Syncing and Sharing Non-Office Files from SharePoint Online

[bryanchua]

I'm wondering how OneDrive for Business sync works for non-office files that are stored in SharePoint Online and shared across multiple users?

For one of our customers, SharePoint is their storage repository and users are syncing the same library to their devices for collaboration. How does the sync work when multiple users open and edit the same non-office file? e.g. photoshop or illustrator

They're finding that for certain files, it's creating duplicate copies.

Thanks!

[#2 · Accepted solution]

Syncing wont' work very well with non office files as you have seen since it doesn't detect the files are locked for use. You might be able to utilize checking out but you can't do that from the sync client.

The reason you get duplicates is because the files will open locally, then when saved sync back, if two files save within that period then a sync conflict happens and then either overwrite or copy (duplicate) happens. All other sync tools work in a similar fashion to my knowledge as well.

[#3]

Thanks Chris!

[#4]

Hi @ChrisWebbTech , what is the best way to work with non-office documents without duplicating them and still have the ability to use metadata?