This browser is no longer supported.
Upgrade to Microsoft Edge to take advantage of the latest features, security updates, and technical support.
![](data:image/svg+xml, %3Csvg xmlns='http://www.w3.org/2000/svg' height='64' class='font-weight-bold' style='font: 600 30.11764705882353px "SegoeUI", Arial' width='64'%3E%3Ccircle fill='hsl(128, 8%, 22%)' cx='32' cy='32' r='32' /%3E%3Ctext x='50%25' y='55%25' dominant-baseline='middle' text-anchor='middle' fill='%23FFF' %3EA%3C/text%3E%3C/svg%3E)
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.
A Microsoft file hosting and synchronization service.
Locked Question. This question was migrated from the Microsoft Support Community. You can vote on whether it's helpful, but you can't add comments or replies or follow the question.
It's incredible, I have a MAMP server with all the pages stored in OneDrive, and now OneDrive decides to delete all my files and MAMP doesn't work anymore. The "Always keep on this device" option does nothing. This is a major screw-up. I really need Microsoft to revert this ASAP, this is unacceptable.
Mia, I would like to add that I have NO NEED to save space on my SSD. I paid for lots of local storage for a reason. I have super fast internet, but no wish to re-live the old days when a folder needed to "load" to show the contents. With 'pinned' files, Finder still can't preview them, not to mention that the "always keep on this device" is flimsy and doesn't work.
Now I have to spend the following weeks not only fixing my own problems with this, but also explain to my wife, parents and in-laws why their "OneDrive" favourite folder is gone, why it takes forever to load a file, and then to instruct them on why these problems exist and also moving their data to a new cloud service.
Hi Mia. This needs to be escalated within Microsoft. It is is simply extraordinary that this has happened without any warning. The update has deleted my files stored on my local drive. In what universe can anyone at Microsoft consider that that is appropriate? It is a quite extraordinary interference with my personal data. I have to have locally stored and searchable files. I am trying the "workaround" you suggest above; but why are you in a position where Microsoft needs to suggest a "workaround" to a problem that didn't exist before the update in relation to a service - locally stored and synced files - which has been a fundamental and basic part of cloud storage solutions for years?!!! Many thanks John
A couple things: On my Mac, right clicking a folder and selecting "Always Keep on This Device" did not work, but when I clicked the little gray cloud icon to the right of each folder the "download" was almost instantaneous.
It was so fast that I suspect my files were actually on my computer the whole time and "downloading" just updated the "pointers" to my files in the OneDrive folder while the actual files are in the "cache" folder.
The "cache" folder is here: /Users/My_Name/Library/Group Containers/UBF8T346G9.OneDriveStandaloneSuite/OneDrive.noindex/OneDrive
To make things even stranger, there seems to be "clone" files in /Users/My_Name/Library/CloudStorage/OneDrive-Personal This folder appears to be symlinked to the original OneDrive folder location.
If I delete a file in the "cache" folder its "clone" is simultaneously deleted in OneDrive-Personal (and the symlinked OneDrive folder).
The delete functionality is "normal' in the "cache" folder as deleted files will go to the Trash, but if a file is deleted in OneDrive-Personal, there's a warning that the item will be deleted immediately with no undo. The file can be restored from the OneDrive online Recycle Bin.
Grrr.... OneDrive on Mac has always been crappy (drains the battery and so on) but the last few months It worked smoothly.
Until today when I got this bad update.
Selecting folders and choose 'always keep on this device' does not work.
The most annoying thing is the time it takes to open folders. I have a 2021 iMac 27, 10-core intel i9 and I have the feeling I'm working on a 15 year old Windows........
I think I will finaly say goodbye to OneDrive and switch to dropbox.....