Migrate Your Files to OneDrive Easily with Known Folder Move
Published Jun 27 2018 01:20 PM 412K Views
Microsoft

We’ve heard requests from several customers asking to make it easier to move their user data into OneDrive. To have a single button that they could push that would move content from the Desktop, Documents, and Pictures folders to OneDrive.

 

Today, we are making this a reality with the announcement of Known Folder Move (KFM) for OneDrive that will start rolling out to Targeted Release customers this week.

 

Known folders are global pointers in Windows representing a location on the user’s drive. They help users to organize their most important files and access them across different applications. KFM helps you move your docs, desktop, and pictures into OneDrive. Even the Screenshots and Camera Roll folders are included when the Picture folder has opted into KFM.

 

Before KFM:

Windows ExplorerWindows Explorer

After KFM:

Windows Explore w/ KFMWindows Explore w/ KFM

 

Not much changed, right? That’s the idea. User content is automatically synced to OneDrive with no disruption to productivity. Behind the scenes, KFM moves content into OneDrive so it’s always synced to the cloud, protected, and accessible from all your devices. 

 

If you’re an IT admin, you can deploy a group policy (more details below) to users in your organization to encourage them to perform KFM. Eligible end users can get to the KFM experience if they click on one of the KFM toast notifications or in OneDrive settings > AutoSave > Update folders.

Update Folders settingUpdate Folders setting

This is what the Known Folder Move experience looks like for end users. The KFM experience launches and does a brief scan for any unsupported files

KFM screenKFM screen 

 The scan shows all files are supported and the user now has the option to move their folders to OneDrive.

KFM end user screenKFM end user screen

If you disable or do not configure this setting, the "Set up protection of important folders" window won't appear automatically for your users.

 

If you set a group policy, then here is the experience the user will see

Group PolicyGroup Policy

 If the user doesn't perform the move, a large activity center message displays:

IT Policy for KFMIT Policy for KFM

If the user chooses to close the message, then a smaller message is displayed and cannot be dismissed until the user completes the move.

Forced pop-upForced pop-up

Silently redirect Windows known folders to OneDrive

This setting lets you redirect your users' Documents, Picture, and Desktop folders to OneDrive without user interaction. This policy works when all known folders are empty, and on folders redirected to a different OneDrive account. We recommend using this policy together with "Prompt users to move Windows known folders to OneDrive."

 

When you enable this policy, future releases will no longer check for empty known folders. Instead, known folders will be redirected and content within them will be moved.

 

If you enable this setting and provide your tenant ID, you can choose whether to display a notification to users after their folders have been redirected.

 

If you disable or do not configure this setting, your users' known folders will not be silently redirected to OneDrive. Future iterations of this group policy will support Known Folder Move.

 

After this policy is set with the notification flag the end user will see a toast:

ToastToast

Prevent users from redirecting their Windows known folders

This setting forces users to keep their Documents, Pictures, and Desktop folders directed to OneDrive. 

If you enable this setting, the "Stop protecting" button in the "Set up protection of important folders" window will be disabled and users will receive an error if they try to stop syncing a known folder.

If you disable or do not configure this setting, users can choose to redirect their known folders back to their PC.

 

When will Known Folder Move be available?

  • This feature will start to roll-out this week to our Targeted Release customers
  • If you are an Office or Windows insider, you may start to see it next week
  • KFM will be available to all users by the end of July

As always, please leave feedback and let us know what you think or visit our UserVoice page to upvote or suggest new OneDrive functionality!

 

- The OneDrive Team

 

Some FAQ's for IT Administrators

Can I automate this as an IT admin?

Yes. See information about group policies above. More documentation will be available once KFM is fully rolled out.

 

Is there an Intune package I can use?

We are working to integrate the ADMX/ADML packages KFM with Windows Intune later this year.

 

Can I use this with Silent Account Configuration or other group policies?

Yes, you can use these group policies alongside any other group policies including Silent Account Configuration. Just make sure you don’t set policies that conflict with one another.

 

What operating systems does KFM work with?

Known Folder Move works with Windows 7, Windows 8/8.1 as well as Windows 10.

 

What is the difference between Folder Redirection and Folder Migration?

  • Folder Redirection redirects a local Windows folder to an equivalent folder in OneDrive but does not migrate any content from the local folder to OneDrive. That’s why folder redirection should only be used on brand new machines that don’t have existing content.
  • Folder Migration redirects a local Windows folder to an equivalent folder in OneDrive and does migrate the content from the local folder to an equivalent folder in OneDrive. Folder migration can be used on brand new or existing devices with or without content.
  • In general, we suggest you use folder migration over folder redirection whenever possible.

Are there any limitations on the files that can be moved to OneDrive as part of this process?

There are some limitations for supported files in the OneDrive sync client in general and those are listed here. In addition, there are some scenarios that KFM doesn’t support yet and will be documented in more detail in the future. One of those limitations is that locally created OneNote files can’t be moved to OneDrive through the KFM experience. If you have OneNote saved locally, please visit our support site on how to move it to OneDrive here

 

 

274 Comments
Copper Contributor

Hi all,

 

my scenario which I have spoken to support about is unusual. On my main work laptop I have the auto-save tab and can sync known folders to any of three business accounts. On my desktop PC with the same client version and the same accounts I have no auto-save tab visible. There are no folder location changes on either machine. It seems bizarre that the same client version, same windows 10 version and same account login exhibits different behaviour. There have been no registry changes either. In fact on the desktop PC, I had my 365 personal account linked and this was the only account that showed the auto-save tab, when personal accounts aren't supposed to be covered by this update, as I read it. 

 

Support didn't have the auto-save tab available on their accounts and were unsure on the rollout status, I'm waiting for a follow up on this. Clearly I am eligible and it makes no sense that it should work on one machine and not another if it is tied to account eligibility. I am going to try on a test machine too and will feedback here.

 

OK so it seems that the auto-save tab is indeed linking to a personal account, so was this functionality released on the personal accounts first? The text as part of the ODFB release suggests otherwise most of the time, although not everywhere! 

 

I installed the OneDrive client from my 365 biz premium client on a test laptop and linked my biz account, no auto-save tab. I then linked my personal 365 subscription account and hey presto the auto-save tab appears on the personal account and now ALSO on the biz account which can then be used to sync docs, pics, desktop... So.… now I have one laptop with only biz accounts which has the autosave tab, one desktop with only auto-save on personal account and not on the biz accounts and now a vanilla laptop which only gets the auto-save tab when a personal account is linked.

 

Incidentally, I removed the personal account and closed that onedrive down, just leaving the linked Biz account and it does not seem to remove the auto-save functionality. Clearly there are some oddities to this new function and how it interacts with biz accounts. 

 

As a further update, on a third laptop which also has personal and biz accounts, only the personal account has the autosave tab available not the biz accounts. The functionality on the personal client is slightly different in that you can choose to keep only on this PC or in onedrive on drop down tabs, whereas the biz accounts do not have these options. This machine also has the same client version as my main laptop and desktop build 18.135.0705.0003. The test laptop is on an earlier version 18.111.0603.0006 even though this uses the same account which is on the faster release ring, albeit no office 365 installed, so possible some effect All rather odd.

Iron Contributor

Hmm, over 150 comments on this blog article alone. Shows there are lots of questions about the new feature. I know this isn't necessarily the right place to ask but I don't tend to get very high quality answers from answers.microsoft.com - take from that what you want :)

 

So forgive me from high jacking the article.

 

Does OneDrive do something "weird" with Office files, like maybe recompress them? The reason I ask is that I've been using OneDrive sync to migrate an entire SharePoint document library from one library to another. I'm using our good old friend robocopy. What I noticed is that upon re-running the same command, that all of the Office documents copied again because robocopy detected them as "changed". Changed files in robocopy are those with the same timestamp but differing sizes. This is a pretty unusual situation - it's unusual for a file to change size without the timestamp also changing.

 

Upon digging deeper, it transpired that the file size of Office documents changes when added to OneDrive! Typically it ends up a bit bigger. It's really nothing to do with robocopy - just that this tool shows why the document was being copied. Occurs with Copy-Item as well. Copy a file from a (say) a network drive and look at the size in OneDrive and it's different.

 

Other file types (like PNG) aren't effected so when you run a robocopy /mir operation, they aren't changed.

 

If you exit OneDrive and copy the file, it's the right size. Start OneDrive again and it first uploads the document and then mysteriously downloads it again. It's in this download that the file size changes.

 

Apologies once again for going off-topic. A general observation - I often feel, as a pretty experienced IT support person, that getting a quality discussion at the right level with Microsoft is difficult. Is there a better forum to discuss OneDrive? TechNet seems to be pretty dead OneDrive wise.

Copper Contributor

@Helios Comms I actually noticed this behavior before also. I used to use Free File Sync, a similar file copy/sync tool between machines. I had to stop using it because after each copy it would start a whole batch upload to OneDrive again. It's been a while and I forget the exact sync scenario I had setup, but my findings were exactly the same as yours. I actually never looked into why it was happening. I ended up adding the OneDrive client to each machine I was originally syncing manually. Then I just added everything to the OneDrive folder that I specifically wanted to sync between those machines and the cloud. This solved the issue of using a program to manually sync between them.

 

So there is definitely something that gets tacked or modified on to the file post upload.

Iron Contributor

I've got FreeFileSync as well and yes, it should exhibit the same behaviour as it's doing a very similar job to robocopy. I'll carry out a test but there is distinct proof here of OneDrive modifying the contents of a file which I'm very uneasy about.

Copper Contributor

Hi guys, I think I've cracked the AutoSave tab not appearing issue. In RegEdit; Computer\HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\OneDrive add a new DWORD of EnableMove with the hex value of 1. Reboot and the tab then appears in OneDrive settings.

 

Copper Contributor

@Lewis Jackson

 

Confirmed!  Thank you sir!

Copper Contributor

Perfect, this was what I was looking for.  This resolves the situation.  @Lewis Jackson many thanks.

Copper Contributor

@Lewis Jackson

@Laurence Willis

@Dan LeVasseur

Jumping on the bandwagon to add my test results. I tested adding the EnableMove = 1 to HKCU\Software\Microsoft\OneDrive on two different accounts on separate tenants, different computers. On one tenant it worked as expected. I restarted and was presented with the "Auto Save" tab in the sync client. On the other tenant I did not see the "Auto Save" tab after making the registry change and rebooting. I'm guessing the second tenant has not yet received the update yet to enable KFM or does not meet the current requirements. However, there are still a few hours left in the month of July so it might have not yet been rolled out to all tenants.

Copper Contributor

@Lewis Jackson

@Daniel Letsinger

Thanks for the suggestion. No joy here though as yet....I guess the July date is a little flexible.....

 

Update.....and there it is after a client reinstall while testing a new SCCM package.

Copper Contributor

Seems to work only on 18.111 and above versions of OneDrive

Copper Contributor

@Lewis JacksonI think there is some additional setting or configuration beyond the EnableMove registry key and the OneDrive client version that enables KFM. I'm not seeing it on one of my test machines even though I have the registry key in place and my OneDrive version is 18.131.0701.0004.

Brass Contributor

@Daniel Letsinger   I agree.  On my test laptop I've had the GPO settings and 18.131.0701.004 client installed for 3 days.  Yesterday I applied the EnableMove regkey and basically found it had no effect on activating the KFM functionality and menu options.  (Even after several reboots of the machine).   I took the test laptop home from work tonight and connected it to my home WiFi network which has direct internet connectivity.   The KFM functionality in the OneDrive client activated almost immediately.   As such, I wonder if connectivity could be a factor in achieving a successful KFM activation ?  The same laptop also has internet connectivity in the workplace, but being a large corporation the workplace internet traverses various proxy/firewall appliances.

Copper Contributor

Hi all,

 

after setting the EnableMove regkey i'm seeing the auto-save tab, which is great.

I'm trying to "Silently redirect Windows known folders to OneDrive", but even when setting the regkey's and a reboot the client still redirect the folders.

Setting it up manually does work.

Has anyone succeeded to configure it silently yet?

 

RegkeysRegkeys

Brass Contributor

Hi, will KFM settings get included inthe office 365 admn portal rather than having to do a GPO/registry configuration?

Copper Contributor

I can also confirm the reg entry key worked for me. It does raise the question where multiple machines are used with multiple accounts across different companies and perhaps different desktop files and documents there is lots of scope for multiple copies of files and mess, so caution is necessary in this scenario. For keeping consistent desktop and docs on one account it is ideal assuming it works automatically at some point, but again this could cause some problems for some users.

 

Interestingly on my main work laptop the reg entry was already present , this is the machine that has always worked. On my other laptop changing the reg entry enabled the function. Question is why did it work on one and not the other with the same account. Client version the same on both 18.135.0705.0003  (targeted release channel)

Copper Contributor

Hi

 

So if a company already have the "Legacy" Folder Redirection policy applied to the Documents and Favorites folder (Redirected to a File Server) Known Folder Move will not be to any use since it cannot move any data from a files server into OneDrive, It is primarly for PC/Users that do not have Folder Redirection policy enabled and store their data on their local folder like C:\Users\%username%\Documents?

 

Of course we could remove the Folder Redirection policy and then activate the Known Folder Move.

 

BR,

 

Thomas Z

Copper Contributor

Hi, 

 

I have created the registry key and after reboot the Auto Save tab has appeared. However, our user have their "Known Folders" redirected on a server. When I tried to Auto protect the folders I received the following error! Any workaround? Protection Error_LI.jpg

 

Thank you, 

Mohd

Copper Contributor

Hi In our company we all have version 18.111 or more recent  (131 and 135) of One Drive. Only some of our users can see the option KMF on one drive for B. Do we need to install the ADMX and force it to see it in Domain based computers?

More strange : I have 3 computers and only one of them has access to the feature.  Do we need a special Windows 10 Update ? I use windows 10  Enterprise 1803 build 17134.165

Are Education customers going to have it too (we have several Education clients and teachers tend to use a log MY DOCUMENTS..)

 

Thanks in advance for any comment 

 

 

Copper Contributor

@Mohammed Al-Aliyou need to stop the folder redirection and remove it completely before you can do the known folder move. the group policy has to be Not Configured, but only after the redirection it moved back to the local machine;

 

Step 1: redirect the folder back to the local machine

Step 2: remove any sort of Group Policy redirection, even if it is to the local machine (Mark the folders as Not Configured)

Step 3: Retry the KFM

Copper Contributor

The registry Key does the trick.  I am interested in any feed back of tests of 1 user on several computers. all with the KFM activated 

Thanks!!

Copper Contributor

This is a neat feature. However, I have one big issue, there are no tenant controls to enable or disable this feature.  I would like the ability to prevent users from using this feature on personal devices; I can't apply GPO or registry settings on these machines.  I know I can prevent synchronization at the tenant level, but that's not exactly the same. 

Copper Contributor

This is great and will save me a ton of time.

Thanks again for pointing this out to me @Michael Bender

Iron Contributor

I'm under the impression that most companies (like mine) use redirection to a file server. (seems common practice)?

So I guess we have to wait till something different comes along, where we can sync from a fileserver.

Also, for a RDS environment, this is kinda tricky. (we can't just disable redirection, all the files would be copied "locally" on the RDS servers, who would be full in no time)

 

 

Copper Contributor

@Stephen Rose is there different release timeline for Non Profit subscriptions? I don't even see the AutoSave tab in my settings my work account. I caught your keynote at TechMentor last week and I really wanted to try this out since this is what my users have been asking for. 

 

I am on the latest sync client, office is updated, and I have tried on different devices. I don't see any policies in our environment that would block this feature. If I go into my personal account the tab does show, just not my work account. 

 

Does anyone have a Non Profit license that can confirm if they see it?

Brass Contributor

We are a not for profit, it’s working in most of our offices/users @Nik Stay

Silver Contributor

@Nik Stay, we are a non-profit and in the process of moving from on-prem active directory to Azure AD and as I migrate the machines to Azure AD, I see this feature show up but it hasn't been for our users who are still on-prem.

Copper Contributor

Ok, I must just be missing something. At least I know it should work and have some direction! Thanks for the responses @Noor and @Jeffrey Allen

Microsoft

@Nik Stay On-Prem still uses the older groove client which does not support KFM. You have to be cloud and using the newer OneDrive.exe client that is only supported with SharePoint On-Line or SharePoint 2019 On-Prem, both of which support the newer OneDrive sync client.

Copper Contributor

I'm still not seeing this.  Is there a particular update I need to install or version of OneDrive or Office 365 I need to update to?

 

OneDrive = 18.131.0701.0007

Office = 1806 Build 10228.20134

 

Have the August Updates on my machine Windows 10 1803.

Copper Contributor

Thanks, @Stephen Rose. I am on the newer OneDrive.ex client and we are using Onedrive and SharePoint online with our Office365 E3 subscription.

 

I am on Version 2018 (Build 18.131.0701.0007)

 

I think I'm going to try pushing the setup notification over GP and see if that makes it show up. 

Copper Contributor

Just to follow up on this Blog.  I have been having meetings with our Microsoft SharePoint Online DSE, apparently this is a recognised issue with KFM, the posted solution (registry entry) will work but is not an ideal fix and the Microsoft PG are working on trying to identify and fix this issue.  The best date I can get from them as the release date for an updated client version to fix this issue is sometime in September.  For now I have removed the registry key and I will wait for the version change to see when they manage to fix the issue, I'll post once I hear anything further.

@Peter Whitehouse Not sure if this was addressed, I didn't see it in the thread but M365B is now licensed for all Intune functionality, so that conversation gets easier. I don't think this would be supported in O365 MDM, it's pretty basic, and I think MS would want that to be an Intune conversation.

 

@Kalimanne J Enterprise State Roaming in AAD Premium P1 would be an option for synchronising between devices rather than UE-V. If you haven't seen it, think of it as an enterprise versision of the sync my settings that Windows 8 introduced for Microsoft Accounts. 

 

 

Copper Contributor

Are there any updates on when KFM will be available for all users? I'm on 18.131 and the option is not available yet. Thanks

Copper Contributor

Has anyone encountered the following error?  I am not using a Personal account.

 

2018-08-21 15_29_25-Remote Desktop Manager [Quick connect - frontdesk].png

Copper Contributor

 I'm trying to test this out before we roll it out to users, using build 18.131.0701.0007, and the registry workaround, but I'm getting "The Documents folder contains other important folders and isn't supported for file protection."

Documents folder contains other important foldersDocuments folder contains other important folders

I've already turned off all redirection of folders to network drives (Documents was originally redirected to a network server with offline file caching enabled), but haven't been able to get it working. Is there a log somewhere or suggestions on what might be preventing this from working? I got the Desktop folder migrated successfully, but Pictures and Documents refuse to go. If I knew *which* folder was important, I could figure out a path going forward, and be ready to roll this out on day 1 when it gets wider release.

Thanks.

Copper Contributor

It turns out that my problem above was partially my own fault, in the sense that the account has a long and storied history, having various policies applied to it over the years, etc. A "clean" account probably would have worked better, but this account better reflects the state of some of our users here.

 

I did get the Known Folder Move working, but it required manually making edits to the registry for the Shell Folders\Personal and User Shell Folders\Personal keys, then logging off and back on again.

Copper Contributor

so why does the desktop folder show with name computer at least on Greek Windows 10, after telling onedrive to store that folder too?

Steel Contributor

I have this setup on mine and it works great, however, whenever I save a file from an application to my desktop, the icons don't show correctly.  For example, pdfs show with a transparent thumbnail of the first page versus a red pdf (Adobe) or for me a blue pdf icon for my default pdf application Bluebeam.  I just dragged and dropped a pdf from another location with file explorer and the icon is wrong.   Annoying but not a huge deal.

Copper Contributor

While I have some folder redirection happening at remote sites now, I "want" to leverage KFM for those users as well.

Is the proper sequence to unwind the folder redirection options on the GPO to direct the Desktop/Documents/Pictures folders back to the local PCs.. "then" implement the KFM option?  Seems there is a bit of in-between time that data could potentially be lost from hardware failure etc on the workstation..

Copper Contributor

@Ian Watts Yes, that is my understanding and the procedure we followed.

Copper Contributor

Another.. noticed with one of the guys in Accounting.. Documents wouldn't sync because of a few different OneNote files.  OneNote should be a thing which works.. IT used to (ew..) use OneNote for documentation and stored it on SPO.  Anyway, he didn't use them and they were dated 2016.. deleting the three or four got the KFM and subsequent sync happy.

How can I manage this for the 500 other users?  How can I even know their three Known Folders have moved?..

Brass Contributor

@Kristof Verreet There's GPO filtering to fine tune the roll-out if you have bandwidth constraints.
Copper Contributor

The experience gets worse.  Some ignored the message (imagine that.. not reading email from IT..) and others didn't do anything with it.  So yes, it works like a champ for new setups but for all existing systems.. pretty much a no go.  I scripted out a logon script to check on the "old" folder locations in a user profile and logs non-empty ones.  There are many.

 

Also finding many apps are still saving to the "Documents" folder directly, aka c:\users\<user>\Documents.  The library moved of course, but these apps come along and drop new content in there.

 

Examples:  Oh.. you know.. SQL Server Management Studio and Visual Studio 2015..  That's on my own PC.  Thanks, Microsoft..

TL/DR; the KFM idea was cute, but leaves MUCH to be desired.

Brass Contributor

>Some ignored the message (imagine that.. not reading email from IT..)

 

LOL - that made me smile. Glad it's not just me. I'm sticking with my own PowerShell New-User.ps1 script for now which does the redirection using the old method. Aside: why do they use weird class names in UserShellFolders for some of the newer redirection? We appear to have two keys now for the same folder. Rather confusing.

Brass Contributor

@Stephen Rose, I read your guide on how to backup bookmarks from device to device and I noted that you're recommending U-EV.  Is there any reason to not use Azure Enterprise Roaming instead if it's available via a subscription?

Microsoft

@John Nash

 

AER is great but not everyone has it. Since U-EV is built into W10 Enterprise, it's my recommendation as it's free. The future is AER and I do recommend that for customers that have that option.

Brass Contributor

@Stephen Rose - thanks for the clairification!

 

 

 


 

Hi, what is also a kind of problem is with KFM/KFR and Azure AD Joined computers of users which have special characters in Display Name, when Windows 10 create local path with special characters. It can kind of broke applications.

Iron Contributor

When WIP is enabled (and set to block), and folders have been moved to OneDrive everything saved to the moved locations is going to be a corporate data. That’s great! But then, if new files are being saved to regular local folders like Music / Video or any other local folders, they are going as private only. There is no choice while saving the files: corporate or private. Afterwards, in File Explorer, user is still able to change the ownership from private to corporate. In fact, it’s a different experience when compared to PC without folder redirection. Are you aware of this? Is this by design? Any fix planned?WIP-Redirected Folders.jpg

 

 

 

Copper Contributor

Can Downloads folder also be added?

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