Forum Discussion
Saving files to SharePoint Online is HARD
It's been a while since I made this post and I'd only think it fair to follow up with it as Microsoft has delivered some real positive improvements in this space.
Files on Demand - https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/onedrive/use-group-policy#FilesOnDemandEnabled
AutoMount Team Sites - https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/onedrive/use-group-policy#AutoMountTeamSites
Save to SharePoint site - https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-365/blog/2015/11/09/attachments-in-outlook-2016-ready-for-collaboration/ and much easier when using the two features mentioned above.
Bonus points: Live document collaberation - https://support.office.com/en-us/article/document-collaboration-and-co-authoring-ee1509b4-1f6e-401e-b04a-782d26f564a4
Big thanks to ssquires , LincolnDeMaris , cfiessinger , and anybody else involved with these changes. They were a game changer when they launched and they've been much appreciated by consultants and end-users alike!!
I'm not sure why they improved the experience for attaching files, but not for saving.
Maybe that will come in the next few months with Office 2019.
Totally agree, this has been an challenge as long as SharePoint has existed, and that's also why most enterprises still prefer "file shares" as their main document storage. Everything else is painful, not to mention if there is a bunch of "metadata" that needs to be added to the files also.
That said, now with SharePoint Online, latest Windows 10 updates and OneDrive file on-demand, you can solve part of this challenge as follows:
- Structure documents in different libraries or team sites dependent on your information architecture and permisions requirements.
- Use OneDrive "file on demand" to synch all files in the libraries you need,
- You can now save by directly drag and drop attachment, emails ect. to the OneDrive synch folders without the need of temporary save to desktop. You can also use save as and in file explorer navigate to the OneDrive folder.
Challenges that we still need solved:
- How to tag documents with correct metadata directly in OneDrive Synch? currently you still have to log into the SharePoint Library, a bit easier with mass data tagging recently released but still need improvement.
- How to automatically Synch Libraries for Users, pr. now each end user have to manually initiate the first Synch.
On the other side, local sync of shared items should be used carefully...
For an example of the problems that could result from local sync, see http://blog.ciaops.com/2018/02/offline-file-conflicts-with-sharepoint.html
- Thanks for the reply!
