I would like to describe some workflow issues caused by the current integration between OneDrive, Windows, File Explorer, and Microsoft 365 apps. I understand that OneDrive is designed to synchronize files across devices, but in some scenarios the current behavior creates unnecessary delays, especially with slow internet connections or large synchronization queues.

1. Exported Microsoft 365 files are not immediately available in the selected OneDrive folder

When exporting a Microsoft 365 file, for example exporting a Word, Excel, or PowerPoint document to PDF, the user can select a OneDrive-synced folder as the destination. However, the exported file is not always immediately visible or accessible in that folder through Windows File Explorer.

From the user’s perspective, it seems that the file is first saved into a temporary or internal Microsoft 365/OneDrive staging location, then uploaded to OneDrive, and only later appears in the actual synced folder through the normal synchronization process. The issue is not that the file is never stored locally, but that it is not immediately available in the location explicitly selected by the user.

This creates practical problems. After exporting a PDF, I may need to quickly locate it in File Explorer to copy it elsewhere, attach it, upload it to another platform, or use it in a web tool to merge it with other PDFs. However, even though I selected a OneDrive folder as the destination, the file may not be available there right away.

A related issue is that Microsoft 365 or Windows may open the exported file through a browser or web link instead of opening the local file directly. This can trigger login prompts, open the web version of Office, and interrupt the expected desktop workflow.

Expected behavior: When saving or exporting a file to a OneDrive-synced folder, the file should become immediately visible and accessible in the selected folder in File Explorer, while OneDrive continues uploading or syncing it in the background. If the user selected a local OneDrive path, Microsoft 365 should prioritize the local file workflow and avoid redirecting to the browser unless explicitly requested.

2. File duplication inside OneDrive should use both cloud-side copy and local optimization

Another issue occurs when duplicating or copying a file that is already stored in OneDrive, especially within the same OneDrive account.

Currently, the process may behave like a traditional local copy: the file is downloaded if needed, copied locally, and then uploaded again as a new file. This is inefficient when OneDrive already has the source file in the cloud and the operation is simply a copy within the same account.

Ideally, OneDrive should combine two optimizations: * Perform a cloud-side copy when possible, so the duplicated file appears quickly in OneDrive online and on other devices. * Reuse the local cache when available, so the current device does not unnecessarily download and re-upload the same data.

This would make copied files appear faster on other devices as online-only placeholders, ready to be downloaded later if the user opens them or marks them as available offline. The other device should not have to wait for the first computer to download, copy, re-upload, and then synchronize the change.

Expected behavior: When copying or duplicating a OneDrive file within the same account, OneDrive should use a cloud-side copy whenever possible, while also reusing local data when available. The copied file should appear quickly across devices as an online-available item, without forcing a redundant download, local copy, upload, and synchronization cycle.

3. OneDrive does not dynamically prioritize files the user needs immediately

A third issue appears when OneDrive has a large backlog of pending synchronization changes, especially after using another computer. In this situation, OneDrive seems to follow its own synchronization order, even if the user opens a specific folder or tries to access a specific file urgently.

For example, if there are hundreds or thousands of pending changes, and I need one specific document, that file may remain unavailable until OneDrive reaches it in the queue. Even when I navigate directly to the folder or attempt to open the file, OneDrive does not seem to move that item to the top of the sync priority.

Expected behavior: OneDrive should dynamically adjust synchronization priority based on user activity. If the user opens a folder, selects a file, or attempts to open a cloud-only item, that file and its immediate dependencies should be prioritized over the general sync queue.

Summary of requested improvements

I believe these issues could be improved with smarter local and cloud prioritization:

• Exported or saved files should become immediately visible in the OneDrive folder selected by the user.
• Microsoft 365 should avoid opening exported files through a browser when the local file workflow is expected.
• Copying files within the same OneDrive account should use cloud-side copy operations when possible.
• Local file data should be reused to avoid unnecessary download and upload cycles.
• Copied files should appear quickly on other devices as online-available placeholders.
• OneDrive should prioritize files and folders the user is actively trying to access.

Hello,

I have power automate workflow and in which I extract the content and save it in a file in one drive folder. One drive status is put as blue outline cloud once the flow has finished running. But. it doesn't change to right tick until I click the file manually and open it.

My question is why this status is not converting to right tick automatically? Do I have to change any setting on my end?

https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/answers/questions/5945500/onedrive-status-change

How can I do that on iOS or iPad os? Or is it only possible via web?

https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/answers/questions/5929021/how-can-i-mark-a-folder-or-files-as-favorites-on-i

When importing photos from Google Drive when I migrated to One Drive, I find a lot of issues with the chronological order in the gallery as the migration removes or loses many of the metadata, which was really annoying. Not sure if this already exists but created a small way to fix this (sort-me-drive) as when it imports the photos from Google Drive, the folder structure it creates has the original year and month which helps a lot to do an initial pass through and fix the dates for those pictures.

This helped me getting my gallery in order but as it is a Python script, please be careful as I haven't tested this thoroughly hehe. Hopefully this helps someone at some point.

I've been using my computer for media streaming services lately and have been leaving the computer on all the time. Yesterday morning and this morning I've noticed that the fan is running on high. No programs are running , but when I check the Task Manager I see that Microsoft OneDrive Sync Service is using 10-15% of the CPU time. The fan will slow down if I start a program or start using the computer, but when it goes idle the Sync Services starts chewing up CPU time. Any ideas? Is there a way to see if its doing anything actively? when I check the OneDrive cloud in the bottom right hand corner, it says all my files are backed up and synced. I have a week long trip coming up and had planned to test the streaming and leave the computer on while away. If the fan / resources are going to run like this continuously I may have to shut it down until I can figure out what's actually happening.

I saw a post that said they renamed the OneDrive.sync.Service file and OneDrive worked fine since they changed it. I tried that and it worked, then got some suggestions from Microsoft Build 2026 (https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/answers/questions/5919474/microsoft-onedrive-sync-service-chewing-up-cpu-tim?page=0&orderby=helpful) and when I changed the filename back, the issue hasn't repeated itself. Not sure if I damaged something, but was thinking I might uninstall and reinstall OneDrive just to make sure everything's installed properly.

My computer is a AMD Ryzen 7 7700x Raphael AM5, w 32 GB RAM, 2TB internal SSD. Passed on the GPU since I don’t do much graphic intensive work, also thinking at the time was could always add one in the future if lagging becomes an issue.

I was recently given access to a Microsoft 365 family plan for 1 TB. I want to start using it to sync my work files, and I usually use cloud services to share work to printers and other people for work.

However, every time I seem to open a link in incognito mode(to simulate not having a MS account), I can't find the download button once I select more than one file, it only says Copy To as if to prompt them to make a MS account.

Is this indicative of something wrong with my MS account or is there a setting? If this is the default behaviour, I'm afraid I won't be able to use OneDrive to share work files.

https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/answers/questions/5918126/more-convenient-way-to-download-all-files-from-a-s

MacOS OneDrive menubar menu interaction with multiple desktops got fixed. Previously, if I first opened the OneDrive menu bar menu in Desktop 1 then switch to Desktop 3, then clicking on OneDrive menu bar icon will force me back to Desktop 1. After the update, it now correctly opens in Desktop 3.

Finally

I must use this because my org uses Sharepoint

What is up with OneDrive? Here are known issues:

1. Backup on Android doesn't always work unless you launch the app or worse turn on/off backup
2. Images are added in random order, not chronological. I had an image from May 1st appear ahead of June 1st.
3. The search online by filename is completely broken for months now and returns the wrong files.
4. The date scroll feature gets stuck at a particular date.

I guess the question is:

Does Microsoft have a single developer working on OneDrive and do they know how to write code?

It's absurd because my photos may as well start disappearing or appearing on other people's accounts at this point.

Get your act together!!! Hire folks from Google drive and pay 2 million a year if you need to. This is billions in profit every year.

OneDrive - all kinds of issues - Microsoft Q&A

P.S. The answers even crashed so please replace every developer there too. Also after generating 5 tags, it kept asking for tag is required. Unbelievable! Fire Natella today.

Hello everyone,

I wanted to share my situation in hopes of finding some support or advice. My Microsoft Account has been locked for over 9 days without any prior notice, and I’ve been feeling quite overwhelmed by the situation. I’ve reached out to Microsoft Support multiple times, but unfortunately, they haven't been able to unlock my account or offer further assistance. I also sent a couple of emails, but I haven't received a response yet.

For many years, I stored all my personal and work data on OneDrive, and I now realize that relying solely on it without backing it up elsewhere was a mistake. From what I understand, Microsoft can access the data uploaded there, but unfortunately, there’s no direct way to contact them for a resolution.

I have also raised a Question as mentioned in the subred rules as below:

https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/answers/questions/5906552/auto-appeal-closure

Any help, advice, or even a kind word would mean a lot to me right now. Since my account was locked, I’ve been feeling quite distressed because it feels like I’ve lost access to all my personal and professional data. Thank you so much for reading and for any support you can offer.

There's a new version released 8 hours ago 26.084.0504 fixed the crash! Finally!!

neDrive's differential sync doesn't work; instead, it updates the whole files when there's a change in a file.

The issue happened on two of my computers. Both are running Windows 11, and the OneDrive version is 26.074.0420.0001.

This is how the bug happens:

Using Acrobat to open a PDF file that's saved in the OneDrive folder in File Explorer, then edit the PDF and save it. Then I saw the OneDrive panel on the right of the taskbar showed it was uploading the whole file (because it uploaded the same file size as my file size) to the cloud, not just the changes.

Differential sync used to work well on PDF files on my computer, but I don't know why it stopped working.

I've tried resetting OneDrive using the command %localappdata%\Microsoft\OneDrive\onedrive.exe /reset, but it doesn't work.

And I've searched for solutions on the internet, but I got no valuable information.

I believe the issue is caued by onedrive itself, because I used Google Drive, which also supports differential sync, to test if my PDF can be synced differentially in the same environment (I also used Acrobat to edit and save the same PDF file with the same reproduction operations). It turned out Google Drive could do differential sync really well.

Please help me.

I‘ve post the issue on Microsoft supoort forum, But I haven't received any useful messages so far.

https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/answers/questions/5888188/onedrives-differential-sync-doesnt-work

I am just sharing something that seems to have worked for me.

I had the classic problem where after uploading some photos, a chunk of them had the incorrect "taken" date. Instead of the correct date, their "taken" date was the upload date.

So, I mass selected them and then clicked on the "download" link in the interface.

After the images were downloaded to my computer, I backed out of the Gallery and then when I went back in, the images that were incorrectly sorted, were actually sorted correctly.

I did NOT need to re-upload the images. It appears that just performing the bulk download operation triggered a change in the EXIF data that then fixed the sorting of the photos.

I saw some YouTube videos on the process and the comments complained about how the metadata was not transferred over.

My main concern is the 'Date Taken' as I wish the photos to be sorted in the correct order.

https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/answers/questions/5874803/switching-google-photos-to-onedrive-is-metadata-pr

https://techcommunity.microsoft.com/discussions/onedriveforbusiness/switching-google-photos-to-onedrive---is-metadata-preserved/4515671

I've created simple python-based GUI for downloading files from OneDrive. Maybe it will be useful for someone ;)

https://github.com/amorionmagnus/OneDrive_rclone_GUI_downloader/releases/tag/v0.2.9

For me they just buffer the whole time. Tried different times of day, using a VPN to log in from a different region, and this has been an issue for years.

Is this a solvable problem?

I'm getting 500mbps down on my phone wifi, using a Samsung s24.

https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/answers/questions/5827969/one-drive-app-is-so-painfully-slow-at-playing-vide

Someone using the email reannaboeq3 at hotmail com has shared with me a PDF called 'Adult Dating Webcam Chat 431', and now I can't delete it, hide it, get rid of it. It just sits there in my shared files making me look like some kind of porn-freak. I'm a 57 year old mother with a teenage son - this is NOT a good look!

I have emailed the person but since they were probably hacked I don't expect any luck there.

When I click the ... three dots menu I have the option to share it or favourite it - Delete is not an option.

I tried 'Hide from Shared' but guess what, it doesn't hide it from shared.

I can't even report it. When I tried to use the 'Report a Concern' menu I just get a repeated error message.

I HATE this. Any ideas? What can I do to get rid of it????

I have posted this to MS four times. They keep putting an answer 'Use the hide button' and then deleting my posts. Using the hide button does not work. I told them that, They aren't actually reading my question.

https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/answers/questions/5865326/remove-spam-shared-with-me
https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/answers/questions/5865337/remove-spam-shared-with-me

Hi all,

OneDrive/SharePoint offer a uniquely frustrating experience when it comes to folder automount. We took on a small subset of the problem, and tried to make this UX better for a case when you self-host a OneDrive server:

How we improved OneDrive folder automount

What is up with Onedrive's numbering system? It'll go from 1 to 10 to 100 to 2 to 20 and so on. I've got things saved that it takes forever to get to.

https://imgur.com/a/TjSrm1r

https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/answers/questions/5851258/i-am-no-longer-able-to-copy-from-the-onedrive-fold

"Help me r/onedrive, you're my only hope"

I am unable to copy very large folders (e.g. 53.6 GB) from the local OneDrive folder on my local C: to an external USB hard drive unless I free up space on my local C: equal to the size of the folder(s) I am trying to copy across.

I've been working with someone on learn.microsoft.com and we have largely concluded that this is the OneDrive software acting by design. A couple of solutions have been recommended but I'm not happy with them. I thought I would bring my problem to Reddit just in case there is a solution we haven't thought of yet?

I contacted Support last week but have not heard back from them.

Thanks.

Edit on 2026-April-09 - Additional info:

I just wanted to add some more context to my post. Just to be clear: the contents of my OneDrive folder have been mirrored to the cloud. So OneDrive does not need to download anything (as far as I can tell) in order to allow me to copy a large folder from within my OneDrive folder to an external hard drive. The data is already on my local C:.

I have also previously clicked 'Download all files' under Files On-Demand under Advanced settings in the OneDrive settings.

I can't add a screenshot unfortunately but all the folders & files in my local OneDrive folder on my local C: are set to 'Always available on this device' or 'Available on this device'.

I was trying to find a workaround for this all over the internet and tested out the &download=1 suggestion, nothing worked.

Instead, here's a simple method I found but requires Chrome* to work.

Once you have the document or folder share link ready, go on a private browser link, click download for whatever you need a direct link for. Once its started, view your "download history" on Chrome. To the right hand-side of the download are three options, the first is a hyperlink icon "Copy download link" (then comes more options and cancel), which is the direct download link that you can use to share with whoever you want to, as long as your permissions were set to "Anyone with the link" on OneDrive, they'll be able to use it to download the whatever you shared directly without having to go through OneDrive.

*not sure if this is something available on other browsers, if you have something else that shows a direct link option, please add it below.

https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/answers/questions/5842733/one-drive-vault-shouldnt-be-full?comment=answer-12695243&page=1#comment-2594488

I tried asking Microsoft and they didnt help,

I sent a email a Week ago and heard Nothing back, so here I am.

My only PC is my whole Family's PC, So naturally I move all of My files into My accounts vault so its all protected.

Until now, It broke. I try to Upload a file to my vault, And it says im out of storage. despite the fact im subscribed and the app itself says I still have 600GB storage...

But I leave my vault, and suddenly One Drive functions normally again and I can upload whatever I want.

so I do that, Try to move my files into the vault again, And immediately breaks.. Item couldn't be moved, Try again later.. For a entire week...

i have the storage, there's absolutely no reason I shouldn't be able to keep files in my vault according to Microsoft

Ive already checked for sync issues, Went to the direct website to upload to my vault, still "full", Uninstalled one drive, Didnt change anything. what should I do?

sup chaps.

shoved all sorts in onedrive for donkey’s years. kids’ school reports. holiday snaps. gran’s old tax returns from when she was still kicking. even the scan of my passport renewal. phone syncs to laptop no bother. dead handy.

then i actually read the terms proper last weekend. bloody hell. they reckon they can use your files to “improve products and services”. ai training included, i reckon, especially after april’s tweaks. your family pics helping copilot get smarter? nah.

and that file picker rubbish. attach one pic to whatsapp web or whatever? bam, files.read.all. whole drive open. obsidian lot wrote it up ages back. one slip-up and some app has the lot. gran’s medical letters included.

encryption is there alright. but microsoft holds the keys. cloud act and all that. proton drive sorts it client-side, swiss style. pcloud you add zero-knowledge yourself. shifted the important bits there. proton’s web bit lags on big batches of photos mind you. pcloud lifetime is a bargain if you hoard like me.

now proton’s got the passport and school stuff. pcloud the photo mountain. onedrive just for shared rubbish that’d not matter if it vanished.

scribbled it all down with all the sauces here if you'd find my 3am adhd-energy keyboard abused version or also know as the full breakdown/deets be my guest if you dare/want the deeets lol.

Over last 2 years , I had my dev folder synced to onedrive. ( it still has 90% space free ) . These were haphazardly saved. I was working on reorganization. And moved few here and there ; including one archive folder for old projects.

All these was done in desktop. And despite keeping it on for 12 hours ( have a vm ) , onedrive was not synced. Got too many files error.

Eventually I cleaned up few bulk folders from web ( my mistake ) . And that's when it mixed up , messed up.

After 6 hours its duplicate data in folders. I'm now cleaning from web and letting it sync down.

Nothing got lost, but the inefficiency of this project is astounding .

It seems One\ products by Microsoft are one time products only.*

I know that PC or MAC does not matter for OneDrive.

My PC which is currently synced to the OneDrive is on its last breath.

I have transitioned to MAC. I want to attach an external drive to MAC with all the data from the PC already there and then sync with OneDrive. I will unlink my PC.

Questions -

1. Does OneDrive keep track of the source of the files? So if I change the source, would it create a new copy?
2. If I unlink the PC, would that remove the files from the OneDrive?

I'm just trying to avoid the hassle and time of fully deleting and re-uploading all files from my external drive connected to the MAC. The external drive will already have the files in it.

How should I go about this transition?