I don't know about those other people, but for me, MS Office is part of the software suite my work requires. We each also get 1TB on OneDrive.
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Microsoft Responds to OneDrive Mac User Criticism Following Decision to Enforce Files On-Demand Feature [Updated]
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I managed to fix this by installing the standalone version on my Macbook Air (mid-2019).
https://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?linkid=823060
It took all day to re-synch after I installed it, but hey ho, my files are back. You need to then click on 'Always Keep on my Device' on each top-level folder.
Oh OK so they made it more awkward to do AND it works poorly
Makes sense, thanks! 👍
As a “services first” company, Microsoft should be embarrassed that all of their applications work differently on every platform (Mac, iPhone, iPad, Windows, web).
For years, Outlook for Mac was and continues to be a half-baked approximation of Outlook for Windows, missing many features that Windows users expect to be available.
OneNote for iPad is missing basic editing features that are in OneNote for Mac, which is missing features that are in OneNote for Windows. OneNote for iPad does not have handwriting recognition while the Windows version does.
Word online does not properly display documents that are formatted with multiple columns.
The only thing that OneNote for iPad, Mac, Windows, and online have in common is the name. Same with Outlook for Mac and Windows. And all other Microsoft applications. It is clear that the different platform teams for each application don't talk to each other. The question is whether they choose not to, or they are forbidden from working together. Is that platform bias or total incompetence?
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I agree about that. The way they pushed the update was absolutely awful. I wonder what would have happened if there were local files which were still in the queue to be uploaded...
For the vast majority of users a cloud storage service is going to be much more secure than their own disk.
Yeah... obviously a file you're keeping on someone else's service is in their hands. If it's THAT important keep a backup.
OMG technology is so scary, get it away!
I can't speak for others... but my anger over this stems from the reality that in corporate America, at least? Microsoft and Windows are the standard, even in "mixed environments" where they allow people to use a Mac.
All of the corporate documents are likely to be hosted on a SharePoint server, which is entwined with OneDrive. (When you visit the SharePoint site on the web and you want to work with shared files and folders available there? They have a "sync" button you click which causes OneDrive to sync them so they're directly accessible from your computer like any other content.)
Even if the company doesn't use SharePoint (which is Microsoft's "way forward" they're pushing companies to do, vs traditional share drives you connect to)? The business probably purchases Office 365 subscriptions for everyone, keeping the software unified between the Mac and the Windows users there. They're not going to buy a duplication of a cloud storage option for the Mac people when OneDrive comes free as part of the O365 bundle.
So given that, there's a good reason for a Mac user to complain if Microsoft doesn't get it right on their platform!
I find all the reverse concern trolling strange.
This is really simple.
1. If you have the space for it, having a local copy is good. It's not a backup, but it's better than no backup.
2. It's nice to have everything local by default so you can work/play/whatever if you don't have internet.
3. Having all of my files suddenly switch to "on demand" without telling me kind of sucked. Luckily I wasn't trying to work on a plane or a remote site when it happened.
This is really simple.
1. If you have the space for it, having a local copy is good. It's not a backup, but it's better than no backup.
2. It's nice to have everything local by default so you can work/play/whatever if you don't have internet.
3. Having all of my files suddenly switch to "on demand" without telling me kind of sucked. Luckily I wasn't trying to work on a plane or a remote site when it happened.
I'm sorry but you don't seem to understand how FoD works or what's it for. Or cloud storage, in general, for that matter.
The option to turn it off is nice, but pleaase don't tell me to NEVER use FoD. Really? How? Why? Should I sync my 700 GB data on ALL my devices, all the time? Even on my phone? I don't even have that much space on the MAJORITY of my devices. Come back to Earth, dude.
I'm sorry but YOU don't seem to understand that OneDrive/Dropbox/Google drive offered something that was called "SELECTIVE SYNC" aka "Files on Demand when I WANT THEM".
As a creative, I also have 700GB of data "in the cloud" and use Selective sync to download ONLY the active projects on my local HDD, even better I only sync the last 2-3 projects on my travel laptop since that's all I need.
With the new files on demand if I don't use the files on a particular project for a specific time, OneDrive (Same as iCloud) will decide for me - and "move" them on the cloud. That's not what I want and NEVER want to have. Regarding the magical "Always Keep on This Device" that was introduced to fix this issue: It DOES NOT WORK how you think it works.
I quote from the Microsoft blog post update: " If you pin a file, it will download to the cache path only, and will show both the checkbox and "not downloaded" state icons. This is because the file is dataless in the sync root but exists as a full file in the cache path. However, if you pin a file and also double-click it to open it, we will bring it into your sync root, so there are two copies, one in each location." I'm no tech expert ... but that does not seem like a good solution...
I might have a client that only wants changes every couple of months but is paying me a retainer. I will keep the files locally so I'm able to make the changes quickly and effortlessly without having to "get the files on-demand" only when they want some changes.
What most users that say FOD is fine don't get, is file size: a PSD can be anywhere from 1MB to 2GB. A project can be from 1GB to 100GB. When you take into account that a PSD can have linked files (aka dependencies) you start to understand why I and other creatives NEED the files to always be local first / cloud second AND have the ability to decide when you want to "archive" a specific file to be could first. Most users that are complaining about this have mentioned similar workflows for video/audio/graphic editing
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I am using pCloud. It is kind of good. They brought a file search that made it a lot better than it was before. The thing I just don't like is that the files aren't indexed for a local search so files cannot be searched with Spotlight. They are saying that "it's impossible" but at the same time Dropbox is offering that. With Dropbox I just don't like the idea paying 120 euros a year for that fun.
I have used cloud storage from before Dropbox existed, so don’t go around making groundless accusations.
Sure, I don’t have all my files on all my devices. But I have at least one device with all my files. But how many non-technical users will ensure that’s the case? Does OneDrive/Dropbox suggest to users that they should have at least one device with all their files? Of course not, they push files on demand not for the benefit of their users, but for their bottom line to make it impossible for users to ever cancel their subscription.
Woah man, ok, fine you got your sadistic pleasure out of this.
But what riddles me is why someone spend inordinate amounts of time, stress, effort, create/setup/verify/login an account, to comment and hate on: a company or a product of a company or against the users of a product/device that he doesn’t care about, will never buy and will never use.
I for sure don’t go hopping and jumping through forums, Reddits, tweets, chats or emailing on Microsoft, AMD, Dell, NVidia, HP, Lenovo, Samnsung sites or the alluded services here like OneDrive, Dropbox, GoogleDrive et al sites talking about how much I dislike each and every single one of their services and how much I dislike their user base.
One point for you, I’m incredibly envious of that infinite amount of free time that some people seem to have.
EDIT: besides, it is Microsoft the one that decided to offer said service. I like the fact that they act as a software company offering their solutions to anybody that shows interest. Also, they have nothing to win by just sitting idle leaving all the market share to Dropbox, GoogleDrive and iCloud too easily.
Just gotta fix that file on demand not so on demand for those that need it. And I do like the fact that all goes through an unified system level API. It shall get fixed and tuned. No big deal.
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This has been an atrocious update that cannot be reversed or downgraded. I travel regularly and have 650Gb and 300k files from customers and projects that I MUST have access to at all times, and be able to Index and Search (impossible with cloud files. Yes, I'm a heavy user.
I have however found a slight 'fix' to this 'offline' debacle. I first did this - 'open a Terminal window and type "ls - alR ~/OneDrive" (or the path to your OneDrive)' and then clicked the Cloud icon of the folder to fix. Then in Finder sitting at an unexpanded OneDrive root folder, press Option/Right Arrow. This fully expands the subfolder tree, and this initially seemed to 'work', in that after a number of hours I finally I got an accurate folder total size.
The only issue - files subsequently copied into the folder are reverted back to 'On Demand'. It seems this is in fact intended behaviour by Microsoft. So no real fix at all.
I well recall when Apple gave the middle finger to Pro a few years back users its Mac range slipped to single figures, my close friend took direct part in subsequent QA discussions and Apple reversed course. My IT company in Melb. AU sold almost 10yrs ago had well over 4k SMB and Mid customers over 25yrs and it's people like those on this forum and I who are the influencers of many - I've been inundated with queries and so far I'm saying sit tight.
That said, I've watched closely the replies above from MS Team @Ankita Kirti @Jack Nichols @gacarini @Carter_MSFT and it seems there is silence on whether 'On Demand' is here to stay, and local or offline files gone. I sincerely hope that's not the case, however if it is then this is moving into Class Action territory and/or Consequential Damages for any prolonged outage or God forbid if data is lost. Not me, but I can fore-see where this might go.
I get it that MS want sticky customers, who doesn't - but this is not the way to do it.!!!
Taking away MY RIGHT to use and backup MY DATA on MY DEVICES is egregious and unconscionable, and arrogant beyond belief.
I have however found a slight 'fix' to this 'offline' debacle. I first did this - 'open a Terminal window and type "ls - alR ~/OneDrive" (or the path to your OneDrive)' and then clicked the Cloud icon of the folder to fix. Then in Finder sitting at an unexpanded OneDrive root folder, press Option/Right Arrow. This fully expands the subfolder tree, and this initially seemed to 'work', in that after a number of hours I finally I got an accurate folder total size.
The only issue - files subsequently copied into the folder are reverted back to 'On Demand'. It seems this is in fact intended behaviour by Microsoft. So no real fix at all.
I well recall when Apple gave the middle finger to Pro a few years back users its Mac range slipped to single figures, my close friend took direct part in subsequent QA discussions and Apple reversed course. My IT company in Melb. AU sold almost 10yrs ago had well over 4k SMB and Mid customers over 25yrs and it's people like those on this forum and I who are the influencers of many - I've been inundated with queries and so far I'm saying sit tight.
That said, I've watched closely the replies above from MS Team @Ankita Kirti @Jack Nichols @gacarini @Carter_MSFT and it seems there is silence on whether 'On Demand' is here to stay, and local or offline files gone. I sincerely hope that's not the case, however if it is then this is moving into Class Action territory and/or Consequential Damages for any prolonged outage or God forbid if data is lost. Not me, but I can fore-see where this might go.
I get it that MS want sticky customers, who doesn't - but this is not the way to do it.!!!
Taking away MY RIGHT to use and backup MY DATA on MY DEVICES is egregious and unconscionable, and arrogant beyond belief.
What hellish situation this sounds like. If there are workarounds like the right clicking on empty space or the terminal commands then this means it is a half baked release.
Definitely punishable territory, companies are getting in the business of handling what can be personal sensible data (from documents and photos backup, which for example Dropbox prompt every single opportunity it gets) to business important files like your case but are taking reckless decisions without asking, explaining or barely giving a fair warning ahead before triggering an update.
“Always on demand”, why would it default to that… really disliking the rollout state of tech: the companies, production pipeline, the devs and everyone involved are not eating their own dog food.
Well, no. They did this on Windows, too. This is their design: to force people to On Demand files. That is the last thing I want out of this service. I moved from DropBox to OneDrive for this purpose, and now they have effectively taken it away. It isn't because of Apple...
But many of us use the service specifically to back up files ON OUR DRIVES because we need the files locally. The cloud is protection; not storage, per se. I have 2TB on my computer and also a local hard drive for a secondary backup. But I travel and have to access my files at all times. This takes that option away.
Files on Demand may be the default on Windows, but -- so far at least -- it can still be turned off. (I think a recent update on another PC I manage did turn it ON, but it was still possible to turn it off.) While I have moved to Macs now, I kept my old PC laptop partly for reasons like this. On the PC I have my entire contents of OneDrive (over 300 gb) downloaded, and am backing it up in two different ways. Did the same thing with OneNote -- I use it extensively but none of the 'apps' have the capability to back up notebooks, and I discovered the hard way that it's too easy to lose a notebook. I kept the old 2016 desktop version of OneNote on my PC precisely because it does have the option to make backups. Obviously, that's not a possibility for everyone, and doesn't solve the problems on the Mac version.
I am not happy with what they've done on the Mac either. The main reason I have used OneDrive is to sync files between several computers, and it has worked for that. But I do want files downloaded, not in the cloud. At least I don't have the workflow problems some have and it's at least workable for me. But Microsoft definitely needs to rethink this.
But it doesnt. You can just select the options to keep folders to always on your device.
That makes sense. I didn't mean to suggest my way of using was the only legitimate way - sorry if I made it sound like that.
In fact, I keep a couple of documents on my laptop at all times because I may use them in places where I don't have access to OneDrive.
In your case, with the larger drive, it makes more sense and is more feasible to keep everything local, too. I "only" have 256 GB because I don't need a lot of my stuff at all times, and everything I don't need urgently, I put on OneDrive or an external SSD. So saving on SSD space when buying the computer was the go to solution to save some money for me 🙈
And missing tons of features - the only feature missing from one.drive is MacOS tags (and in general resource forks - although even Apple isn’t fully supporting them in iCloud).
Great that MS announced to support that in the future.
I think MS is generally doing a good job with their Mac software - the old Balmer style is gone.
that doesn't cause the files to download locally for many of us. you still have to manually open each and every file to get it to download.
The solution Microsoft offers ("Users can do this by browsing to their OneDrive in Finder, changing the view to Icons view, and then right-clicking the blank space between icons and selecting Always Keep on This Device.") doesn't work for files added on other devices. They will not be downloaded until they are opened. And so they will be missed in backups. Microsoft seems to thinks that local backup isn't important.
Microsoft is also committing a common error: default a preference one way and then say most people have chosen that way. Except they haven't--most users don't go into preferences, and are just taking the default, blissfully unaware that Time Machine is missing many of their files.
Microsoft is also committing a common error: default a preference one way and then say most people have chosen that way. Except they haven't--most users don't go into preferences, and are just taking the default, blissfully unaware that Time Machine is missing many of their files.