Problems with Office for iPad

I am having the same problem. I love the apps, but . . .

All show on web on PC, iPad, & iPhone. All show in onedrive apps on PC, iPad, & iPhone. But in Word, Excel, & Powerpoint, most folders and files do not show.

I tried removing all files from onedrive on the PC as one post noted here, but that did not work for me. In fact even less now shows up.

I thought maybe onedrive is just VERY slow in syncing, and it is slow, but I've left the PC on 24/7, & it shows very high traffic, but no difference in Office accessing onedrive.

Any ideas are very welcome, and thanks in advance!


April 5, 2014, 5:11 pm
I have tried several things, but I believe I may have found the solution, at least for me it worked:

I had tried deleting and then reloading all of the folders and files in Onedrive, but that didn't work for me. . .

Then it occurred to me, that given how slow Onedrive is in updating that this might be the solution:

Before, when I deleted and reloaded all of the files, I thought that maybe if they weren't finished syncing, and I tried accessing them from the Office app, that might be why they never showed up, because I tried before it was done. (I'm not sure why that should matter; it seems to me that whenever things sync, they should refresh everywhere, and they did everywhere but in the Office apps).

But anyway, since my last attempt, I hadn't yet opened Excel to see, so I looked there, and everything showed up! Viola! Yesterday, I had tried the deleting everything in Onedrive, then reloading it, and then tried accessing it in Word before it was done syncing: worse than before.

So today, I was able to see everything on Excel which I hadn't tried to access yesterday, and everything was there.

So I said to myself, if I just delete the Word app, then reinstall it, it won't have in its memory that it couldn't find everything, and it will be starting fresh! Could it be?!?!

I tried it, and it worked!!! I have my Onedrive divided into 3 main folders, Accounts, Business, and Personal, and from there several sub folders under them, and many sub-sub folders from there. Granted, it took some time after I tapped on the main folders for it to work, it was working probably for 5 or 10 minutes for each main folder before anything showed, but in each case, everything showed!

Finally!!! I hope this will be helpful for any who may have been experiencing the same problem. Just remember to wait for Onedrive to finally completely finish syncing before trying to access your folders from Word, Excel, or PowerPoint.

If you have already done so, just delete each of the apps, and start again fresh, after everything has finished syncing on your computer, and everything should show up. Remember, that even though it shows up everywhere else, it will not show up in the Office apps unless the syncing process on your computer is completely finished. I set my computer so it would not shut off so I could be sure of this.

I wish you success! I look forward to updates from Microsoft addressing this issue, as well as being able to print, access other cloud providers, (my personal favorite is Box), and hopefully other issues. I love these apps, as we now finally have Office apps that we can use that do not mess up formats, etc.

I liked Pages, but I can't nest folders, which is a huge negative in my mind. I want to be able to set up my own folder system, with EVERYTHING from every app in a given category in that folder, and not have to have a separate folder system for each app.

 

MS Office for iPad apps completely unable to connect to its own cloud

Office for iPad is useless for anything unless you only have a very few folders or files, as, if you have any folders or files at all, it is completely unable to access them.

Don't get me wrong; I love the apps in and of themselves. They are much more capable than any other office apps I have on my iPad, and I have 10-15 office apps I have or have tried. None of them have any problem accessing any of my folders or files in Onedrive. And I'm sure none of them have anything close to the resources Microsoft has. Yet, they can all access any folder or file in Onedrive within seconds.

But not MS Office for iPad! Hours or days later, it's just sitting there repeatedly telling us that they cannot access the server, and to check our internet connection. By the way, I have a Verizon FIOS 30 Mbps connection, that works very well, thank you.

I have been on numerous MS forums, as well as other sources, talked with several MS techs, some of whom hadn't even heard of the problem????, and I find it hard to believe that no one has a clue what to do to resolve the problem. The only ludicrous "solution" we have been given is to delete our folders and files!, as then these incompetent apps might then be able to access a very few folders!!!! I cannot believe that any sane person would suggest that a reasonable solution is to delete our folders and files!!! Perhaps they should delete all of their folders, files and records off there computers and devices! What a foolish thing to suggest!!!

Meanwhile, we're asked to pay $99 a year, with their promise that we can then create, edit, and save documents in these apps, and they are completely unable to deliver on their promise. That smacks of fraud to me, as they are charging us the $99, and giving us nothing in return. In addition, they refuse to reimburse us for our money spent on apps that are clearly not delivering what they promised. If no other office apps were able to do it, I might be able to allow that it was not fraudulent, but all of my other apps are able to access those same folders and files with no problem.

I have filed a formal complaint with the Federal Trade Commission, and I am pursuing other third party solutions. I have also suggested pursuing a class action suite against Microsoft for their lack of action and their refusal to provide reimbursement in this matter. I am open to other possible remedies as well.

 

Not sure if my issue is the same but I'm also having serious issues using my iPad and Macbook air to edit files due to syncing issues with OneDrive.

Sometimes I'm not able to open a file on my iPad even though it is clearly sitting there in Onedrive (I get the server error). Accessing the file on my Macbook air and then returning to my iPad fixed this issue (but wasn't very convenient).

I also repeatedly have the issue where I make changes on the iPad and these changes don't sync to my mac until I make some unrelated change to another folder on my mac which forces onedrive to sync.

Honestly I can't understand why the onedrive app for mac doesn't have a manual sync option. I never feel like I can just grab my iPad and pick up where I left off on my mac and vice versa. Instead I have to sit with both devices in front of me and try various strategies trying to get one or the other device to sync so that I can switch to the other one. It is EXTREMELY FRUSTRATING! Like others have said the actual apps (for iPad) are great and I really love being able to have formatting preserved between my mac and my iPad but the cloud integration truly sucks.

I've already left a review of the iPad app and feedback on Microsoft's onedrive site (twice). Is there any other way us users can get Microsoft to move a bit faster to fix these issues?