Hello there! 2.24.22 UPDATE: We've been listening to your feedback, and we've made some design changes. We're releasing a new version that addresses the most common themes and makes it easier to achieve the previous experience. Please read the latest blog post for more details. Two weeks ago, we posted an update about Files On-Demand for macOS and have received overwhelming feedback from the community. We have spent a lot of time reading your comments and concerns to understand how we can improve your experience on macOS. To address some of the common issues and doubts we have updated the blog with a FAQ. If you still have more queries feel free to reach out to the team directly on this thread. Thank you for your constant support and partnership! Team OneDrive Jack_Nichols gacarini Carter_MSFT

Ankita Kirti Thank you for the openness on this article https://techcommunity.microsoft.com/t5/microsoft-onedrive-blog/inside-the-new-files-on-demand-experience-on-macos/bc-p/3066588The purpose of having OneDrive is to sync across devices and backup. Since the beginning I chose to have most of my files on my Mac, for several reasons :- spotlight index (just amazing)- time machine backup- other third party backup- of course direct access even offline (working on the go) From what I read (see below) files will not be indexed by Spotlight. This is a MAJOR issue, that will cause me to stop using OneDrive and use alternate services. Even if I have elected to have a local copy of the files, which does not make any sense.Will this work with local file indexing (e.g. Apple's Spotlight)?Yes. Spotlight indexes everything that is in your sync root, but note that Spotlight will not fetch (or hydrate) files that are dataless. If you are looking for something in Spotlight that could only be read from the full file (such as image EXIF data), only fully hydrated files will be indexed.Spotlight will not index our cache folder." Can you please look into that ? Also the roll-out of the new OneDrive has been a real pain for us. I appreciate the openness but your support staff is clueless, and before doing those changes that go against our wishes, careful consideration and communication would have been appreciated.

Ankita Kirti Jack_Nichols gacarini Carter_MSFT Where are you? Why have you all gone silent?

Ankita Kirti Okay, so since we have to manually download everything in our bright new shiny non-automated world:If I tell onedrive to make a folder always available locally, does that also recurse through the contents of that folder and download 100% of the contents or do we have to do so individually for every single item in the onedrive folder?In my testing, the setpin option listed here: https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/onedrive/files-on-demand-mac worked so badly as to be useless. Specifically- the /setpin option can't be used while onedrive is running, which means to use /setpin, you have to quit OneDrive, then watch it restart and quit every time you use /setpin. This is a *very* bad implementation of a command line feature. Literally makes it effectively useless as a way to speed up pinning things locally faster than clickclickclickclick in the finder.Will the FileOnDemand preferences key documented here: https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/onedrive/deploy-and-configure-on-macos#filesondemandenabled be around for a while or is that going to get stealth deleted too? The implementation of this decision is to put it mildly, awful. I can't think of a worse way to go about this, and for no real reason other than "The OneDrive Team is very enamored of FoD, so you will be too" I'm very sure no one on the OneDrive team has to deal with this in a situation with heavily metered, slow, capped internet access, and that limitation in your design decisions shows.

Hi Michael,> From what I read (see below) files will not be indexed by Spotlight. This is > a MAJOR issue, that will cause me to stop using OneDrive and use alternate services. Spotlight will index the content in your sync root (the path in ~/Library/CloudStorage). That will include any file metadata there, along with file content for files available in this path. As far as getting the file content into the sync root, we're looking at ways to make this experience better, but in the near-term, if you want to force files to be available here, you can click the little "down cloud" icon to initiate a download. This works for folders too. For files that we already have in our cache path, this fetch should happen more or less instantly. Otherwise, we'll download the file from the cloud.I've also shared the gist of your feedback with the rest of our team so we can think about how to better support this scenario.Jack

Jack - I'm in the camp of having the Auto Save issues and I have the App Store version. Rather than uninstall / reset and install the standalone version, I'm choosing to wait for the hot fix.1) How will I know that I have the updated version? I'm currently on Version 22.002.0103.0004. Is the hot fix a new version number? Do I need to restart my Mac in order for it to update?2) Will this hot fix address the issue I have noted before - when saving a document and choosing "Online Folders" in the save as dialog... right now only my current business OneDrive account is listed as a possible location. By current - I mean that is the account that I'm signed into in my Office apps and on Office.com. But I have two other OneDrive accounts currently active and syncing - a second business account and a personal account - that I do not apparently have access to when using this Save As approach. That same limitation applies when I try to turn on AutoSave from a document - which I opened up from finder in one of my 3 OneDrive folders - the pop up dialog asks me to upload or copy the file to OneDrive but only gives me 1 out of 3 OneDrive locations as a target.Hopefully that description makes sense.

Files On-Demand for macOS QA | Microsoft Community Hub

152 Replies

aruviann
Copper Contributor
Oct 29, 2023
Ankita Kirti

I still don't understand if I choose "Always keep on this device", why the cloud with down arrow icon still showing?

Because of this irrational decision made by Onedrive team, syncing files in video editing apps becomes a nightmare. It's SLOW! My macbook has a 2/3 second delay everytime I wanted to preview a video/photo which is beyond any human comprehension.
bobbyeagle
Copper Contributor
May 03, 2023
Also wanted to add, Sharepoint and OneDrive have different file name limitations. I feel like if we're expected to use the OneDrive sync client for Sharepoint, the file name limitations should be the same...
- 09253934242
  Copper Contributor
  May 11, 2023
  09253934242
bobbyeagle
Copper Contributor
Apr 18, 2023
I wanted to add some thoughts/deficiencies on OneDrive for MacOS:

I work for a large wholesaler with 300+ employees. Our two marketing departments of around 35 people are on MacOS while the rest of the business is on Windows 10.

We've been assessing different tools to migrate off our physical shared drive to get the entire business working on the cloud. We currently have a SharePoint installation and the teams will be trained to use the OneDrive sync client.

However, multiple deficiencies in the MacOS version of the OneDrive sync client are causing us to reconsider our SharePoint/Microsoft implementation.

I don't have to share these, but I think it's in Microsoft's best interest to take note of these deficiencies:

Downloads started by clicking the cloud icon in Finder cannot be cancelled. We've had multiple instances of users accidentally clicking this icon when selecting the folder and then starting a download for an entire Lifestyle image folder containing hundreds of GB of TIFFs. The only way to rectify this as far as we can tell is to uninstall OneDrive and reinstall it. Not ideal, especially when downloads should be able to be cancelled. In our opinion, a basic necessity for a cloud sync app.

There’s no way to prioritise uploads and downloads, meaning if you have lots to upload, you have difficulty downloading working files for other projects. It also means you can't prioritise the upload of critical elements that need to be shared on deadlines etc.

It takes up to 10 minutes just to start uploading even just a 1MB file. OneDrive sync client will be stuck on ‘Processing Changes’ or ‘Preparing to Upload’. Not sure if this is a glitch/bug? Seems consistent across all devices.

The OneDrive folder cannot be moved, meaning it’s stuck in the ‘Users’ folder in MacOS. This means that any linked files in our design teams working files (InDesign, Illustrator, After Effects etc) will be broken. Microsoft have stated that this is an OS restriction (might be the case?), however I know that other cloud sync services such as Dropbox/Google Drive can be moved without issue. Furthermore, when setting a unique folder in the OneDrive sync app, there's no error or notice that it doesn't work. When you select a unique folder for OneDrive, it seemingly works without issue, but it's not until later if you go searching for that folder that you'll realise that OneDrive is in it's default location.

Finder search/spotlight doesn’t work for OneDrive files unless you’ve visited that folder already.
Would love to have a discussion on the above points.
- JakeFraserIME
  Copper Contributor
  Apr 18, 2023
  Superb detailed commentary on some of the core issues that I've encountered too. One more to add to this list which I think is important when working with OneDrive at scale is its handling of conflicts. A busy user will see the options and click whichever gets them working again quickly. This is likely within a matter of weeks or months to result in hundreds or thousands of copy files with "-WORKSTATIONNAME" appended to them. There is no way for admins to track this - to my knowledge - nor any way for users to review the duplicates/clashes without it paralysing the main OneDrive sync engine.
  - Ron_LaPedis
    Copper Contributor
    Apr 19, 2023
    JakeFraserIME I am seeing this as well. We're on airplanes all the time and if the Internet drops even for a very short period of time, we now have a handful of files - one from each of us and we need to put them together ourselves.
Ron_LaPedis
Copper Contributor
Mar 10, 2023
I have two Office365 accounts as we are in the process of a merger. I access "Company A" files using one account and "Company B" files using the other -- the same with OneDrive / Sharepoint sharing to employees of A or B.

I have OneDrive installed and running on my Mac for my Company A ID, but cannot add an account for Company B. It fails (displays unintelligible errors) because it wants to put the new OneDrive folder inside CloudStorage using the same name. OneDrive - Company A. I don't see a way to tell OneDrive to use a different name for the second account. Let me know if you want logs.
wtcipher
Copper Contributor
Feb 27, 2023
Ankita Kirti

Also, in synchronizing history, by each file that OneDrive has synched, or is synching, there should be more options to the file, right? Besides opening it (this should be the least possible option for users), the more important thing is to know where this file is located!!!!! Come one, OneDrive, use some intuition of how users are going to use OneDrive!
Learn from Dropbox!!!!
Learn from Dropbox!!!!
Learn from Dropbox!!!!
Learn from Dropbox!!!!
Learn from Dropbox!!!!
Learn from Dropbox!!!!
wtcipher
Copper Contributor
Feb 27, 2023
Ankita Kirti

Working on OneDrive is simply a nightmare! Why must you create a copy inside ~/Library/CloudStorage/ anyway? Can't you make it simpler as it could be? I would never choose OneDrive if it were our institution that only allows OneDrive as the sole cloud storage plan. Can you just learn from Dropbox, keep it as simple as it can, with a folder simply synchronized between local drive and the cloud?

Also, it is EXTREMELY unprofessional to mandatorily name the folder to be OneDrive - XXX, with space and dash in there! Please, remove the space, and let us choose what we want to name the OneDrive folder, please, please, please!!!!

Then, since I have the unlimited quota, I want to have my external hard drive synchronized to OneDrive cloud storage. Guess how many OneDrive-related folders would OneDrive create for me? THREE!!! There is 1) one inside my external drive, which links to 2) ~/Library/CloudStorage/, and 3) one hidden .ODContainer. Man! Microsoft is really obsessed to get people confused for all those years. Here is a fun read of the instruction:

Using another volume
Sometimes, users choose a path on another volume to set up OneDrive. A typical use case for this happens when a user has a small internal drive on their Mac, but also has a larger external drive attached.
This configuration is still supported in the new Files On-Demand experience if an external drive is selected during the first-run experience. A few things change as a result:
The sync root remains in ~/Library/CloudStorage, on the user’s home volume. As noted above, this path cannot be moved from this location.
The cache path is on the volume that was selected during the first-run experience. This is located in a hidden folder that’s a sibling of the location that was chosen.
This folder begins with the name “.ODContainer”.
A symlink is created from the chosen location to ~/Library/CloudStorage.
For example, if the user selects /Volumes/BigDrive/OneDrive for their OneDrive path:
The sync root will remain in ~/Library/CloudStorage/OneDrive-Personal
The cache path will be set up at /Volumes/BigDrive/.ODContainer-OneDrive
A symlink will link from /Volumes/BigDrive/OneDrive to ~/Library/CloudStorage/OneDrive-Personal
Because the cache path is located on an external drive in this scenario, any pinned content will be stored there and not on the main drive.
The cache path folder is hidden by default. Users should not modify this folder or its contents.

Really? Can you just let us to create our own OneDrive-folder, and just keep everything inside this folder to be synchronized with the cloud copy, regardless of file types, drive types, where this OneDrive-folder is located at? Can't you learn something from Dropbox??? Do you have to make such a simpler idea so complicated????????
Liz_Atems_elisatems
Copper Contributor
Dec 26, 2022
Ankita Kirti
Jack_Nichols
gacarini
Carter_MSFT

Is there any support for a situation where the user's home directory itself is on an external drive? I recently purchased a new MacBook Pro (M1, 2021) with insufficient internal drive space to comfortably hold my personal account, and purchased and set up an external SSD drive to house my home directory. The SSD drive is formatted as an APFS volume. My work account has an existing and quite extensive collection of files on OneDrive. After installing OneDrive and using the default location in my home directory as my OneDrive folder, I find that the directory structure (i.e., all the folders and subfolders) of my OneDrive store is visible locally, but the files themselves are not. They can be viewed online (by right-clicking a folder and selecting View online) but are invisible locally. Downloading all files works in that the pull-down menu shows download progress, and available space on disk decreases, but the files are visible neither via the Finder, nor the command line. If I choose the internal drive for my OneDrive location, the cache is placed inside the .ODcontainer directory as advertised, but the behavior is otherwise exactly the same: only the directory structure is visible locally.

Is my configuration supported or not? If not, are there any plans to support this configuration?
RhettK
Brass Contributor
Nov 22, 2022
Still experiencing regular 100% CPU usage on latest MacOS with Word and OneDrive.
Microsoft, this experience is exceptionally poor. What is being done to fix it?
- pruppert
  Copper Contributor
  Nov 30, 2022
  @Ankita Kirti
  @Jack Nichols
  @gacarini
  @Carter_MSFT
  
  Can any of you weigh in on the high CPU usage for OneDrive on macOS? This has been present at least a year it seems. Please let us know, do you need more info from us? Are you aware of the problem and working on a fix? Please let us know anything.
  
  Creating a small txt file in a OneDrive folder spikes my M2 CPU and makes the bottom of the laptop ≥100º F. This is my post: https://www.reddit.com/r/onedrive/comments/z6kjvc/onedrive_on_macos_high_cpu_and_temp/
  
  Please help! Please communicate!
smkerr
Copper Contributor
Oct 13, 2022
Ankita Kirti

Can someone give an idiot some advice.

Running OneDrive on Mac and thought I understood how it worked but I'm guessing the recent changes have altered things.

I have my files in OneDrive but thought I had them also sync'd to my local OneDrive. Not so sure now.
Can someone explain these icons for me and what I need to know to fully sync between cloud and local.

Also, I am assuming if all my files are in the cloud, then by disconnecting from net, I shouldn't be able to access them?

Thanks
JeremyGuthrie
Copper Contributor
Jul 26, 2022
Ankita Kirtiit really doesn't feel like we're being heard on here. The high CPU problem still exists, just basic edits in PowerPoint and other tools causes OneDrive to go bonkers. It has gotten bad enough that I've coded some scripts with cpulimit just to bat down OneDrive and make my machine usable again.

Can someone please address this forum to talk about what is going on here?

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Files On-Demand for macOS QA

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