How to disable Files On-Demand in OneDrive MacOS? It's enforced since the last update ...

Anonymous
2022-01-27T12:43:10+00:00

For OneDrive home and business, I cannot disable Files-On-Demand since the last update. This is crucial, I need full access to my files at all time.

What is going on? Why would you enforce Files On-Demand on your customers, isn't it enough to enable it by default? My 70GB of cloud data is not local anymore, sometimes I have no internet, you are locking me away from my files. Also making it impossible for me to do full text searches. Files On-Demand is also too slow, waiting a second to display folder contents is too much when you organize things in deep folder structures.

How I can disable Files On-Demand? Will you please stop knowing the best for your customers? We aren't toddlers. Thanks!

If Files On-Demand is enforced by policy, I will leave your cloud service once and for all.

Microsoft 365 and Office | OneDrive | For business | MacOS

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  1. Anonymous
    2022-01-27T13:20:10+00:00

    Hi,

    Thanks for posting in our community.

    Based on the detailed description, we do understand the inconveniences it caused on your side with the latest updates in OneDrive for Mac desktop app that Files On-Demand will be enabled automatically. Kindly check the statement in the official article: Save disk space with OneDrive Files On-Demand for Mac (microsoft.com)

    For the possible workaround currently, it is suggested to right-click on the offline-needed files/folders and select 'Always keep on this device'.

    For this updated setting, we do understand that it would be better if there have another button/option to turn off the Files On-Demand feature instead of selecting all files/folders manually. As forum engineers here have limited resources to the building of OneDrive apps, kindly submit your feedback to the related OneDrive for Mac product team so that they can get informed that this can cause some inconveniences for users who need files locally when offline. See: How do I give feedback on Microsoft Office?

    Your understanding is highly appreciated and hope a nice day for you!!

    Best Regards,

    Mia

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  2. Anonymous
    2022-01-27T14:43:09+00:00

    Total nonsense. Obviously, no-one at Microsoft understands that we are not all interested in a cloud-based solution. I need my files on my hard drive, not three steps away on a remote server.

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  3. Anonymous
    2022-01-27T18:50:15+00:00

    Selecting "Always Keep on This Device" does nothing.

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  4. Anonymous
    2022-01-27T19:07:26+00:00

    Same experience. Selecting "always keep on this device" doesn't help at all. I still need to open each file to force it to sync.

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  5. Anonymous
    2022-01-27T23:42:34+00:00

    You could have asked instead of just deleting everything so I have to download all of my files again. So angry at Microsoft over this. Returning my files to local has been a gigantic pain in the rear end. I have far better things to do than to painstakingly select each folder and choose "always keep on this device". The proposed solution of doing this on the root doesn't work. If I select this option for more than a couple of folders, I am greeted with a Finder error citing "cannot communicate with the helper" (below). I've been working on this for hours and it appears I have several hours to go. Already provided feedback via the option on OneDrive. Bad form, Microsoft.

    Image

    Also now finding that some files refuse to download or open correctly in the default application. Take for example this message I receive several minutes after attempting to open a PDF in Preview:

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