Files On-Demand, OneDrive automatically downloads GBs of files you freed up every time after reboot

Copper Contributor

OneDrive Build 21.052.0314.0001, Windows 10 19042.928

OneDrive option Files On-Demand ON.

 

I've opened some online files from my OneDrive, and they were correctly downloaded also locally as expected. Once I finished I selected "Free up space" from Explorer for those files to sync them online and remove the physical files from my local HD.

Well, the problem is that on next Windows 10 reboot OneDrive insists to automatically re-download those files locally (!???) and I have to "Free up space" every time manually.

5 Replies

I've found something interesting looking in detail at OneDrive actions when the mentioned issue happens and it starts re-downloading on my local disk GBs of files I freed up, after next reboot.

The task triggering the issue seems 'CompatTelRunner.exe' (telemetry/compatibility background OS process):

 

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Can someone in the OneDrive team fix this issue ASAP, preventing OS telemetry tasks from automatically re-downloading OneDrive files you freed up locally (Files On-Demand feature of OneDrive). 

Thank you.

It seems other users before reported a similar issue with CompatTelRunner.exe but MS just ignored this issue https://onedrive.uservoice.com/forums/913522-onedrive-on-windows/suggestions/37304206-compattelrunne...

ATM the only workaround is to disable the whole telemetry task from Task Scheduler > Microsoft > Windows > Application Experience (1 and 2 in the attached pic, but 1 only should also work).

Microsoft must provide a real fix though.

@Hexaae This issue still exists as of 28 July 2022, on the following system:

 

Windows:

    Windows 10 Version 21H2 (OS Build 19044.1826)

OneDrive:

    Version 2022 (Build 22.141.0703.0002) (64-bit)

 

This should be handled on two levels (I don't care which team acts first, but both changes should eventually be enacted):

  1. `CompatTelRunner.exe` should automatically exclude from its scans any files noted in the filesystem as 'placeholders' by programs such as OneDrive
  2. OneDrive should refuse to automatically download any files for `CompatTelRunner.exe`, just like it does for other automated processes such as 'Windows Defender' anti-virus scans.

 

Related: Just as `CompatTelRunner.exe` downloads 'Files-on-Demand' `.exe` files within a OneDrive library, `WmiPrvSE.exe` is also guilty of doing this for `.msi` files.


Tl;dr:

Prompt action is required from both the Windows 'Application Experience' team and the OneDrive team.

I have read the other replies, and I am very disappointed that after nearly four years, Microsoft has done nothing to fix or resolve this issue.

Now I need to spend my time disabling CompatTelRunner.exe, because it is downloading many GB of OneDrive files that I need to keep offline in the cloud.

This situation reminds me why I would rather be using Linux, especially when Microsoft forces me to spend this much time on basic functionality that they leave broken for years.