SkyDrive Sync Engine Host

Anonymous
2013-10-19T14:50:56+00:00

So far the update to Windows 8.1 has gone very well. I have, however, noticed an issue on ONE of my PCs that's been updated.

The SkyDrive Sync Engine Host process in Task Manager is constantly consuming 12 - 15% of the CPU. Now all of my files that I've chosen to sync have already synced properly. The 'Size' and 'Size on Disk' match for all of the folders I've marked to sync offline.

I've rebooted the PC and, upon restart, the process goes right back in to its CPU consumption.

I will note, that even though the CPU consumption is up, the Network Utilization is not. So it can't be constantly downloading or uploading anything since it's not using the network.

Any ideas as to why this is happening and how I can fix it?

Thanks in advance.

Windows for home | Previous Windows versions | Files, folders, and storage

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  1. Anonymous
    2014-01-22T19:14:51+00:00

    My Problem:

    1. Skydrive was supposedly online only, but over time I eventually wound up with a few mb free on my C drive (32gb surface 2)
    2. I tried to move skydrive to the SD Card. Doing so made this happen.

    I have tried all these suggestions but they did not work for me on Surface 2 RT 8.1. I contacted microsoft support chat through this page and opened a ticket. http://www.microsoft.com/surface/en-ca/support/contact-us/

    What support will ask you to do, and what I did to try and resolve:

    1. Full format/erase/nuke - the full erase option
    2. full windows update after
    3. Immediately relocate SkyDrive to the SD card. The relocate this time actually worked, but the sync engine was still burning through cpu and battery.

    What sucks:

    1. Skydrive Selective sync. Why did they butcher this? Why is there so little information about sync's current status unavailable.
    2. Moving the location is slow and broken. Even on an empty folder.
    3. Sync frequency. Nothing is immediate like dropbox. I can't work on a document on my desktop, then walk away with my tablet feeling confident I can pick up immediately where I left off.

    What you should do:

    1. Chat with support and go through the same garbage I had to, and end up unresolved.
    2. Ask them for a ticket number and request they send it to the skydrive team; whoever that is.
    3. Reference my ticket number 1232076788 and link them to this thread.

    Best of luck

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  2. Anonymous
    2014-01-22T17:07:55+00:00

    Is there a resolution to this issue? Skydrive.exe is eating up CPU time. Stopping it resolves the issue temporarily, but that's not a permanent solution. I use Skydrive to sync my documents, so it needs to run as a background service. Skydrive worked fine under Windows 7. This problem only started when I moved to Windows 8.1.

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  3. Anonymous
    2014-01-16T16:13:01+00:00

    has anyone tried RACoutu's fix above? 

    I moved my SkyDrive location to my SD card (because I only have a 32 Gig SSD on my Windows 8.1 tablet), but the Sync Engine Host now stops and starts every minute or so and it won't download anything to the SD card SkyDrive.

    Just want to be able to have access to my SkyDrive folders offline - can't be too much to ask from Microsoft can it?

    I tried it; it didn't work.

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  4. Anonymous
    2014-01-15T17:03:32+00:00

    has anyone tried RACoutu's fix above? 

    I moved my SkyDrive location to my SD card (because I only have a 32 Gig SSD on my Windows 8.1 tablet), but the Sync Engine Host now stops and starts every minute or so and it won't download anything to the SD card SkyDrive.

    Just want to be able to have access to my SkyDrive folders offline - can't be too much to ask from Microsoft can it?

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  5. Anonymous
    2014-01-05T06:33:25+00:00

    After hours of searching etc. I found the fix or at least for me.

    Go to your "Task Manager" and close both SkyDrive services.

    Next, go to Windows Explorer and navigate to:

    C:\Users%USER%\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Windows\SkyDrive

    Delete the "SkyDrive" folder after backing up your SkyDrive date elsewhere. (just encase.  This is just a settings folder but any corrupted files will go missing after this.

    Do this t all computers using the same account.  Takes a few minutes or so depending on your account size.  It will start with nothing then quickly fill in with all your files from the cloud.

    Note: %USER% is replaced with your windows login; you will recognize I when you get to the user folder area i.e. C:\Users\

    Hope this helps.  :)

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