SOLVED

OneDrive stuck on "getting in sync" icons

Iron Contributor

 

Recently I upgraded my sync client and now my OneDrive says it is up to date but the folders and files always show the "getting in sync" icon. What should I do to fix? Running Build 17.3.7078.1026

47 Replies

I'm using OneDrive for Business and have access to the MS Business Concierge service.  They, however, pretend that this isn't their problem and unhelpfully blame it on Windows.   In my case, it involves the same nine folders in documents.  All of the files in those folders show that they are synched.  The OneDrive icon shows that everything's up to date.  However, those nine folders (and some subfolders under them) all show that a sync is pending.  This happened after an update that MS ran in March and I cannot get MS interested in taking the issue seriously.  It would seem to me that once all the files in a folder show that they are synched, the software needed to go up a level and check off the folder itself would be pretty simple.  The fact that MS can't figure this one out is rather scary.  The only real implication of this I've noticed is that shortcuts to the files in the folder don't work.  That is, because the software believes a sync is pending, it won't allow you to attach a file from that folder to an email using a shortcut.  Instead, I need to browse and click on the file going through the folders from the top.  That a few extra steps, but not a real problem.  The situation is just really annoying and I keep holding my breath for what will happen next.  

Me too. Very annoying as it leaves me insecure about where and when my files exist in what version. Please provide a fix.

I waited for MS to do something for four months and decided to take matters in my own hand. I’m manually fixing the problem.  I simply create a new folder for NAME called NAME2.  Then I move the files from NAME to NAME2.   Then I delete NAME and rename NAME2 as NAME.  It works.  The problem apparently only affected the few folders I had with files that were synching at the time of the Windows 10 update in March 2018 that clashed with OneDrive.  

I'm working on fixing this for myself today by John's brute force method. It's important because the glitch is actually preventing me from saving new updates to many documents. I've already lost some updates so it is frustrating and costly. 

So far, replacing folders seems to work as long as I am working on the lowest level of folder that is not syncing. I have a lot of files that are broken so this may take a while. 

Any answers ? Same problem for many customers.

Kevin, I feel funny as a lawyer answering a tech question.  That said, what I know is that OneDrive for Business gets free support from the Office 365 Business concierge service.  They swear up and down that the issue is with Windows.  In other words, MS internally is having a problem running their main software product (Office 365) on their main operating system (Windows).  For some versions of Windows, as updates came out, these would fail in some environments and not others.  If you go through you update logs, I'm sure you will find a few failed updates.   MS doesn't have an automatic process to address this and Windows just keeps running the best it can.  My hypothesis is that if a file hadn't synched when the update ran, that file and the folder it was in presents a problem for OneDrive going forward.  I earlier suggested a fix that OneDrive could put in to solve this, but technically I think they are correct that the fault lies with how Windows updates.  In any case, since OneDrive does work, you can easily fool the system by manually forcing OneDrive to sync by moving the files into a dummy folder.  After that you can delete the empty folder and rename the dummy folder to the name of the original folder. I described this process in an earlier response.  The reason I keep writing about this is that I'm trying to shame MS into taking responsibility for this issue.  I know that MS employees read these posts.  I would have assumed that by now they would have realized just how many customers they've inconvenienced and would have addressed this issue, but, as I said, I'm a lawyer and not a software engineer.  

Hello, I resolved the folder icon just by renaming it to "_folder" and renaming it back to "folder". If it can help some people.

ODBuild.jpg

Currently using the above version of OD and the folders are staying synced.

I should have tried that first because its much easier.  I'll keep it in mind if the problem occurs again.  Thanks for posting this.

best response confirmed by Susan McClements (Iron Contributor)
Solution

Not sure if this is still an issue for some users but I recently had this happen for one of my clients. I realized after some testing that if I renamed one of the folders showing the "Getting in Sync" status, created a new folder, then copied over all the items from that folder, the issue would subside. When I proceeded to delete the original folder, it prompted me if I wanted to remove a temp system file.

 

This helped me realize that the folders in question that would not sync all had locked/corrupt temp system files (which are hidden by default) and are not meant to sync with the OneDrive Client. This included temp files for word docs, thumbnail/icon database files, etc.

 

Moving forward I temporarily changed the folder options as follows (Windows 10):

1. In File Explorer > View Tab > Options (All the way to the right)

2. View Tab

3. Select the radio button for "Show hidden files, folders, and drives"

4. Finally uncheck the box that shows "Hide protected operating system files (Recommended)"

 

Once that was done, I could browse through each folder and remove all locked/corrupted temp files and the folder would show as synced after that.

 

Note: Remember to undo the folder options mentioned above when done. 

 

This may not be the end all solution for everyone but it helped in my situation.

Thanks David - your workaround worked for all my stuck "sync pending" folders EXCEPT my "Pictures" folder and the multitude of sub-folders beneath it.  In the Picture folder there are no obvious corrupted system files, so must be another issue for them.

The 2018-08 CU for Windows 10 (KB4343909) solved this for me.

Thanks for the reply Rene. My Win10 is up to date so I assume I received that update. I resolved issue for documents by deleting temporary files. For pictures I dropped automatic sync and I do it manually.
Thank you David.
Your solution solved something that has been annoying me for months.
Your post should be marked as the answer to this topic.

Hello:

 

After fussing over the same problem for about 1/2 day, I found a rather simply solution. I remove the offending folders from my OneDrive folder and place them on my desktop. Then I simply rename the folders and then return them to OneDrive. For example, I had a folder in OneDrive called "Filing Cabinet". While I had it on my desktop, I renamed it to "Filing Cabinet II" and the replaced it to OneDrive. 

 

Works perfectly. 

Just wanted to say that this works.  I had 2 folders that were showing as syncing.  I cut and paste all the files out of them into new folders.  When I deleted the old folders I got a warning saying you are about to delete "this file".  The file was hidden in the folder.  With show hidden items and show protected operating system files/folders turned on, the file still didn't show up in the folder.  It seems that occasionally a file gets stuck in limbo between being on my pc and in my OneDrive folder online.

Hi Everyone,

I had the exact same issue for the past few weeks as well. Going beyond just the icon being stuck in syncing mode, I have not been able to access a few of my files. However, after reading this thread and a few troubleshooting documents from One drive, I believe that I have figured out why it's happening. According to One-drive trouble shooting documents, no filepath can exceed 400 characters. Therefore, if you have a lot of files within files and then documents with longer names, you could easily exceed the 400 characters quite easily. I've noticed that the only time this syncing error occurs is when I have this error occurring. I don't know if this helps everyone but it's working for my files now. Thanks!

Thank you very much for this suggestion, just saved me a massive headache. I was losing my mind trying to figure out why several of a client's folders were not syncing in a maze of 69 SharePoint document libraries synced to his computer. This fixed everything, the incorrect syncing icons as well as a problem where files in his Document libraries would download if others made changes but would not upload if he made changes and any new files that were placed in the synced libraries on his computer would not upload. ALL FIXED. Thank you very much.

I am using the latest OneDrive build: 18.222.1104.0007

 

This worked for me:

 

Drill down until you find the folder that is not syncing. Simply right click and rename the stuck folder. There is no need to copy or move all files out of the folder as some have suggested.

For example: Rename "Invoices" to "Invoices 1.0"

Go through all folders and rename all that are stuck.

If you try to rename back to the old folder name that was causing the problem, the sync will get stuck again.

I tried to look for and clear hidden corrupted system files in the folder, as some posters suggested, but there weren't any. So I'm not really sure why renaming the folders works.

 

Let me know if this works for you - good luck!

@David Lodge, thanks for sharing your fault-finding method and results. The information you provided was very helpful. I found by opening each folder with the 'synching' status and deleting temp files all icons now correctly display their 'synched' status.