OneDrive Client, Files on Demand and Syncing large libraries

dustintadam 

I think you asked two key questions: "Do all 100,000+ files need to all be in the same library? do they have to all be brought down locally?"

Even though cloud storage seems nearly free nowadays documents still need to be organized. They still have a lifecycle. I suspect that it is pretty rare that many groups in a company will need access to 100,000 documents this month or this year. If things are organized then each group only needs to sync a smaller number of current document libraries. Put the old stuff in archive libraries and use the web browser where you can use the SharePoint search.

I can think of almost no cases where people would need to bring down 100,000 files locally. You only need them locally if you aren't connected to the internet and, in today's world, most of us are seldom without internet. And, if you are somewhere where good internet isn't widely available, trying to sync 100,000 files locally is probably a lost cause. 

The thing that gets me most about syncing locally is the security risk. If all these files "must" be synced locally then one would assume they are important. If you have dozens of people syncing all these files to their laptops then there is a good chance that, sooner or later, one will be lost or stolen. Once someone has physical possession of the laptop you have to assume that they will have access to all the files on it. If there is anything sensitive or juicy there you have to be prepared to see it in the news.

There are a few things I found that help:

• I tell our people to always have Files on Demand turned on. It reduces the security risk, network traffic, and CPU usage.
• Turn on Storage Sense. We tend to use the same files over and over again and then work on different ones for a while. With appropriate settings for Storage Sense and Files on Demand turned on you can reduce security risk and still almost always have the files you want local. Besides some people never check their C: Drives and then start having problems when it fills up. 
• Don't use special characters other than - or _ in filenames. At some point you will encounter some application that doesn't like it. I had one person who's OneDrive always said "processing" It turned out he liked to use ~ in filenames and the OneDrive client didn't like that. That can also happen if Windows itself puts a ~temp file in a folder that is synced.