Microsoft OneDrive Blog articles - Thursday, September 12, 2019 at 12:00 PM
Top 5 advantages of syncing your files with OneDrive
To get work done from anywhere, across your devices, you need ubiquitous access
to all your files – online and offline. Business information needs to be up to
date and in reach, without compromise.
Digital natives and mobile professionals expect this. And OneDrive does not
disappoint. OneDrive is the intelligent files app for Microsoft 365—your
conduit to access, share and collaborate on all your files anytime, from
anywhere, and across all your devices.
Let us look at the top 5 benefits when using the OneDrive sync client:
1. Be productive and stay connected
OneDrive enables you to synchronize your content to your PC and Mac so you can
easily and securely access files anytime—even when you are offline.
With OneDrive you can easily sync files to your desktop.
Once you're back online, your new files and edits will sync to OneDrive
automatically. You can view and edit your files, as well as collaborate in
real-time and share files/folders easily and directly from your desktop—without
using a web browser. Also, everyone who has access to these files, will always
have the latest version of the file at hand.
Share and collaborate on your files directly from the desktop.
“Known Folder Move” enables you to easily backup your important Windows
folders like Desktop, Documents and Pictures to OneDrive—ushering in the power
and simplicity of OneDrive to the folders where users have the habit of saving
files, along with the seamless File Explorer experience.
With Known folder move you can back up your important Windows folders like
Desktop, Documents and Pictures.
OneDrive also allows syncing IRM-protected files and supports differential
sync (currently for Office files and rolling out to ALL file types), that saves
time and bandwidth by only syncing parts of files that have changed, rather
than re-uploading the entire file.
All of these scenarios are also supported in virtualized desktop environments
that persist between sessions and non-persistent environments that use
FSLogix<https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/fslogix/overview.>, including Windows
Virtual
Desktop<https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-365/modern-desktop/enterprise/windows-virtual-desktop>.
2. With more files, comes more space
As you create and collaborate on more files and take more photos, do you worry
whether there is enough storage on your device? You shouldn’t have to—OneDrive
has your back!
OneDrive Files On-Demand on PC and Mac helps you access all your files in
OneDrive without having to download all of them and use storage space on your
device. You don’t have to change the way you work, because all your files—even
online-only files—can be seen in File Explorer or Mac Finder.
Easy access to online -only files with Files On-Demand.
With Files On-Demand, you can save space on your device by making files
online-only as well as access files locally by making files and folders to be
always available on your device.
3 states of files : only-online, locally available and always available.
Also, Windows 10 Storage Sense now has the capability to automatically free up
disk space by making older, unused, locally available OneDrive files be
online-only.
Learn more about Files
On-Demand<https://support.office.com/en-us/article/save-disk-space-with-onedrive-files-on-demand-for-windows-10-0e6860d3-d9f3-4971-b321-7092438fb38e>
and Storage
Sense<https://support.office.com/en-us/article/onedrive-files-on-demand-and-storage-sense-for-windows-10-de5faa9a-6108-4be1-87a6-d90688d08a48>.
All of these functionalities are also extended to your shared libraries.
“Shared libraries” are SharePoint document libraries that are connected via
Office 365 Groups and accessible via SharePoint and Microsoft Teams integrated
experiences.
OneDrive sync client now also supports Windows Server 2019 with Files
On-Demand. This allows users running OneDrive in virtual desktop environments
to leverage the power of Files On-Demand.
Files On-Demand in WVD environments.
3. Access beyond your individual files and folders
We see OneDrive as the files app for Microsoft 365 enabling you to access all
your shared content across Microsoft 365, inclusive of SharePoint and Microsoft
Teams, in addition to your individual work files. OneDrive enables you to sync
files and folders from shared libraries that you have access to within your
organization harnessing a ubiquitous and secure productivity experience across
OneDrive and SharePoint.
Sync your shared libraries with OneDrive .
You can also sync files from libraries or folders that have been shared from
other organizations (B2B). This implies, that you can sync content shared not
only by peers within your own organization, but also by partners, customers,
external contractors, suppliers and third-party vendors outside of your
organization that you regularly collaborate with.
Two quick notes for admins on B2B sync-
* Azure Active Directory (AAD) guest accounts play a key role in making B2B
collaboration possible.
* A guest account at one organization links to a member account at another
organization. As a result, a single sign-in to their account enables access to
content from their own organization and from any other organization that have
created guest accounts for them.
Learn more about the B2B sync
requirements<https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/onedrive/b2b-sync>.
4. Monitor your files and sync actions
The OneDrive Activity Center is the hub for all your OneDrive related activity
and can be accessed by right clicking the OneDrive cloud icon in the task bar
on Windows or menu bar on Mac.
Activity center located in the menu bar on Mac.
It shows you the current synchronization status and what files are in the queue
to be uploaded or downloaded.
Activity Center in the task bar on Windows.
Apart from managing various settings for the accounts syncing on your device,
Activity Center also helps you pause sync, and resolve a sync conflict if one
exists. We are introducing in-app resolutions to help you easily fix sync
errors such as when a file or folder name is not supported. You can also
request assistance from Microsoft experts via the “Get help” option as well as
sending us your feedback—all from the Activity Center.
End user settings available in the Activity Center
Earlier this year we introduced the “mass delete prompt” functionality. If you
delete more than 200 synced files at once from your device, the sync client
will notify you to confirm if it was intentional. If it was accidental, you can
tap “Restore Files” to bring them back, otherwise tapping remove will delete
them as usual.
Mass delete prompt .
Lastly, as end users, you will also be notified when you have pending uploads
and your device is shutting down or going into standby.
5. Admins: Customize sync experience with effective policies
As always, we have saved the best for last!
For Windows devices, with a set of GPOs you can allow or block syncing OneDrive
accounts for specific organizations by specifying a list of tenant IDs,
configure the maximum speed at which the OneDrive sync client can upload or
download files as well as balance the performance of different upload tasks on
a computer by specifying the percentage of the computer's upload throughput
that the OneDrive sync client can use to upload files.
For more information on the group policies to control OneDrive sync client
settings refer here<https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/OneDrive/use-group-policy>.
On Mac, you can configure similar policies using the property list (Plist)
files. For more information, refer
The admin center also helps you set rules that will allow you to sync devices
joined to a selected domain(s) as well as block certain file types from being
uploaded.
Admin center helps you block syncing of specific file types and domain joined
PCs
We do realize one blog does not to justice to OneDrive sync client so tune in
next month to read about the power of Windows + OneDrive close integration
along with tips on how you can deploy and configure the sync client.
Learn more and stay engaged
We are excited to launch OneDrive
On-Demand<https://resources.techcommunity.microsoft.com/onedrive-on-demand/#on-demand-webinars>
- a one stop shop for all our current and upcoming podcasts, webinars and
customer stories.
We are very thrilled to showcase the advantages of sync and discuss effective
usage scenarios with you. Join us in the upcoming, related webinar and AMA:
* WEBINAR | If you are interested in learning more, please register for our
upcoming webinar “Syncing up with
OneDrive<https://www.bigmarker.com/onedrive/Syncing-up-with-OneDrive>” on 24th
September 2019 at 9:00 am PT.
* AMA | Participate in our AMA<https://aka.ms/onedriveAMA> on, 24th
September 2019 between 10:00 am – 11:00 am PT to get answers to your questions
directly from the experts.
Till then,
* Install OneDrive for PC<https://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/p/?linkid=844652>
and Mac<https://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?linkid=823060>.
* Take a quick
tour<https://support.office.com/en-us/article/Sync-with-OneDrive-bb89981b-e382-4969-b8fd-d413a90b6db3>
to try out the sync client.
* Check out the related session from our events:
We continue to evolve OneDrive as a place to access, share, and collaborate on
all your files in Office 365, keeping them protected and readily accessible on
all your devices, anywhere.
You can stay up-to-date on all things via the OneDrive
Blog<https://techcommunity.microsoft.com/t5/Microsoft-OneDrive-Blog/bg-p/OneDriveBlog>
and take advantage of end-user training resources on our Office support
center<http://support.office.com/>.
Thank you again for your support of OneDrive. We look forward to your continued
feedback on UserVoice<https://onedrive.uservoice.com/> and hope to connect with
you at Ignite or another upcoming Microsoft or community-led event.
Thanks for your time reading all about OneDrive,
Ankita Kirti – OneDrive | Microsoft
https://techcommunity.microsoft.com/t5/Microsoft-OneDrive-Blog/Top-5-advantages-of-syncing-your-files-with-OneDrive/ba-p/839866
David Goldfield
Assistive Technology Specialist
Feel free to visit my Web site
WWW.DavidGoldfield.info<http://WWW.DavidGoldfield.info>
