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Chris Le Texier's avatar
Chris Le Texier
Brass Contributor
Oct 19, 2017
Solved

Files on demand - difference in 'locally available' and 'always available' files

I'm a bit confused with the two ways that a file can be saved to view offline.  What is the difference between the 'locally available' files and 'always available' files?  I saw the overview online, ...
files on demand
  • MaryB's avatar
    MaryB
    Oct 20, 2017

    locally available files are ones you've already opened whilst online, or created while online, or created recently on another device while you were online; they stream down to your PC so you have them if you need them, but they're not guaranteed to be there. If you haven't opened the files in a while and the space is needed to stream down other recent files to make them available locally, they'll revert to being online only (AFAIK that's based on heuristics and will vary by free space, not a strict counter). if you want to guarantee that the files are always available offline, right-click and mark them as 'always available offline'. You can mix and match both kinds inside a folder.

jcgonzalezmartin's avatar
jcgonzalezmartin
MVP
Oct 21, 2017
You have been using Files On Demand since April?
MaryB's avatar
MaryB
Iron Contributor
Oct 21, 2017
Since Build, yes ;) So while I haven't been told details of the offline availability decisions, I can tell you how it works in practice.
  • Zero Point's avatar
    Zero Point
    Copper Contributor
    Oct 21, 2017

    Okay. Thanks, Mary. I've been an Insider since the beginning (October 1, 2014) and appreciate your insight. When Files On Demand were unveiled at Build and then later rolled out to Insiders in the Fast Ring (Build 16215), I tested just a little bit, but didn't want to throw my real OneDrive data into the mix and really see how it worked day in and day out.  I'm doing that now.

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