12.2 Update messed up OneDrive

[mode11]

OneDrive has an irritating habit of stopping syncing, with only a tiny X over the icon in the menubar to tell you this. This seems to be related to being signed out of OD, which happens frequently with my organisation, requiring signing back in using the Authenticator app (and the 'don't ask for 14 days' never works). I've always found Dropbox to be more reliable and faster to sync, but my job gives me a 1TB of OD space, which is a lot more space than I have for my personal Dropbox.

Even if macOS's new File Provider feature is bringing big changes to the way OneDrive works, Microsoft could have handled it much better. For users that have some / all of their OneDrive files locally on their machine, it's ridiculous to give the impression they have been removed and sent to the cloud. At minimum they could have implemented the workarounds that users have had to do, i.e. set such files to have the "Always Keep on This Device" flag, then link them to the relevant files in Group Container? They could even have used the 'copy to Null' trick if it came to that.

If there was space on the user's drive previously, and they had chosen to keep files locally, this should be respected. They can always draw attention to the "Free Up Space" feature, and keep files in the cloud by default for new installations, but shouldn't mess with peoples' work files like this. File syncing needs to be rock solid and conservative.

 

[bhodinut]

I gave up. Spent a morning moving all my files to DropBox. It works predictably. I need to know I have my files when I'm offline. What a mess.

 

[Jeffois]

I’ve abandoned OneDrive for my personal stuff as a direct result of this mess. I found out about Mega from the MR forums, and although it’s only been a week or two, I’m very happy. As soon as I can move my work files, I will.

 

[TEDressing]

OD forces all your files back on your system disk now. (/Users/xxx/Library/CloudStorage/OneDrive-Personal)
I wanted to isolate all my files onto a volume that actually has space on it, rather than chewing up space on my System disk.

I tried making soft links back to my external drive, but it destroys them on start up, and pushes all the files back to the system disk. I like keeping at least one copy off the cloud, and on a personal HD. Now I no longer have the space. I have 900G of space on the drive I actually WANT the files on.

This isn't any good anymore!

 

[gilby101]

I have 900G of space on the drive I actually WANT the files on.

I am now experimenting with GoodSync to synchronise between OneDrive (in the cloud) and a folder on an external disk. I don't need files on demand, so don't need MS's OneDrive app. This may or may not suit your work flow. Downside is that GoodSync consumes more CPU and RAM than MS's OneDrive app, even when idle.

 

[bigboy29]

Microsoft just announced changes to experience here are coming soon:

Updates to Files On-Demand on macOS

Based on your feedback we are releasing updates to Files On-Demand on macOS, that would address most common concerns.

techcommunity.microsoft.com

 

[usagora]

Microsoft just announced changes to experience here are coming soon:

Updates to Files On-Demand on macOS

Based on your feedback we are releasing updates to Files On-Demand on macOS, that would address most common concerns.

techcommunity.microsoft.com

👏🏻👏🏻

 

[MacGizmo]

MS is trying to walk back this massive screw-up by dancing around the real issues and not actually changing much. Honestly, this "problem" was wholly create by MS on purpose in order to lock-in users and it's joke that such a simple little app is causing such a stir.

 

[TEDressing]

I am now experimenting with GoodSync to synchronise between OneDrive (in the cloud) and a folder on an external disk. I don't need files on demand, so don't need MS's OneDrive app. This may or may not suit your work flow. Downside is that GoodSync consumes more CPU and RAM than MS's OneDrive app, even when idle.

I get where you're going with this... similar to the utility rSync that's been around for ages -- pretty sure this doesn't happen real-time but would be a valid way to get the files onto my external drive. (the added bonus of touching them and getting them from the cloud.)

Mac does give you the ability to move your user directory to a different location. Which would include the ~/Library/CloudStorage directory -- I wonder what happens if I move it to my external drive -- will OneDrive be smart enough to say "nope, its on an external location" and not sync to that location.

Since they're not on my Mac anymore, what happens when I decide to cancel my OneDrive service -- and I don't have enough space to put them on my local Home drive, would they just vaporize when I didn't pay my bill?

 

[TEDressing]

👏🏻👏🏻

Had a chance to read this, and looks like they're restoring the functionality that I need (I hope). Saw an update in my Apps for a new OneDrive version (Previously was on 22.012) and now I'm at 22.022 -- oh boy! :-(. But it seems like there may be TWO copies of my data in this solution and STILL taking up space on my Home Drive...

For other with the same problems, reading the comments on the MS Tech Community shared above, are fascinating.

I particularly liked ::

... For that matter, from my lawyer perspective, I can't imagine why some class action lawyer may not want to take up this fiasco as a case - Microsoft unilaterally and without permission deleting files from your computer? Stunning failure. Someone at Microsoft does deserve to get fired for this. It is an epic fail.

 

[sponch]

massive sun problems atm in my organization. Cost me 5 hours today without a solution....🤮

 

[usagora]

Anyone know how to disable this confirmation dialogue every single freaking time you try to delete a file from OneDrive in Finder on macOS? Very annoying! Also annoying is the fact that these files no longer go to the Trash on macOS (as alluded to by virtue of this dialogue) - you have to go to the OneDrive web interface to retrieve them from the recycling bin. Definitely a step backwards in user-friendliness! I want OneDrive to work like it used to - just like any other folder on your Mac except that it was synced to the cloud.

 

[usagora]

Anyone know how to disable this confirmation dialogue every single freaking time you try to delete a file from OneDrive in Finder on macOS? Very annoying! Also annoying is the fact that these files no longer go to the Trash on macOS (as alluded to by virtue of this dialogue) - you have to go to the OneDrive web interface to retrieve them from the recycling bin. Definitely a step backwards in user-friendliness! I want OneDrive to work like it used to - just like any other folder on your Mac except that it was synced to the cloud.

View attachment 1968085

Hey, anyone know how to fix the above annoyance that I asked about the other week? Another annoying thing I've noticed is that in the Spotlight (Command + Space) search results, many of my OneDrive files show the OneDrive icon instead of the standard file-type thumbnail. When this happens, I'm unable to either open the file directly OR "open file location in Finder" by using the Command + Enter/Return shortcut in Spotlight. Doing either has no result. Nothing happens. Anyone know why this is happening?