OneDrive Mac Setup - Help please!

[Vanillabn]

Hi - I’m new to OneDrive (lifelong Mac user though!!) and am setting it up for a (senior citizen) family member on 2 macs (MacBook Air and 2013 iMac - both updated to Catalina). The only app/purpose being used with it is Word Documents (Office 365 Personal - just bought).

The iMac is not used much now, and the MacBook Air (MBA) is being made the primary device in this upgrade. I’ve always had daily time machine backups happening on the iMac up till now as the files have always resided on it. I’ve moved (literally) the iMac files to OneDrive, and the iMac sees the Word files as On-Demand (green transparent checkmark circle) in OneDrive. This user will be using the local upgraded 365 Word app, not the browser interface as that is their comfort level. Hard drive space on either device is not an issue - tons of space. The docs need to be available if internet goes out (Again, comfort level).

I will be updating and setting up the MBA OneDrive in a few weeks to match, but I can’t help but worry about not having my own local backup strategy for them As well.

Any advice or ideas (or reassurance! 😫), and what the OneDrive setup should be on the MBA to play well with the iMac on OneDrive?? Need a smart plan. If a backup is suggested, keep in mind it’s a laptop.

Thanks for any ideas! 😊
(stay well!)

 

[theSeb]

In OneDrive preferences click Turn off files on demand. Go have a beer.

OneDrive with Office365 personal stores 25 version of a file, so you are good for backups. However, it's a good idea to have separate backups of the whole computer anyway and that's where the apple time machine would probably have been ideal for this person running in the background, but Apple stopped selling those in 2018. You can get a cheap NAS as an alternative and have it running away in the corner of the room. Both devices can then use it as a time machine backup wirelessly. First backup will takes a long time though. Having said that... if the computers are really only for Office 365 documents, then you don't even need the time machine backup.

Not sure what you mean about what set up / plan you should have on the MBA to play well with the iMac? You install office 365 on the MBA, enter the credentials. Go into settings for one drive and click Turn off files on demand. Go have a beer whilst OneDrive downloads all the files.

 

[Vanillabn]

Thank you for your detailed response!
So i think i’ll set the ‘on demand’ to off, as you suggest, on both computers if that works well. That will then make the files ‘there’ to be backed up locally.
The time machine is the built in software, not the capsule. Have had an external drive on the iMac running very well. I’ll have to look at backup possibilities now that the laptop is the main computer - not so convenient unless using a wireless solution to do it. I’ve liked having a local ‘tangible’ full and exact backup.
The ‘playing well’ part was hopes that 365’s sync is reliable in keeping both devices sync’d exactly.

i like your plan because it includes 2 beers, eh!

thanks again!

 

[theSeb]

Yes, I swear I typed time capsule, but apparently not.

OneDrive sync works perfectly well and in sensible ways. I use it on multiple Macs and a Windows PC. The only time you will have an "issue" with sync is if you make changes to a document and you don't notice that you are not online, or oneDrive is not running for some reason. Then you forget about those changes and make changes to that document on another computer. Now when you connect the first computer to the Internet OneDrive will throw a sync error and this will be shown on the top asking you how to resolve the problem. It's all really easy to use.

 

[Vanillabn]

Amazing! Thank you so much. The only reason her computer will ever be offline is if the wifi or power actually go out, in which case it should just pick up again on its own when resolved.
Thanks! 😊