is pinned, it is downloaded to disk and is always available offline, even if there is no network connection. The presence of the check mark icon indicates that a file is in this state. Folders can also be pinned, which means that all files and folders underneath the folder will inherit the state, and new files added to that folder will also inherit the state.

 

Pinning a file on the new Files On-Demand platform means that its contents will be downloaded into the OneDrive cache. Because is the file is in the OneDrive cache, it can always be provided to the sync root whenever it is needed, even if the machine is offline or the OneDrive app isn’t running. The presence of the gray check mark indicates a file that is in this state.

 

You may notice that pinned files sometimes have an icon next to them that indicates they aren’t downloaded. This icon just means that the file isn’t in the sync root. If a file has the gray check icon, it is still always available because OneDrive has the file in its cache and can always provide it.

 

Free Up Space

 

When you no longer need a file on your Mac, you can use the “Free Up Space” option to immediately evict its data. When you do this, data is evicted from both the sync root and OneDrive’s cache, ensuring it occupies no bytes on disk. However, it is still available in the cloud.

 

Disk space usage

 

Files that are kept in the sync root do not count against disk space usage, unless they are marked as “Always Keep on This Device.”

 

For example, imagine the sync root contains five files, each 20mb in size, for a total of 100mb. These files are fully in-sync with the cloud. Now imagine another application asks about the amount of free space on the drive. These five files do not count against the disk space used, so the size reported to the application will be 100mb larger than you might expect.

 

The reason for this behavior is that in low disk space situations, these files can be automatically evicted from the disk to make room for more data. For instance, imagine an application wants to write 50mb of data to disk, but there is no more disk space. However, because the five files in the sync root can be evicted as needed, the write can safely complete. To do that, three of these five files will be evicted to make 60mb of space, and so the 50mb write completes.

 

This behavior has several implications:

  • Files that have data in the sync root can be evicted at any time.
  • The system will automatically clean up files as disk space runs low.
  • Mark files as “Always Available on This Device” if you do not want them to be evicted.

 

We know that some organizations have scripts or something similar to automatically free up space for OneDrive content, usually at login or on a set schedule. Because macOS will automatically free space from OneDrive files as needed, such scripts are no longer necessary, unless you want to prevent users from keeping content in the “Always Keep on This Device” state.

 

File system feature support

 

The new Files On-Demand experience supports some existing features of APFS that were previously poorly supported by OneDrive. These include:

  • File tags
  • Last used date
  • File system flags
  • Extended attributes
  • Type and creator code
  • Symlinks

 

Note that changes to these properties do not sync to or from the cloud, but OneDrive will preserve them on the local file system. Previously, they might only have been preserved for a short while but overwritten by a change from the cloud.

 

Symlinks have special support in the new experience. They are preserved as a symlink in the sync root but do not sync to the cloud as a symlink, as the OneDrive cloud does not support symlinks. Instead, the symlink will sync to the cloud as a plain text file with the symlink target as its contents. Previously, OneDrive ignored symlinks.

 

Packages

 

OneDrive now supports syncing packages, or files that appear as a single file but are actually a directory with many files and folders underneath them. Some applications exclusively create packages. Additionally, most Mac applications are stored on disk as a package.

 

Traditionally, the problem with syncing packages has been that packages often contain file states that don’t sync well in the cloud. For example, some packages contain internal symlinks, extended attributes, or other file system quirks that can result in a corrupt package if these are not synced correctly. The OneDrive app itself is an example of such a package – previously, if you saved the OneDrive app in OneDrive and attempted to open it on another Mac, it would be corrupt.

 

With the new experience, packages are now synced as a single file with a hidden .pkgf extension appended automatically. For instance, if you create a file named “Foo.app” in your OneDrive, it will sync to the cloud as “Foo.app.pkgf”. OneDrive automatically strips the .pkgf extension on compatible Macs, and the file will appear as a valid package on all compatible Macs.

 

Note that Macs not running the new Files On-Demand experience cannot read files in the .pkgf format.

 

Unlink, unmount, and reset

 

When you unlink your Mac or unmount a syncing location, OneDrive will preserve the non-dataless contents of your sync root. This works by removing the symlink to ~/Library/CloudStorage, creating a new folder in its place, and moving the files in your sync root that are not dataless to that location. Files in the OneDrive cache path are removed.

 

OneDrive also ships with a reset script included in the application bundle. This script behaves in a similar way, except that the non-dataless files are always moved into a folder in the user’s home directory named something like “OneDrive (Archive).” Files in the cache path are removed, except if the cache path is located on a volume other than the home volume.

 

Over time, we expect to improve this experience.

Learning more

 

 To learn more about OneDrive,

 

Thanks for reading!

 

Jack Nichols

Principal Software Architect - OneDrive

 

Update 2/1/2022

 

Hi everyone - Jack from Microsoft here. Just to quickly introduce myself, I'm the author of the original blog post, and also the architect for the OneDrive sync client. I'm the engineer who led the teams that designed and built Files On-Demand for Windows, macOS, and now the new macOS experience, so I have the most context about how Files On-Demand works and the trade-offs involved in building something like this.

The entire OneDrive team has been reading your comments, concerns and feedback, and we really appreciate everyone taking the time to write them. The community clearly has a lot of passion for OneDrive and how it works. I've spent many hours in the last week or two reading comments here and elsewhere, to understand how we can improve our macOS experience further.

Although we can't respond to all of you directly, there are a couple of themes and frequently asked questions that I wanted to answer to help provide some more clarity.

 

Why are all my files redownloading with this update? Why are my always-available files displaying a "not downloaded" icon?

 

Let me first set you at ease: your files aren't actually redownloading. What you are seeing is a bit of an optical illusion.

 

When your OneDrive instance is upgraded to the new Files On-Demand, macOS creates a new folder for your OneDrive files and we move your old folder into our cache location. We do it this way for many reasons, but two of the most important are that we can preserve your settings around which files are always available, and we can prevent the sync client from performing a costly reindex of all of your content.

As your files are brought into our cache, we tell the macOS File Provider platform about them. That causes the operating system to create the files in the new OneDrive folder that you will actually use. As part of telling the File Provider platform about your files, we include metadata about them, so that the operating system knows how big they are, what icons to show, and so forth.

Unfortunately, the current implementation of File Provider does not allow us to tell the operating system that we already have the file's contents available – so they appear to be online-only, even though their contents are safe in our cache, ready for the first time you access them. The best that we can do is tell the system to show the always available icon (the checkmark), but we can't tell the system to hide the "not downloaded" icon. The "not downloaded" icon is shown automatically by the File Provider system when the file is dataless in the sync root, and there's no current way for OneDrive to override this. Please know that we are actively investigating ways to address this, as we understand that it is a top source (if not the top source) of user confusion with this update.

 

The key thing to remember here is that if you double-click the files that we already have in our cache (files that you pinned when you selected “Always Keep On This Device” and anything you had downloaded before we did the upgrade), they will be retrieved and opened as expected, without any network traffic. This will work even if OneDrive isn't running, is paused, and so forth.

 

Why were my Finder favorite folders removed?

 

During the upgrade to the File Provider platform, OneDrive removes these favorites as they no longer point to a valid location. Most users will have a "OneDrive" favorite that will be removed in this manner, but a few users have dragged other folders of interest to this sidebar, which will also be removed if they were pointing at a OneDrive folder.

After the upgrade, if you want these favorite folders back, you will need to add them again by dragging your favorite folders to the Finder's sidebar.

 

How can I make it so that all my files are synced on my Mac and made available for offline access?

 

If you want all files synced on your device, you should pin the OneDrive folder. The easiest way to do this is to browse to your OneDrive in the Finder, change the view to Icons view, and then right-click the blank space between icons. Then, select Always Keep on This Device.. We're actively looking at ways to make this easier to configure on both macOS and Windows.

 

macOS Pin the Root 2.gif

 

 

Is there a technical reason that explains why Files On-Demand must always be enabled?

 

OneDrive has taken a dependency on Apple's File Provider platform as part of this update, as we believe it is the right long-term path forward for the product. Files On-Demand functionality is a core part of Apple's File Provider platform, but File Provider offers a lot more than that, too. I'll touch on a few of those things here below.

  • For instance, the little icons you see next to your files in OneDrive for macOS are now handled by the File Provider platform. This seems like a small thing, but it has a big impact. Before File Provider, we used something called a Finder Sync extension to show these icons in the Finder, but the Finder Sync extension was one of the top sources of problems on the macOS sync client. For example, the icons sometimes mysteriously disappeared, or performance problems affected the system. Because we eliminated the Finder Sync extension, we also eliminated an entire class of problems as a result.
  • This has also improved the reliability of OneDrive running on macOS. As part of our normal sync process, the sync client occasionally runs checks to ensure everything is syncing correctly. The results of those checks are reported to us as telemetry which we use to help ensure there aren't emerging bugs, and most of the time, we find and fix bugs before anyone notices them. We've been very closely monitoring this telemetry as the new macOS Files On-Demand experience has rolled out, and we’ve noticed is that reliability is significantly better than what we had before. This translates to a much better sync experience for you.
  • Finally, it is important to note that beginning in macOS 12.3, File Provider is the only Files On-Demand solution that is supported on macOS. Our prior solution is no longer supported. 

Files On-Demand has been available on Windows since 2017, and on macOS since 2018. In that time, we've progressed from the feature being opt-in only to being on by default for all users and have closely monitored how many users turn off Files On-Demand. Only a very small number of users disable Files On-Demand on both platforms, and there are two main reasons for that.

  • Application compatibility: When Files On-Demand first shipped on Windows, some applications didn't work well with the way we stored files, or with anti-virus or other security software that was installed. Over time, we've fixed most of these problems. On macOS, we took a similarly cautious approach, but the application compatibility landscape is quite different and, in some ways, less complex. Still, there were a few cases where, due to the technology stack we were using on macOS, it made sense for certain users to disable Files On-Demand to preserve compatibility. With the File Provider platform, these problems have gone away, so application compatibility issues on macOS should be much less likely to occur. If you find something different with your setup, please reach out to your support contact so we can diagnose the issue.
  • Locally available files: We know that keeping all content locally on the device is an important scenario for a small set of users. The best way to do this is to select Always Keep on This Device from the right-click menu to mark content as “pinned”.

Note that this applies to folders too; if you pin a folder, all of the content that's currently in it and new content that is added to it will be kept on the device.

 

Why is it sometimes slow to browse folders in my OneDrive?

 

To save space and system resources, the File Provider platform doesn't actually create the files OneDrive is managing until the first time you need them. The first time you open a OneDrive folder, macOS will create them on-demand. This can sometimes take a moment.

To avoid this delay, you can force the system to pre-create all of these files and folders for you without downloading your content. To do this, open a Terminal window and type "ls -alR ~/OneDrive" (or the path to your OneDrive). This will ensure all of your files and folders are created, but not downloaded, before you browse.

 

Can OneDrive be stored on an external drive? How does pinning a file work when I use an external drive? Are there multiple copies of my data?

 

I've seen several threads on this topic but let me clarify with an emphatic yes: external drives are fully supported without any difference in the end-user experience.

That said, external drive support as it exists today is implemented differently than it was in the past because of how File Provider works. Very few users are running this configuration, but for them, it's an important scenario because often their content won't fit on the home drive. File Provider doesn't support creating the sync root on any drive except for the home drive. So, we had to find a way to support external drives within these constraints.

When you choose a path to sync your OneDrive, we use that path to derive where we put your OneDrive cache path. If that path is on an external drive, we'll put the cache path there. We wanted to honor this preference because the cache path is where your pinned content is stored, as I'll explain below.

When your cache path is placed on an external drive, OneDrive tries to minimize the number of copies of your data it makes, and in most cases, only one copy will exist, usually in the sync root. If your home drive runs into disk pressure, the operating system will evict (dataless) files from the sync root, but they can always be obtained again from the cloud if needed. In some cases a file might exist in both places for a short time, but over time we will ship fixes that will optimize this further.

Pinned files on an external drive have behavior quirks that are worth understanding. If you pin a file, it will download to the cache path only, and will show both the checkbox and "not downloaded" state icons. This is because the file is dataless in the sync root but exists as a full file in the cache path. However, if you pin a file and also double-click it to open it, we will bring it into your sync root, so there are two copies, one in each location. Note that files brought into your sync root in this manner can still be evicted by macOS when it encounters disk pressure, but when this happens, only the file in the sync root is evicted. We still keep the data in your cache path, so you can always get to the file's content, even if you are offline.

The table below depicts how this works when you set up sync on external drives:

 

User action

File in sync root

File in cache path

Default state

Dataless

Dataless

Right click -> "Always Keep on This Device"

Dataless

Has data

Double click the file

Has data

Has data

macOS runs into disk pressure

Dataless

Has data

Right click -> "Free Up Space"

Dataless

Dataless

Essentially, the table depicts the guarantee that OneDrive makes about pinned files, namely that as long as we have a pinned file, we'll always keep the data available to you locally. The only time we don't have that data is either in the default state, or if you tell us to free up space for the file.

 

How does disk space usage work in the sync root?

 

In the original blog post, I mentioned that files with data in the sync root do not count against your disk usage. Some people took this to mean that these files occupy zero bytes on the disk, but what actually happens is that these files don't count against your used disk space. That is, if an application asks, "How much space is free on this disk?" that answer will exclude these files.

There are a handful of special cases where these rules don't apply:

  • Pinned files, if your cache path is on your home drive. In this situation, the file in the cache path and the file in the sync root are Apple File System (APFS)clones of one another, and although there are two files, they share the same space on disk until one changes. File Provider won't evict files that have a clone, and such files will count against used disk space.
    • If your cache path is on an external drive, there is no clone, so pinned files can be evicted from your sync root and don't count against used space on your home drive.
  • OneDrive designates certain file types as non-evictable, and therefore these files count against used space. The most important of these file types are shortcuts to OneNote files, which only occupy a handful of bytes. This matches the behavior on Windows as well.

The system logic to decide what files count against used disk space and what files do not is provided by the File Provider platform. If you find behavior that works differently than I've described here, please reach out to support, or to Apple.

 

Will this work with local file indexing (e.g. Apple's Spotlight)?

Yes. Spotlight indexes everything that is in your sync root, but note that Spotlight will not fetch (or hydrate) files that are dataless. If you are looking for something in Spotlight that could only be read from the full file (such as image EXIF data), only fully hydrated files will be indexed.

Spotlight will not index our cache folder.

 

Why is my AutoSave not working after this upgrade?

 

We have been made aware of users experiencing issues with AutoSave when using the Store version of the OneDrive app. We are actively working to resolve this in the next few days. In the interim, if you want to get unblocked, you can move to the Standalone build.
To move to the Standalone build from the Store version, you can unlink your account, uninstall the App Store version, and reinstall the Standalone version from this link: https://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?linkid=823060.
We will keep you updated about the fix on this thread.

Update 2/3: The fix for AutoSave for the App Store version was released in the Store today. It is fixed with 22.002.0201.0005.

 

If you still have more queries feel free to reach out to the team directly on this discussion thread.  Files On-Demand for macOS QA - Microsoft Tech Community

Thank you for your constant support and partnership!

Jack 

 

598 Comments
Microsoft

@djBuff303 I checked with the team again and we're investigating an issue with AutoSave when OneDrive is installed from the Store. If you are running into the issues you mentioned in your summary, can you confirm whether you are running the Store version? Thanks!

Copper Contributor

@gacarini 

 

Not sure... I downloaded OneDrive a very long time ago.  How would I tell?  

 

The about does NOT say "(Standalone)" so does that mean I got it from the App store?  And - assuming that is an issue, how do I switch over to the standalone copy?

Copper Contributor

Please reverse this aberration as soon as possible. Everything that is there as new functions I find a step in the completely wrong direction. Please back to the old OneDrive. This is total nonsense.

Copper Contributor

After being surprised by this "update" I encountered syncing problems. I removed onedrive from my mac and installed again (from the Store). The Auto-Save option no longer works if the file is opened from the HDD. More importantly, my colleagues who are working on the same document cannot see me working on the file and my changes are not applied. This ruins real-time collaboration unless I open the file from the onedrive's webpage. My company is heavily reliant on collaboration on technical reports, which is our key product. Today we were completely paralysed and could not send anything to our clients.

Instead of explaining the reasons for introducing changes, please make sure you bring the basic functionalities back ASAP!!!

Brass Contributor

Basically, Spotlight can't work with a FOD file, because there's nothing there other than a stub. So it's effectively a symbolic link to a cloud system that spotlight can't traverse to get the data. Until the file is actually local, spotlight has nothing to work with.

 

As well, I still have yet to see a reason justifying the forcible, non-negotiable, with zero advance communication/opt-out deleting of files from a hard drive.

 

The number of people not using FoD or turning it off is irrelevant. If a random script did what OneDrive has done, we'd (correctly) label that as malware. That we can eventually get the files back is not okay. 

 

this is not up for argument, ethically, what y'all did is bad.

Brass Contributor

@johncwelch You are absolutely right about it *appearing* like malware.   After the update to OneDrive 22.x and the missing files, broken Favorite links, etc  my initial thought was that it was malware, before I suspected it was a random file system corruption on my system, which of course wasn't right either.  But that's how it appeared to someone who had no advance warning of the changes with the 22.x update.   There was zero advance warning from Microsoft (sorry, I don't spend my days reading detailed MS technical notes on the MS products I use) that all these changes would be taking place with a software update.

Microsoft

@djBuff303 - Yes that means you are running the Store build.

 

@PioDeu We're working on a hotfix for the issue in the next few days but if you want to get unblocked before that you can move to the Standalone build.

 

To move to the Standalone build from the Store version, you can unlink your account, uninstall the App Store version, and reinstall the Standalone version from this link: https://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?linkid=823060.

Copper Contributor

@gacarini yes I can confirm I am running the App Store version and the autosave does not work. I will be glad to post a video if that behavior if it helps. 

Microsoft

@tchester11092 - Thanks for confirming. We're actively working on a fix for this issue with the Store build, which we will hotfix in the next few days. I will post an update here when that version is available in the Store.

Copper Contributor

Dear Microsoft Team,

 

I don’t think you are getting the right picture. PEOPLE AND BUSINESSES ARE LOSING A LOT OF MONEY (ME INCLUDED) with this disaster you are calling “update”.

 

Do you really have the dimension of the damages Microsoft is inflicting with this bright idea: “oh, let’s delete all the local files, they don’t need them…”?

 

So far what I’ve seen is only formal and evasive answers… “thanks for your partnership” … “next few days” … “we're actively working”.

 

Still can’t believe how a company so big and so experienced can do something like this!!!

Copper Contributor

Thank you for the explanation.

 

Microsoft can make it up to a lot of users by quickly moving to an Apple Silicon/M1-optimized OneDrive.  It's been a long time coming.

Brass Contributor

The best upload speed I can get from my ISP is 1.2Mbit. It can take hours to push up a single project. And you want people to work entirely with streaming files? On what is effectively _the_ enterprise storage tool?

It's one thing to have a classic Dropbox-like functionality, where the local copy can change frequently, and changes are streamed up as needed, and that this is the default. It's another *entirely* to have the default be "things live in the cloud, and you have to work on them via file streaming".  That's insane.  Teams is already damned near unusuable, and you want _everything_ to operate like this?

This is straight up discrimination against people with crap internet.  Given that Microsoft are effectively THE enterprise collaboration software provider for most enterprises, this verges on telling anyone who can't afford techbro internet that they can't do remote work.  Which, for disabled folks like myself, is the same as saying "you can't be employed".  This design choice is infuriating. 

Copper Contributor

I'm still waiting for a better answer re: Spotlight. So far, in my experience, even when I select "always keep on this device," the contents of folders don't appear until I've manually opened the folder. This means that the contents of those folders aren't available in Spotlight searches. My workflow is heavily dependent on Spotlight (via Alfred) and this is a real problem. I need all of my files to be visible to Spotlight, and I don't want to have to manually open every conceivable folder to make that happen. Is there a fix in the works? 

Copper Contributor

@dan_e same Problem here. I use OneDrive on my local macOS and on Windows-Terminalserver in Company. If i add some folders or files on Windows (TS), the files will be transferred to my mac (topfolder is marked as keep on device) but the cloud-icon is shown on every new folder and file. I have click on every single cloud-icon or open the files to get the possibility to use Spotlight and QuickLook. I read about that the files are locally stored in the cache-folder but the filesystem doesn't know about that. @Ankita Kirti please let us know if that will (or can) be fixed. Otherwise i will turn over to another cloud-service. You can't believe how slow InDesign works if the linked images/files are not "local"!!!

 

 

Copper Contributor

Thanks for the update on 2/1/2022. 

As plenty of others, I've lost time and energy on this.

When using the Appstore version, I can't use autosave (hot fix to come, fine)

But when I'm trying to install the standalone version i'm getting 8004deef error code. So I'm stuck in the middle of nowhere with no instant solution to work with my partners.

I searched for the error code without finding anything helpful. could you help on this ?  thanks

 

 

Copper Contributor

Many thanks @Jack Nichols for your explanations. To me this all makes sense. I thought already that part of the issues are Apples File Provider API. I rely on MS and Apple to improve the "experience" further...

Copper Contributor

@BenoitCoux I had the same problem. I was able to solve it using the One Drive Reset Command. 

screen-2022-02-02-100324.png

Copper Contributor

@Ralf Heid thanks for the trick ! It also worked for me. kind regards

Copper Contributor

Now I have to sit and download and setup all of my application project files again. Thanks Microsoft 👍🏻

Copper Contributor

Thanks for the update which provided clarity - i am trying to move everything back into OneDrive and essentially reset the whole folder. what a nightmare it has been.

Copper Contributor

On top of what everyone else is saying (most of which also affected me) I can't access OD using Citrix Workspace. It doesn't see locations and even if I move it to a known folder it still doesn't see it.

It's really disappointing to see a product released that breaks so many different workflows.

Copper Contributor

This is without a doubt the worst implementation of a software 'upgrade' I have ever seen. None of my local files are accessible and when I try to view ANY file in the whole structure it fails. Nothing is working. Absolutely disgraceful. OneDrive was a thing a beauty, now it's my worst nightmare. This is what I'm met with when I click 'Always Keep on this Device'. OneDrive ain't talking any more. Absymal.

 

Screenshot 2022-02-02 at 16.02.41.png

Copper Contributor

I have found the following has worked but only after 4 days of disaster and no work !

Uninstall One drive, reinstall

going folder by folder right click and set to save locally

only once done move to the next

Repeat until either the download cloud icon disappears OR after doing this a few times clicking the cloud icon

 

Massive massive headache and 100 steps backward

Dont know if this will preserve future changes synchronising and downloading but who actually knows !!

 

 

Copper Contributor

Thank you for the update.  While the sync to my MacBook Pro seems to be complete and stable, OneDrive is continuously "Processing Changes", which is consuming my CPU, burning up my Mac and depleting my battery.  I can leave it for a day and it just keeps processing.  I have already done the "reset" procedure twice, to no avail.  I find that I must pause syncing to mitigate this issue, which less than optimal.

 

In addition, OneDrive has stopped responding to the system (crashed), requiring that I go into Activity Monitor to kill OneDrive.  This gives me pause regarding the security of my files, both locally and in the cloud.  It does restart and again begins crushing my system resources.

 

Please advise of a solution for this, either currently available or planned.  If none is available, I may need downgrade my Mac to Big Sur again; I had to do this after loading Monterey the first time, which broke Excel...talk about a royal pain.

 

Thanks for any assist you may offer.

Brass Contributor

WHY ARE YOU FORCING UPDATES WHEN THE ONEDRIVE SYNC APP 22.x DOES NOT WORK?!?!?    After spending 36 hours restoring my system and having it work again, and making sure automatic updates were off in the AppStore, I had another update to OneDrive forced on me last night.    Once again, ALL the files in my OneDrive folder are missing and unavailable, and OneDrive itself is not responsive.    I AM FURIOUS that I am going to waste another day trying to fix this problem again.    STOP MESSING UP MY SYSTEM!!!!    Get this sorted out or take the **bleep** update down and revert to 21.x!!!!

Microsoft

Hi everyone - trying to catch up on questions here. If I missed your question, try posting it on our Q&A thread (https://techcommunity.microsoft.com/t5/onedrive-for-business/files-on-demand-for-macos-qa/m-p/310290...). It's a little easier to find and reply to specific questions there.

 

Jack

 

@tchester11092@BenoitCoux  - you asked a question about Office autosave not working with the App Store version of OneDrive. This was a bug and we have a fix rolling out now. You should see an update to the App Store version shortly. Let us know if this doesn't resolve the issue.

 

@southerndoc585 - you asked about an Apple Silicon-native version of OneDrive. This is available to our Insiders audience today (and has been for some time). To opt into Insiders, open OneDrive preferences, click the About tab, and check the "Get pre-release Microsoft internal updates" checkbox. It might take a few minutes for OneDrive to restart with the update to our Insiders ring, but you can also exit and relaunch it if you don't want to wait. After that happens, go back to this preferences pane and click the button at the bottom of the pane to switch to the Apple Silicon build. OneDrive will restart again in a few minutes and you'll be on that build.

 

@dan_e - you asked a question about Spotlight and full files. I replied to another user on our Q&A thread with an answer to this question: https://techcommunity.microsoft.com/t5/onedrive-for-business/files-on-demand-for-macos-qa/m-p/310290... 

 

@titu89 - you asked a question about Spotlight (see my reply just above), but also asked a question about InDesign performance with online-only files. InDesign is often over-eager to read files that aren't strictly necessary to load or work with a document, and it often does this in a way that blocks other actions from occurring. One way around that is to mark the files in OneDrive as "Always Available on This Device". This places a copy in OneDrive's cache path, and when InDesign requests the files, they should be fetched more or less instantly. You may also want to reach out to Adobe with your feedback as well, as an update to InDesign would improve this experience even further.

 

@Dan335 - you asked a question about Citrix Workspace and OneDrive not working with it. Can you elaborate more on your scenario and what isn't working? You can send me a PM if that's easier.

 

@Paparelli - you showed an error that was occurring when you were trying to open files. That error is displayed if a system or OneDrive component crashes during a fetch. Do you have any crash reports in ~/Library/Logs/DiagnosticReports for any processes associated with OneDrive? If so, please send me a PM with the crash file attached.

 

@TheRunningMan - you reported issues with OneDrive processing changes, and with an apparent hang related to this update. Please send me a PM and I can provide further instructions on how we can diagnose. 

Brass Contributor

I have a question: are you actually going to resolve the problems we report by abandoning your discriminatory approach, or is Microsoft's approach to this to tell everyone who isn't blessed with high throughput that we're holding our files wrong?  Streaming files should under no circumstances be the default, and we should NOT have to jump through hoops in order to regain a pathetic semblance of the functionality you removed.

Microsoft

Hi @Trevor_Pott,

 

Streaming files should under no circumstances be the default, and we should NOT

> have to jump through hoops in order to regain a pathetic semblance of the functionality

> you removed.

 

Marking the root folder as "Always Keep on This Device" should provide the same experience you had before. All of your files will be kept locally on the device, and if you add new files, they will also be kept locally on the device. This is the right approach if you are bandwidth-constrained, either permanently or temporarily.

 

We know that not everyone has fast internet at home or at work, and for these scenarios, marking files as "always available" gives such users a choice. You can choose which files you want to keep locally, or choose to keep them all locally. Before, if you disabled Files On-Demand, OneDrive was forced to keep all files locally, which can wind up wasting bandwidth downloading files you don't use. 

 

As I noted in the update to the blog, the "down cloud" icon appearing next to pinned files is an issue we are actively working on, but if you see the checkmark, the files are on your device, regardless of what that icon shows. 

 

Jack

Brass Contributor

Sir, I humbly submit that these choices are still making people with throughput constraints into second-class citizens.  You are saying that in order to have a computer that is operational enough to _remain employed_, we have to Google a workaround? Even if you believe that your reasons for not having upstream-throughput-sensitive settings be the default are rational (and I would strongly disagree; storage is WAY cheaper than throughput for the majority of people on our planet)...what possible rational can you have for not just having the option to behave in an upstream-throughput-sensitive manner as a clearly marked option in the OneDrive UI?

I am not an edge case, sir.  I should not have to implement an undocumented workaround just to be able to use this product.  And I ESPECIALLY should not have this product choose to render my computer basically inoperable after an update.

 

Please reconsider your approach, and AT THE VERY LEAST return the ability to behave in the classic fashion as a prominent, easily understandable UI addition.  I do not believe this is an unreasonable ask.

 

 

Brass Contributor

I struggled with the App Store version when it finally updated, and burnt a few days trying to get it going.  Upgrading from my existing external drive/all files downloaded just was never going to successfully finish, so I started over a number of times using the reset Onedrive command- still no luck.

  • It would always start out with the old sync style (syncing to a folder) before then switching toe the CloudStorage sync, leaving an orphaned version of the the initial attempt on my data drive.
  • I think I got the initial sync (files on demand only) to complete once or twice, but would usually choke.  If I tried to use "Always Keep on Disk" for any substantial number of files it would choke.

After seeing there was an issue with the Mac App Store version, I've switched back to the standalone version. 

  • The initial sync seems to work well.
  • It seems to start out using the CloudStorage sync, so no mess left over.
  • I was able to successfully use Always Keep on Disk with most of the folders- excluding my large archive folder.
  • After the above was complete, I tried to use Always Keep on Disk with the large archive folder- it seems to work overnight, but then this morning it failed. Error message "OneDrive can't transfer files right now.  Click here to view sync problems". Clicking does nothing.
  •  image.png

My OneDrive is about 588GB.  The external SSD has around 1.19 TB available.


I'm about ready to give up.  I've spent many days trying to get back up and running.  I've got GB internet up and down so that's not too bad, but it just has to work at some point, right?

 

Migration for my setup is just a total failure.  I think with a clean start I'm close, but right now it's not syncing and I have no idea how to proceed without starting over... again.  (Note- I  managed Macs for a large district for 30+ years and had been leading Microsoft 365 charge-- I can only imagine how frustrating this must be for users with less troubleshooting experience.)

 

Any suggestions would be highly appreciated. Thanks!

 

Screen Shot 2022-02-02 at 1.37.16 PM.png

Microsoft

Hi @Trevor_Pott,

 

Please reconsider your approach, and AT THE VERY LEAST return the ability to behave in

> the classic fashion as a prominent, easily understandable UI addition.  I do not believe this

> is an unreasonable ask.

 

I agree with you, and we hear you. I mentioned this in the FAQ update to the blog, but we are actively looking at options for this - stay tuned.

 

Jack

Copper Contributor

Jack,

Thanks for the answer. My experience so far is that it takes MUCH longer to open files, sometimes 15 seconds to open an excel file compared to a few second before. When I open an RStudio project it can take 30 seconds before the file pane opens - for files that are "Always on disk". It appears the commit messages reference the hidden location under library and not the "OneDrive" location. so it is NOT the same experience as before, even after several days of clean up. I did not sign up to be an alpha tester.

 

I am getting a constant message from Finder that, despite being signed in to OneDrive and it synching and synching, that it can't open the Helper function and therefore can't complete a file operation.

 

The OneDrive icon in the top of the screen is useless as it tells me it is now synching over 1800 files yet only shows files it synched hours ago. I have no idea what is actually doing to my machine. Needless to say the constant synching slows down my machine so maybe that is why a theoretical "same experience" is meaningless for an actual user. I did not sign up to be an alpha tester.

 

I lost links to several shared drives with others and had to recreate them on OneDrive. Not all went away but several did.

 

I am still cleaning up the mess in GitHub as changing every file location meant every file I had in a repo had to have a new commit history.  Several repos got corrupted as the OneDrive update occurred without any prompting while I was teaching class and had open files that were both in OneDrive and GitHub. It created copies of files with new names, some of which were not open and without warning. It is taking hours to both clean up the corrupted repos where GitHub and Git can't agree on what files are where and how to deal with it. It kept timing out over and over despite increasing cache, adjusting compression, and trying every hack I could find on line. I finally had to delete my local .git, do a git pull and am in the hours long process of going folder by folder (since the repo is too large to do all at once) and recommit all the files again.  I did not sign up to be an alpha tester. 

 

Bottom line, I have used OneDrive for years with minimal issues in both personal and enterprise settings and this experience is NOTHING like what I had before. If you think it is then I welcome you join my world for a different perspective.

Microsoft

Hi @greencatdude ,

 

Thanks for sharing your experience. Some of what you are describing sounds related to the way that the App Store build rolls out. I'll make sure the right folks internally have the feedback.

 

> OneDrive can't transfer files right now

 

This error means that the OneDrive service has throttled your device from uploading or downloading content. This can happen if the service thinks you are transferring too much data as a way to prevent abuse, but it isn't perfect. This should resolve itself with time, but if you are blocked, please reach out to our official support channels as they are best equipped to help with this type of problem.

 

Jack

Brass Contributor

@Jack Nichols Thanks!  I'm retired now (August) so no official support channels.  I'm pretty happy not to have to deal with this on a larger scale!  

I hope the error I'm experiencing clears up on it's own- is there a .plist or something that can be changed to increase the limit?  I saw something similar for Windows but haven't found anything for Mac. 

-Scott

Brass Contributor

"This error means that the OneDrive service has throttled your device from uploading or downloading content. This can happen if the service thinks you are transferring too much data as a way to prevent abuse, but it isn't perfect. This should resolve itself with time, but if you are blocked, please reach out to our official support channels as they are best equipped to help with this type of problem."

 

Wait, wait, wait.

WHAT

 

So not only is streaming files the default, but it can just decide at any moment that you can't even access your files? And this is _expected behaviour_?

 

THIS is the client you are deploying as your flagship _enterprise_ storage solution that is meant to center Microsoft's cloud services as the "default" storage solution? This is how Microsoft envisions the future of collaboration in a world where distributed workforces are now the norm for enterprises and similar-sized organizations? Why do you hate remote workers?

Brass Contributor

This has broken file access for my WHOLE ORGANIZATION. I cannot believe such a major breaking change just happened with no warning (no, I don't have time to follow blogs for EVERY piece of software we use).

 

Clearly this was done with no thought whatsoever to the major use cases that people have.

Microsoft

Hi @greencatdude,

 

There isn't anything locally that can be done to adjust service throttling.

 

Throttling is rare, but it does occasionally happen when the service suspects something isn't right. There's a bunch of detail that I can't get into here about when this happens, but as I noted, it can sometimes happen when it shouldn't (although these cases should be very rare). I'll reach out to our service folks to at least make them aware of this case.

 

Jack

Copper Contributor

This update is not in the best interest of users, not saving files locally and having backups locally is not good data practice. Please bring back the ability to easily keep OneDrive files stored locally or it will force me and all of the organizations I administer to find alternatives that allow this. Your "solution" of pinning files to 'Always Keep on This Device' simply does not work. All it appears to do is ramp up CPU usage and then fail with a helper error that just says to try it again. Additionally, it appears that it would have to be done for each new folder created which is an awful user experience.

Copper Contributor

As someone who has spent the last five years working to actively promote Office 365 to my clients, it's really disappointing to see such a lack of beta testing, communication, documentation and interaction with end users. The issues I am seeing echo most of what has already been mentioned here (changes without notifications or guidance, failure of the Auto-Save function, Throttling, incorrect Status Icons, etc, etc). Workflows have been made unusable and usability has been thrown out the window.

 

I realise from reading the blog that some of these changes may be necessary and in some case are a welcome improvement but to roll out a wholly incomplete product with no warning, no apparent beta testing and a total dearth of documentation seems completely nuts. It goes against pretty much every ITIL practise and in a business environment if I was to roll out an IT project in this way I would probably be sacked. To make matters worse, from what I can see, there is no easy and clean way to uninstall the updated OneDrive and roll back to a previous version.

 

My clients are frustrated & furious and if they weren't so tied in to the Office 365 eco-system, they would look to find an alternative product for file storage and local synchronisation. It's such a shame as the product had been getting better and better and this has set the product back several steps. Shame on Microsoft, with so many resources, for getting this so wrong.

Steel Contributor

While I'm equally frustrated with the botched client upgrade process and the strain it's put on our support resources and end users' workflows... I don't want this to be all doom and gloom for the Microsoft guys, so here's a positive piece of feedback on all this:

 

I like the change to the sync root, because of one horror story:  One user moved their OneDrive sync folder to be stored on the Desktop. Same user had a SharePoint document library with about 200GB in it, and they synced the entire library, albeit with Files on Demand enabled. Well, then they enabled iCloud Backup, which dutifully started backing up the Desktop, which included this huge sync folder. The machine started syncing all the files upon access during the backup process, and started to run their SSD out of space.  And what does iCloud Backup do when drive storage runs low?  Why, it deletes anything that it successfully backed up to iCloud, that's what! Which it did. So next thing you know, a significant chunk of this SharePoint library starts getting deleted. :cryingwithlaughter:

 

None of the above followed best practices or our own advice, and they got everything back from the site's recycle bin, but this new sync root concept would've saved that user from themselves and prevented a TON of headache.

Copper Contributor

Hi Team - this is a disaster from what I am seeing. I cannot access the new shortcut for one drive (since it is now not a real folder) via Citrix Workspace (using Bloomberg Anywhere). Anyone using OneDrive through Citrix Workspace/Viewer is completely screwed here. We need a resolution immediately please!!

 

Emma

Brass Contributor

Hi @Trevor_Pott,

 

Streaming files should under no circumstances be the default, and we should NOT

> have to jump through hoops in order to regain a pathetic semblance of the functionality

> you removed.

 

Marking the root folder as "Always Keep on This Device" should provide the same experience you had before. All of your files will be kept locally on the device, and if you add new files, they will also be kept locally on the device. This is the right approach if you are bandwidth-constrained, either permanently or temporarily.

 

We know that not everyone has fast internet at home or at work, and for these scenarios, marking files as "always available" gives such users a choice. You can choose which files you want to keep locally, or choose to keep them all locally. Before, if you disabled Files On-Demand, OneDrive was forced to keep all files locally, which can wind up wasting bandwidth downloading files you don't use. 

 

As I noted in the update to the blog, the "down cloud" icon appearing next to pinned files is an issue we are actively working on, but if you see the checkmark, the files are on your device, regardless of what that icon shows. 

 

@Jack Nichols

 

this is a remarkably tone-deaf response. First of all "always keep on this device" requires the re-downloading of files OneDrive chose, without allowing for informed consent, to delete. MS is not paying for that bandwidth, the customer is. In many cases, this is not one or two files, for me, it was a 26+GB download. Even on Google Fiber, that was a very non-zero amount of time. You didn't give the users a choice in deleting files from their local drive, but now, they have a "choice" to redownload data that, and I cannot stress this enough, is only missing because of your actions, not theirs. 

 

It is almost bizarre to me that MS is engaging in what can only be called "victim-blaming" as if it's our fault any of this happens. Are y'all the scorpion in "the scorpion and the frog", we knew what you were when we gave you a ride across the river, it's our fault you stung us?

 

Is that really your story, that the OneDrive team bears zero responsibility here?

Brass Contributor

Sir, I humbly submit that these choices are still making people with throughput constraints into second-class citizens.  You are saying that in order to have a computer that is operational enough to _remain employed_, we have to Google a workaround? Even if you believe that your reasons for not having upstream-throughput-sensitive settings be the default are rational (and I would strongly disagree; storage is WAY cheaper than throughput for the majority of people on our planet)...what possible rational can you have for not just having the option to behave in an upstream-throughput-sensitive manner as a clearly marked option in the OneDrive UI?

I am not an edge case, sir.  I should not have to implement an undocumented workaround just to be able to use this product.  And I ESPECIALLY should not have this product choose to render my computer basically inoperable after an update.

 

Please reconsider your approach, and AT THE VERY LEAST return the ability to behave in the classic fashion as a prominent, easily understandable UI addition.  I do not believe this is an unreasonable ask.

 

@Trevor_Pott 

 

the sad thing is, they clearly believe in the righteousness of their decision. They're even removing the plist key that would have allowed you to, not as easily as a UI option, turn this off. In their world, no one has any valid problems with files on demand, and making customers do 100% of the work to fix their mistake is correct and we are wrong for not liking it.

 

MS is basically engaging in "The Courtier's Reply" to every complaint, and it's kind of disappointing.

Brass Contributor

Please reconsider your approach, and AT THE VERY LEAST return the ability to behave in

> the classic fashion as a prominent, easily understandable UI addition.  I do not believe this

> is an unreasonable ask.

 

I agree with you, and we hear you. I mentioned this in the FAQ update to the blog, but we are actively looking at options for this - stay tuned.

@Jack Nichols 

 

You could, at the very least, keep the plist key currently documented so that the way that currently exists doesn't go away. That would literally require zero work on your part, it's already there. Just don't mess with it and leave it documented.

Brass Contributor

Hi @greencatdude ,

 

Thanks for sharing your experience. Some of what you are describing sounds related to the way that the App Store build rolls out. I'll make sure the right folks internally have the feedback.

 

> OneDrive can't transfer files right now

 

This error means that the OneDrive service has throttled your device from uploading or downloading content. This can happen if the service thinks you are transferring too much data as a way to prevent abuse, but it isn't perfect. This should resolve itself with time, but if you are blocked, please reach out to our official support channels as they are best equipped to help with this type of problem.

 

Jack


@Jack Nichols 

 

Wait, so let me get this straight. The only way for people to fix this...problem is, as you and everyone else says, just "click the little button" and redownload everything.

 

But if they actually do that, and OneDrive decides they're downloading "too much" (an amount not defined) then OneDrive will throttle them so they can't actually redownload everything.

 

so in attempting to follow y'all's directions, we're somehow abusing the service, and since we don't know what "too much data" is, and how long we'll be throttled for, we have to *call you*, thereby wasting MORE TIME to get back to where we were before this upgrade "improved" things.

 

I'm thinking people should start invoicing you for the time they waste on this. Because it's not a small amount.

Brass Contributor

Hi @greencatdude ,

 

Thanks for sharing your experience. Some of what you are describing sounds related to the way that the App Store build rolls out. I'll make sure the right folks internally have the feedback.

 

> OneDrive can't transfer files right now

 

This error means that the OneDrive service has throttled your device from uploading or downloading content. This can happen if the service thinks you are transferring too much data as a way to prevent abuse, but it isn't perfect. This should resolve itself with time, but if you are blocked, please reach out to our official support channels as they are best equipped to help with this type of problem.

 

Jack


@Jack Nichols 

 

Or, here's a thought: 

If(client = "macOS") {

set throttleEnabled = true

}

 

Copper Contributor

Any news on KFM? Will the Downloads folder be included? 

Brass Contributor

The problem is - and that MS won't publicly acknowledge - is that the behavior we are seeing (mass files moving from cloud locations) is EXACTLY what Ransomware does - which is why many of us suspected that was what was happening when we first saw the changes. The throttling is part of mitigation about that (it shouldn't be easy to mass-move files between locations).

 

Unfortunately MS really haven't thought through the business use cases of OneDrive, and assume they can behave as if we were all on a 100% reliable intranet. How they have managed to miss this is baffling to me. Did no-one internally sound an alarm that this would break a large number of very common use cases?

Brass Contributor

The problem is - and that MS won't publicly acknowledge - is that the behavior we are seeing (mass files moving from cloud locations) is EXACTLY what Ransomware does - which is why many of us suspected that was what was happening when we first saw the changes. The throttling is part of mitigation about that (it shouldn't be easy to mass-move files between locations).

 

Unfortunately MS really haven't thought through the business use cases of OneDrive, and assume they can behave as if we were all on a 100% reliable intranet. How they have managed to miss this is baffling to me. Did no-one internally sound an alarm that this would break a large number of very common use cases?

 

@dataveg 

 

Oh I'm sure they had all kinds of customer stories and it was all so pretty and Agile. But the people doing the research live in a bubble and have no interest in venturing outside of it.

 

The closest parallel I can think of is New Coke, where in taste tests as a replacement for "Classic" coke, their customers all said two things:

 

1) This tastes really good

2) Don't replace Coca-Cola with it

 

The people behind new coke all stopped reading at 1). History records in detail what happened next. My analogy is:

 

1) People by and large like Files-On-Demand

2) People by and large hate large-scale modifications to their computers that aren't absolutely necessary

 

the onedrive root change is necessary. It's a pain, but in and of itself, is not damaging. That had to be done. The forced move to FOD did NOT have to be done, but they stopped reading at 1)

 

and I am absolutely sure no one on the OneDrive team lives anywhere they have to drive for 30 minutes to an hour to get anything resembling "fast" internet connections to redownload many GB of data.

Copper Contributor

May I suggest: 

Recall that at the initial install of OneDrive, the user is presented with an overview of what to expect. 

This update breaks all those conventions and the user doesn't know what happened or why, leading to much anxiety.

Some sort of user communication and a link to more info would go a long way. 

 

Co-Authors
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