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Microsoft OneDrive Frustrations

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scouser75

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Original poster
Hi guys,

I've just begun storing my documents on Microsoft OneDrive. I've noticed that if I open a document and make no changes to it at all, the Created and Modified date and time changes to the date and time I opened the document. This is incredibly frustrating as I often need to know what date I actually made any changes to particular documents. Is this normal for OneDrive?
 
I stopped using OneDrive and also Office, its just horrible. It was tolerable on a PC, but its largely unusable on the Mac.

I offloaded all of my docs from OneDrive, and now only use OnlyOffice as a replacement.
 
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maflynn said:
I stopped using OneDrive and also Office, its just horrible. It was tolerable on a PC, but its largely unusable on the Mac.

I offloaded all of my docs from OneDrive, and now only use OnlyOffice as a replacement.
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I sync one (small) folder between my Mac's and Google drive (free) storage only for files that I'm actively referencing or working on.

Office for Mac 2021 (perpetual license that cost $49 and still receives updates) works flawlessly.
 
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edubfromktown said:
I sync one (small) folder between my Mac's and Google drive (free) storage only for files that I'm actively referencing or working on.

Office for Mac 2021 (perpetual license that cost $49 and still receives updates) works flawlessly.
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Could you tell me which save options you have checked on your OneDrive please?
 
Doesn’t do that for me on my iPad if i open a word file from onedrive into word, would only do that if you made edit.

However in word for example, just look at the file version history and that will give you a list of all the versions.
 
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Thanks Steve. If you have a Mac, woukd you mi D me asking you to check on there please?

Also, how do I check version history? I may be doing it the old fashioned way 😂
 
edubfromktown said:
I just setup a folder on my M1 Studio Mac "fluffy docs" (with the most restrictive settings) and I can also see it in Finder on my Pro M3 14" MBP
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Thanks mate. I can see One Drive in Finder it's just the modified date which keeps setting to the date I open the document that's bugging me.

In Word / Settings / Save (I think), which optioned are checked?
 
scouser75 said:
Hi guys,

I've just begun storing my documents on Microsoft OneDrive. I've noticed that if I open a document and make no changes to it at all, the Created and Modified date and time changes to the date and time I opened the document. This is incredibly frustrating as I often need to know what date I actually made any changes to particular documents. Is this normal for OneDrive?
Click to expand...
I personally have replaced OneDrive with ONLYOFFICE DocSpace for editing and storing documents. So far, it has been working very well for me; it is stable and suitable for daily use.
 
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OneDrive has actually caused tangible data loss for me more than once in the past both at work and at home. Also due to a billing screw up, Microsoft actually broke our sub so badly they couldn't fix it. Just while my daughter was finishing her dissertation and needed it.

We have no office or onedrive now. She learned LaTeX and uses that.
 
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My reason for using MS OneDrive is I currently have a full MS subscription till 2030 and it's costing me £11 a year, inclusive of the 1TB of cloud storage.

I fiddled with the Save Settings and switched off the auto save function and now seem to have sorted out the modified date problem.
 
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scouser75 said:
My reason for using MS OneDrive is I currently have a full MS subscription till 2030 and it's costing me £11 a year, inclusive of the 1TB of cloud storage.

I fiddled with the Save Settings and switched off the auto save function and now seem to have sorted out the modified date problem.
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And it's gone pear-shaped again!

Tried everything possible, but the Created and Modified dates automatically change to the date I go into any one document. This absolutely does not work for me at all.
 
Mountain Duck is a much more reliable way of connecting to OneDrive. It uses Apple's File Provider framework, so mounts in ~/Library/Cloud storage/ Make sure you remove all of the MS OneDrive app before connecting with Mountain Duck. Create and modify dates are what you would expect.

But, you will need to pay for MD after a short trial period.
 
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gilby101 said:
Mountain Duck is a much more reliable way of connecting to OneDrive. It uses Apple's File Provider framework, so mounts in ~/Library/Cloud storage/ Make sure you remove all of the MS OneDrive app before connecting with Mountain Duck. Create and modify dates are what you would expect.

But, you will need to pay for MD after a short trial period.
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Thanks for the tip gilby. Alas, as I'm already paying for OneDrive till 2030, really dont fancy paying more for something else.

I have the basic storage on iCloud so tried that out just now and that works fine, so will be using this instead for all the docs where I need to see the Created and Modified dates.
 
Madonepro said:
I find Microsoft 365, in particular Excel, Word and Outlook fine. I don't use OneDrive and save to my iCloud Documents folder.
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I get why people use office, and I'm not knocking it. I was getting more and more frustrated, and the level of usage definitely did not justify the cost of the subscription. I'm baffled by the constant updtes, and needing to have the microsoft update service always running. I felt that was all too intruisive for my liking.

To each his own, and I'm not trying to marginalize your experience, though I'm very happy to be off of office. Only office has its own quirks, don't get me wrong but at least I'm not getting charged annually 🙂
 
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maflynn said:
I get why people use office, and I'm not knocking it. I was getting more and more frustrated, and the level of usage definitely did not justify the cost of the subscription. I'm baffled by the constant updtes, and needing to have the microsoft update service always running. I felt that was all too intruisive for my liking.

To each his own, and I'm not trying to marginalize your experience, though I'm very happy to be off of office. Only office has its own quirks, don't get me wrong but at least I'm not getting charged annually 🙂
Click to expand...

I don't use it a lot, and do question the subscription, and now Apple have effectively done the same thing, albeit it's adobes creative studio and Microsoft 365 combined for Apple. I registered as a student, during my recovery from major surgery, and it's given me the opportunity to get the Creator product for the education price. Very tempted, although it means I'll have to move the few office files I have, to pages etc.
 
Madonepro said:
ow Apple have effectively done the same thing, a
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The apple one is really curious because I don't think out a lot of bang for your buck. I had used numbers and pages over the years and I found them lacking in features, and UX. It was harder to work with larger spreadsheets then excel, and working with complex formulas was painful

It was a nice application for free, but its definitely not worth a monthly fee. I'm happy I bought pixelmator Pro last year. I don't need it that much, and the advertised new features don't do much for me, so I'm happy to stay on the older version
 
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maflynn said:
The apple one is really curious because I don't think out a lot of bang for your buck. I had used numbers and pages over the years and I found them lacking in features, and UX. It was harder to work with larger spreadsheets then excel, and working with complex formulas was painful

It was a nice application for free, but its definitely not worth a monthly fee. I'm happy I bought pixelmator Pro last year. I don't need it that much, and the advertised new features don't do much for me, so I'm happy to stay on the older version
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I'm with you there. I don't do hardly any Spreadsheet stuff. The only file I have, is one I use to keep all the accounts and memberships I have. At $5 a month, compared to $12 for Office, with Final Cut Pro included, and a months trial, I think I'll give it a whirl.
 
Nada Ting said:
It always baffles me why people try to use Microsoft apps on a Mac.
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And why? As I developed the website for a German male chorus I needed all available web browsers for OSX. Microsoft OneDrive works also good. If it made trouble I suggest reset it with the support article from Microsoft. Helped me a lot especially when it refuses to sync files.
 
maflynn said:
needing to have the microsoft update service always running
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That is why I download MS Office apps from the Apple App Store - not from MS. No MS update service. Those from the App Store use the same MS licensing so it is easy to change - just need to make sure you get rid off all the bits and pierces MS installs on your Mac.

maflynn said:
I had used numbers and pages over the years and I found them lacking in features, and UX. It was harder to work with larger spreadsheets then excel, and working with complex formulas was painful
Click to expand...
I agree. Excel is the app which keeps me using Office - Numbers really is pretty limited, cumbersome and slow with anything mildly complicated.

Strangely, I now prefer Pages to Word. Maybe it is down to the simplicity of my word processing needs.
 
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