One drive online files take space on Macbook

Hello,

I have spent the last hour or so reviewing the information on this thread. I have a 2019 Macbook Pro and have recently upgraded my iOS to Big Sur. I cannot figure out for the life of me how to keep my files online-only. I was wondering if anyone can be kind enough to assist me.

Thanks so much,

Andrea

Hi Andrea,

Well, as you have by now read; a lot of users have had a technical problem for the past year or so, caused by a bug in OneDrive. For a couple of users and myself, these problems have been solved with the Big Sur update. I can give you instructions for how it *should* work. If it doesn't work, it may mean the bug is still plaguing your setup.

I'll add screenshots to these instructions. Please note that my OneDrive is set to Dutch, I'll do my best to translate the settings to English (although my translation may differ a bit from the actual English-language version of OneDrive).

To configure files on demand:

Click on the OneDrive icon at the top of your screen, then Help & settings at the bottom of the pop-up and lastly Preferences in the menu that appears ('Voorkeuren' in the screenshot, the second option from above).

In the preferences pane, turn Files on demand on.

Now please note, that every time you open a file, you Mac will download the file at that time. If you go to your OneDrive-files in the Finder, you will see a status icon behind the file. It will either be a) synchronizing with the cloud, b) stored in the cloud only or c) downloaded to your Mac.

In order to change the status of a file: in the Finder, secondary click on the file to open the contextual menu  (you can also select multiple or all of your files and folders at once). At the bottom of the menu, you'll find the options to a) share the file, b) Always keep the files on your device or c) Clear space.

Select the latter to keep the file(s) in the cloud, but remove the downloaded version of if on your hard drive. You will need to do this from time to time to clear hard disk space.

I hope this helps and that OneDrive is working correctly for you!

Erik

Hi all, this thread is the closest I've come to figuring out what is going on with my mac and getting rid of the 70GB+ being taken up by One Drive in Other . I've downloaded Big Sur but can't complete the install because I need an additional 30GB of space. Does any one have any ideas?

FWIW — either after posting here or submitting feedback via the OneDrive app itself (as suggested earlier in this thread by the MS agent), i got two email replies from MS support:

1. The first was instructions on how to Reset the OneDrive App.
2. When I reported back that this did nothing a repsonse that:

I have received your email, we have been receiving users complaining of similar issues and we will research this and get back to you. I will keep you updated soon.

Not sure that much will come from this but hope springs eternal :)

I have just submitted this issue through OneDrive feedback too, and waiting for their reply.

Hi Mirjam,

Thanks for the updates. We did some tests on that but without luck, we could not reproduce the issue you met. Could you tell me how much storage taken by OneDrive is shown in the Manage Storage dialog if you click File Browser? ( Apple->About this Mac->Storage->Manage->File Browser)

I have initiated PM invitation for you, and you could share some screenshots via this link.

Since you mentioned you need to keep some files on the device, we will help you narrow down the issue cause first, before try unlinking OneDrive or Free up storage space.

We appreciate your understanding and patience: )

Best regards,

Oliver

Hi Oliver,

thanks for looking into this. I will send the screenshots through the private link.

The file browser as above reflects 172,3 GB for One Drive. I will include this in a screenshot.

Thanks

Mirjam