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Back in June of 2024, Neowin was alerted of a OneDrive bug by one of our readers, TReKiE, about a strange OneDrive-related problem where shared folders were found turning into internet shortcut links. TReKiE, in their news tip, had expressed their annoyance, as well as that of some of the others who were also affected by the problem. They said: Following our report, the next month, we had an update on the situation that Microsoft had been aware of the issue and was working on it. It apparently had something to do with "internal error affecting data synchronization." It has nearly been ten months with no fix in sight still for the issue. However, Microsoft finally has another update on it thanks to a response from the Microsoft OneDrive product group, and it is supposedly due to a backend migration issue that the tech giant is currently still performing. However, it does not give any specific clue as to when this migration phase will be completed, though Microsoft is trying to "speed things up": The message reads: Please keep in mind that the above response was originally in German and has been Google-translated into English. The response was obtained by a reader on the German media outlet Dr Windows' forum. Source: Dr Windows forum Source Hope you enjoyed this news post. Thank you for appreciating my time and effort posting news every day for many years. News posts... 2023: 5,800+ | 2024: 5,700+ | 2025 (till end of February): 874 RIP Matrix | Farewell my friend

Do you remember the times when the Microsoft 365 subscription (then Office 365) allowed you to have unlimited storage in OneDrive? Ah, good times, which are now sadly gone due to people abusing the system and uploading tens of terabytes of data to Microsoft's cloud. These days, OneDrive lets you have no more than 2 TB of storage per account. If you store a lot of data in OneDrive and you feel like 2 TB is not enough, here is some good news: Microsoft will soon let you have five times more storage space. During its special OneDrive event on October 8, where the company unveiled the latest additions to OneDrive, Microsoft revealed its plans to expand the maximum storage limit in OneDrive. Later this year, OneDrive users will be able to upgrade their cloud storage to 5 TB or even 10 TB. Here is what the official announcement post says about the upcoming change: For now, not much is known about the future upgrade options in OneDrive. Also, Microsoft does not appear to be willing to upgrade the free tier, which still offers a rather puny 5 GB of free storage. Still, the latest update to OneDrive will put it on par with rivals, such as Google Drive and iCloud Drive. Google's cloud storage lets you have up to 5 TB or 10 TB of storage, while Apple's cloud offering has the maximum plan at 12 TB. You can learn more about the latest OneDrive feature and capacity updates in a blog post on the official Tech Community forums. Source RIP Matrix | Farewell my friend Hope you enjoyed this news post. Thank you for appreciating my time and effort posting news every day for many years. 2023: Over 5,800 news posts | 2024 (till end of September): 4,292 news posts

Microsoft has announced new features for OneDrive, its cloud storage solution for consumers and business customers. The upcoming updates are designed to "help you work smarter, stay organized, and relive life's best moments." The company says it supercharged OneDrive to improve its performance, especially when browsing large libraries, filtering documents, and performing other tasks. The built-in search now features more controls, and it can return more results from OneDrive, shared libraries, or files from other customers. Windows users can now have colorful folders in OneDrive inside File Explorer for better file filtering and organization. This feature is now rolling out, and if you have colored folders in OneDrive for the web, you will soon notice the same folders in File Explorer. In addition, Microsoft upgraded the sharing experience, allowing users to see who is working on a specific document in real-time. Microsoft also promises "significant improvements" to the document library experience with "OneDrive's flexibility and speed." These improvements will be available around mid-2025, and the exact details are yet to be revealed. OneDrive for mobile devices is also getting some love from developers. Microsoft announced a redesigned app with improvements that "bring your favorite memories to life." With the updated version, OneDrive focuses on photos, offering quick and easy navigation between albums, people, and favorite photos. The built-in search now better understands natural language, allowing you to search with phrases like "Sophia and her dog on a boat." The updated OneDrive app is now available for Android users, while iOS will get it next month. Additional changes in OneDrive for iOS and Android include the ability to import photos from other services, such as Google Drive, Google Photos, and Dropbox, easier photo sharing with people who do not use OneDrive (you can send full-res images with no need to log in on the other end), improved memories, and more. Another big part of the announcement was Copilot for OneDrive. It is now available to commercial users, and it lets you summarize files, compare several files at once, get answers to questions about specific files, and more. Microsoft promises to give OneDrive users more capabilities in the future. They include the updated photo experience with "AI-powered photo management" on all platforms, not just mobile, Microsoft Design integration, personalized file views, and more. You can find more details about the latest OneDrive improvements in a post on the official Tech Community forums. Source RIP Matrix | Farewell my friend Hope you enjoyed this news post. Thank you for appreciating my time and effort posting news every day for many years. 2023: Over 5,800 news posts | 2024 (till end of September): 4,292 news posts

Microsoft plans to expand the reach of its OneDrive generative AI assistant for people who use OneDrive on the web. This week, the company revealed on its Microsoft 365 Roadmap site that Copilot is scheduled to roll out to OneDrive web users sometime in May. The listing on the Microsoft 365 Roadmap site states: This new feature will require a subscription to Microsoft Copilot for Microsoft 365. In January 2024, the company revealed that Copilot for Microsoft 365 was now generally available for all businesses. The cost of adding Copilot to a Microsoft 365 business plan is $30 a month per person. Microsoft has been paying a lot more attention to its OneDrive cloud storage services in the last few months. In October 2023, the company first announced its plans for "OneDrive 3.0" with a new user interface and features including a new People hub that organizes cloud files based on the people that have shared them with the user. That new design started rolling out for personal users of OneDrive earlier this week, and it will continue through the month of February. Microsoft also rolled out its new OneDrive app for Teams users in December. It includes many of the same new features the company revealed in October, including the People hub, along with the Shared View section, which lets users see any stored file that's been shared by someone else with you, along with the For You hub, which shows off any AI-recommended files you might have stored on your account. Source

In October 2023, Microsoft announced a new version of its OneDrive cloud storage service for Microsoft 365 subscribers. Today, the company revealed a new user interface design for OneDrive for all personal users. In a blog post, Microsoft says the new OneDrive design is made to make it faster to find the files you need to find. It says: One of the new features in this OneDrive design is the People view. Microsoft says: The revamped UI also includes new filters that were made to quickly discover the files you need by their file format (Word, PDF, Excel, etc). OneDrive now has a revamped "add new" button. In addition to being able to upload new files to your OneDrive account, the button can also let you create a new document like a Word file, an Excel spreadsheet and more without having to launch an outside app. You can also view all the commands you can access on a specific file or folder, like Delete, Move To, Download, and more, by clicking on its context menu. Microsoft has just started rolling out the revamped OneDrive experience to users, and it says it should become generally available for all users sometime before the end of February. Source

Microsoft has revealed it will be shutting down a feature available for the consumer version of OneDrive in the very near future. In a blog post, Microsoft says it will soon no longer allow users of its cloud file storage service to upload a file by using a web URL address. Microsoft first added this way to upload files in 2021 and labeled it as a preview feature. It was created as a way to help people who had mobile devices and wanted to upload a remote file to their OneDrive account. However, they may not want to download the file to their device first before uploading it again. Instead, the feature let users send a URL weblink with the file location they wanted to upload to their OneDrive cloud files. OneDrive would directly download the file from that website link. However, Microsoft has revealed that the feature ended up with a low amount of usage, while at the same time also generating high maintenance costs. It added that the URL upload feature did "not align with our vision for OneDrive as a cloud storage service that syncs your files across devices." This feature will no longer be supported in just a few weeks, on March 29, 2024. If you have used this URL feature to upload files to your consumer OneDrive account, those files will still remain in that account. Microsoft launched a new interface design for its OneDrive service for personal users in January. The new UI was designed to cut down on clutter, including adding new filters that were made to quickly discover files that you want to access by different file types. There's also a "add new" button that lets users create a new document in their OneDrive account, like a Word document, without having to launch an outside app. Source

Pretty much like Windows 11, Microsoft tries to find ways to push more users into using OneDrive or upgrading their existing capacity. For example, in January last year, the company decided to test a new alert inside the Settings which would let users know that their cloud storage needed to be upgraded. Later on in the year in November, the tech giant added a dialog box which was essentially Microsoft asking why you needed to close OneDrive if you chose to do so. On the topic of closing OneDrive, Microsoft has quietly published a new support document on its official website that aims to guide users on how they can turn it off. It is noteworthy that The document is a small note that lets users know that they can simply unlink OneDrive if they needed to turn it off. It is a small article that links to a detailed guide Microsoft had published previously. The new support doc says: Interestingly, if you noticed, Microsoft has aimed this article only towards Windows 10 users and the company has seemingly forgotten about the ones on Windows 11. Perhaps the mention latest Windows OS will be added later. The article back-links to a detailed guide titled "Turn off, disable, or uninstall OneDrive". While this support doc itself is not new, Microsoft made a couple of updates to it earlier this year and one of them is massive. First, the company has added a section to highlight a separate section that talks about unlinking OneDrive. The updated section says: Secondly, the page also added that OneDrive can be uninstalled on Windows 11 too, whereas this portion previously only mentioned Windows 10. The section reads: This change could likely be a result of the recent DMA compliance updates that Microsoft announced back in November for the EU. You can find the full guide on this page on Microsoft's official website. Update: This article was published with the misconception that OneDrive could not be uninstalled on Windows 11 prior to the recent changes. However, that's not the case. Regardless, this is still official confirmation from Microsoft that you can indeed uninstall OneDrive on Windows 11 as well, just like on Windows 10. It is possible that Microsoft made this update following the recent changes it has been making to comply with the E.U.'s DMA. We apologize for the oversight! Source

OneDrive users recently noticed that Windows no longer allows closing the OneDrive client without explaining the decision first. The app would gray out the "Quit OneDrive" until you select a reason from a dropdown menu, with available options including "I do not want OneDrive running all the time," "I do not use OneDrive," "I get too many notifications," "I am trying to fix a problem with OneDrive," etc. As expected, this feedback extorsion sparked a heated debate with overwhelmingly negative customer reactions. It did not go past Microsoft unnoticed, forcing the company to perform quick damage control. A Microsoft spokesperson told Tom Warren from The Verge that the feedback request in OneDrive was only available to "a small subset of consumer OneDrive users," and the company had already rolled it back. Indeed, attempting to close the OneDrive client on Windows 10 and 11 shows it no longer asks for feedback, and "Quit OneDrive" is not obstructed. Some users may still dislike how the close button is hidden behind the "Pause sync" dropdown or other "ads" across the operating system, but at least feedback extorsion is now gone. There is no need to install updates or download any files to remove the controversial change in the OneDrive client on Windows. It will clean up automatically the next time you turn on your computer and connect to the Internet. You can try it by right-clicking the OneDrive icon in the notification area and clicking the Settings icon > Pause Syncing > Quit OneDrive. The app will warn you that closing OneDrive will stop syncing changes across devices, but you are free to hit the "Quit OneDrive" button without extra actions. Sadly, Microsoft still bombards Edge users with large amounts of banners and ads, especially when, God forbid, they try to do something outrageous like download another browser. Source

In October. Microsoft officially launched the new Teams app for Windows and Mac. It also announced a major revamp of its OneDrive cloud storage app and services that same month. This week, the company revealed that the new Teams app will be adding a new OneDrive app very soon. In a blog post, Microsoft says the new OneDrive app for the new Teams app will be rolling out later in December and will replace the current Files app. It states: The new OneDrive app in Teams will include some other new features including a new "For you" section with AI-recommended files, a "Shared view" section where you can see any file that's been shared by someone else with you, and a "People view" where you can see the files that have been shared by specific users. There will also be filters for files that have been shared in Teams meetings and of course, there will also be a Favorites filter as well. The older classic Teams app will also be getting the same new file features that the new Teams app will receive this month. However, those features will be added sometime in early 2024, and it will remain labeled as Files in classic Teams rather than OneDrive. There are no updates planned for the Files app on the company's mobile Teams apps. Microsoft will also still allow users to access third-party file storage services in Teams via their own apps. Source

Earlier this month, thanks to a leak, we got the first hints of the potential announcements Microsoft could be making at its upcoming OneDrive event. It was a short clip with a message saying: "See What's Next for OneDrive on Oct. 3". The tech giant confirmed later that it would indeed be holding such an event next month, on the third, and also shared a very brief glimpse of what people could expect at the event. These include "new enhancements to OneDrive, benefits of faster file access, better organization, simpler collaboration, and improved file security across Microsoft 365". And of course, there will be announcements regarding AI-based features as well. While it is possible that Microsoft will reiterate features already available, it does seem like there will be a healthy dose of new stuff too. One of those might be about a new Offline mode for the web that the company is working on at the moment. This option will be a welcome addition since Microsoft 365 services including OneDrive often experience outages, with the most recent one being earlier this month. The Microsoft 365 roadmap has some details on this upcoming feature. The description of it reads: OneDrive: Offline mode This feature will allow you to launch OneDrive in your browser and view, sort, rename, move, copy, delete and files even without internet access. Additionally, for locally stored OneDrive files (those that are marked as “always available offline”) you will be able to open and work on these in your browser even if you are offline. All of the changes you make offline will be automatically synced back when Internet connection is restored. According to the M365 roadmap, the preview version of the OneDrive offline mode will be out in November 2023, with the general availability planned for a month later in December 2023. The feature ID of this is 168618 and it was added earlier today. On a somewhat related note, we do hope Microsoft has plans for something similar for Windows 11 setup too as users require a working internet. However, chances of that might be slim seeing how the company is moving more on more towards a cloud PC future. Source

After a leaked video teaser made its way to the internet this weekend, Microsoft has now confirmed that it will indeed be holding a special online event to focus on the future of the OneDrive cloud storage service. In a post on the official Microsoft OneDrive blog, it reveals that the event will be held on October 3 starting at 1 pm Eastern time (10 am Pacific time). The event will be streamed on Microsoft Teams, and is being promoted with the tagline, "The Future of File Management is Here" The blog post offers some new teasers about what new features will be revealed during the OneDrive event: See the new enhancements to OneDrive and discover the benefits of faster file access, better organization, simpler collaboration, and improved file security across Microsoft 365. Plus, we’ll give a sneak peek at our AI plans which include new search, sharing, and information queries across all your files in OneDrive. The event will feature several Microsoft team members who will speak during the live presentation. They include: Jeff Teper - President, Collaboration Apps & Platform Arwa Tyebkhan - Principal Group Product Manager Gaia Carini - Principal Group Product Manager Jason Moore - VP Product Management Sesha Mani - Partner Group Product Manager Microsoft has already made some changes to OneDrive over the past few months. That included a refreshed look for OneDrive on the web for its education and business customers back in May. Among other things, Microsoft added features like a “For you” area, which uses AI-powered file recommendations in order to bring up files that should be available specifically for each user. Also, members of the Xbox Insider Program are currently able to test out an upcoming feature for owners of the Xbox game console that automatically uploads and stores game clips and screenshots directly to a user's OneDrive cloud storage account. Source

It looks like Microsoft is planning to bring a change in OneDrive storage policies. The new change, which the company states is aimed at “improving your Microsoft 365 experience,” will result in photos uploaded to OneDrive counting twice against the storage quota. An email shared by Dr. Windows says starting October 16, 2023, data from photos saved in your Gallery and in your albums will each count separately against your total Microsoft storage quota. This will result in the same photos taking up twice the storage. For those unaware, Gallery is where all images uploaded to OneDrive end up. However, users also get an optional Albums feature, which may be used to create custom collections of photos and images on the site. For what it’s worth, Microsoft says in the email it is giving customers a one-year storage boost to address the upcoming change that may affect their storage quotas. The email does not specify the size of the storage boost or whether it will be the same for all customers or calculated on an individual basis. However, the extra storage will expire one year after it has been assigned to an account. Although Microsoft didn’t elaborate on this in the email, assigning photos independent storage in albums and the gallery might allow users to keep photos in albums even if they delete them from the gallery and vice versa. Microsoft may have more changes in store for OneDrive. A recent report shared a teaser poster for upcoming OneDrive-related announcements on October 3rd. The company might be planning to give the service an AI makeover since that's what it has been focusing on lately Microsoft's Power Platform Conference will be held in Las Vegas from October 3rd to 5th. It is possible that the October 3rd date could be referring to the conference. (Via Ghacks) Source

Microsoft made a rather strange announcement back in September 2023 regarding storage on its OneDrive cloud service. The company said back then that photos that users put into albums would count twice against that user's OneDrive storage. Albums are an optional feature of OneDrive. Users may create albums to sort photos into them. It is a popular feature, as it allows users to manage their photos better. It was not really clear if Microsoft was storing photos multiple times on OneDrive, which would explain why it made the announcement, or if Microsoft was just trying to increase user sign-ups for paid OneDrive subscriptions. Microsoft promised to give customers a temporary storage boost for a year to avoid that the change would push customers over their limits. After that year, customers would find themselves in the same situation, however, unless they would delete files on OneDrive or photos in albums. Microsoft backs down A support page update confirms that Microsoft has had a change of heart regarding the change. The company writes: "On August 31, 2023, we began to communicate an upcoming update to our cloud storage infrastructure that would result in a change in how OneDrive photos and photo albums data is counted against your overall cloud storage quota. This change was scheduled to start rolling out on October 16, 2023. Based on the feedback we received, we have adjusted our approach, we will no longer roll out this update. We will maintain the current photo album experience, as it is today." To sum it up: Microsoft won't roll out the planned change on OneDrive. Photos that users put into albums won't count against a user's storage on OneDrive. It is still unclear if Microsoft is storing album photos separately, but that is no longer a problem for users of the service. Closing Words Microsoft claims that it changed course because of feedback that it received. It is certainly possible that some customers made the decision to migrate to another cloud storage service, one that would not count individual files multiple times against a user's storage quota. All in all, it is a welcome development for OneDrive users, especially those who use the photo albums feature. Now You: do you store photos online? (via Dr. Windows) Source

Have you ever uploaded a file on a cloud storage service, and then want to access it a few months later, only to take a lot of time finding it? Well, Microsoft thinks it had a solution for its OneDrive service that might work. The Microsoft 365 roadmap (via MSPoweruser) has added an upcoming feature for OneDrive users called Favorites that's due to be added sometime in March. The description of Favorites on the roadmap states: Not all M365 documents are used in the same way. You’ll inevitably have a few that you use every week and some you’ll use occasionally. This is where using Favorites can help you stay organized. Favoriting files is a great way to mark content of personal importance and can help you to get back to the content you’re looking for right away. The Favorites feature will stay consistent with similar features on Microsoft's online services like Document Libraries, on Office.com accounts, and the Files app in Microsoft Teams. Unfortunately, the upcoming OneDrive Favorites feature is being added to the web version of the service, according to the roadmap. Hopefully it will also be added for the OneDrive app for Windows, Mac, and mobile users in the near future. Source: Microsoft via MSPoweruser Microsoft OneDrive on the web will add a Favorites feature in March

OneDrive is a popular cloud storage option, not only because of its competitive pricing, but also because it comes bundled with various Microsoft 365 subscriptions. That said, there is always room for improvement when it comes to software development, and Microsoft is looking to focus on exactly that with its OneDrive service. A recent addition to the Microsoft 365 Roadmap includes Feature ID 117426. This item indicates that Microsoft is working on a more unified OneDrive for web experience. What this means is that rather than just showing you the content you have manually stored on your OneDrive, the web experience will also show files and folders that you have shared across Microsoft 365 apps. This material may include files shared over email, Teams chat, and meetings. There will also be an activity column to show you the updates across all your shared files. Furthermore, in order to simplify the UX a bit, the company will also be offering new filtering pills so you can zero in on the files that you need. This updated experience is expected to hit general availability next month. OneDrive isn't the only Microsoft utility getting updates. In fact, the firm has also updated the Microsoft 365 Roadmap to reveal some upcoming features for Whiteboard. They are listed below: Start new whiteboards with templates (August 2023): This feature will bring templates front and center when creating a new whiteboard. When starting a whiteboard, users will be able to choose from a selection of templates or explore all templates to pre-populate a new whiteboard. Users can also start from suggested templates from a blank whiteboard. Connectors [Line Anchoring] (August 2023): This feature will provide the ability to create more effective flowcharts and diagrams. It will allow you to anchor lines between different shapes, and easily create new shapes and lines off of existing ones. Voting (July 2023): This feature will bring a more formalized voting function to Whiteboard. This can be used in order to gather feedback from participants to come to conclusions during various activities. This will have the ability to be anonymous or not. Existing Azure Board Migration (July 2023): This feature will migrate boards that exist in your tenant's Azure storage to OneDrive for Business storage. More information will follow as we near release. Import ADO/Jira work items (July 2023): Import ADO/Jira work items onto whiteboards to collectively brainstorm and ideate with your colleagues. (Note: The initial release will only provide support for work/school accounts & will allow importing existing work items but neither updating them nor creating new ones). Create Loop tables and task lists (July 2023): Insert new Loop tables and task lists directly into whiteboards and copy/paste them across other Microsoft 365 hosts to coauthor content with others in real-time. Are you looking forward to the new OneDrive for the web experience? Do any upcoming Whiteboard capabilities pique your interest? Let us know in the comments section below! Microsoft is working on a unified OneDrive for web experience, updates for Whiteboard

A group of Outlook users has run into email sending and receiving issues since February 2023. The issue is linked to a change that Microsoft announced some time ago and came into effect on February 1, 2023 in a staged rollout. Basically, what Microsoft did was add Outlook attachments data to the available storage space on OneDrive. The change meant, for some users at last, that they suddenly found that they had exceeded their available storage quota. Microsoft customers who sign-up for a free Microsoft Account get 5 gigabytes of storage space. Grandfathered account may have access to more, for instance 15 gigabytes, the previous limit, or more thanks to certain promotions in the past that rewarded participants with additional permanent storage space. Microsoft confirmed the change on this support page. There, the company notes that "starting February 1, 2023, cloud storage used across Microsoft 365 apps and services will include Outlook.com attachments data and OneDrive data". Consequently, the update "may reduce how much cloud storage you have available to use with your OneDrive". Microsoft customers who go over the capacity will have their ability to send and receive emails in Outlook.com disrupted. Microsoft claims that these changes ensure that it offers "the best experience", without explaining how that change is beneficial to customers. Reports from affected Microsoft customers, here and here, confirm that many have been caught off guard. Some may not have gotten the memo that Outlook data counts against the available cloud storage quota of their Microsoft account. Affected users have only three options to deal with the issue: Buy additional storage space by upgrading to a higher tier OneDrive or Microsoft 365 plan. Remove attachments and other large data from Outlook to free up space and get used storage below the quota. Outlook emails may also be downloaded first to the local system, or archived using Mailstore Home or other email archiving solutions. Switch to another email provider. Microsoft's calculation, probably, is that many customers may not have the desired to go through their emails to remove large attachments to restore the ability to send and receive files. Upgrading to a paid plan resolves the issue immediately. Switching to another email provider is even more complex, as it may require changing email addresses at services and sites, and informing contacts about the change. The web-based version of Outlook has a filter that is useful when it comes to finding emails with attachments. To use it, open the main Outlook website and select Filter > Has Files. This displays only emails with file attachments. There is also a Filters listing, which may be even more useful, as it lists file attachments exclusively. To access it, select the Files icon of the left sidebar in Outlook. Outlook lists all file attachments in a list. Filters are provided to filter by type or date. The one thing that is missing is to filter by size. Closing Words Five gigabytes of email storage is not really much, especially if it is shared with OneDrive. Microsoft has been pushing OneDrive on Windows 10 and 11, and if used, may also use up storage. Cloud is lucrative for companies and many attempt to push these offerings. Microsoft's strategy is to promote its cloud storage service OneDrive and Microsoft 365 in Windows, and to make changes to existing products that impact users negatively. This is done to get a portion of these users to sign-up for paid cloud storage services. Microsoft squeezing Outlook users into buying cloud storage

Microsoft OneDrive allows users to easily store, sync, and share their files in the cloud. While there are several online storage sites available, including Dropbox, Box, Google Drive, and iCloud, only OneDrive is directly integrated into Windows. This allows for easy-to-access file storage and syncing across multiple devices. To use OneDrive, a Microsoft Account is necessary, which can be created through the Microsoft OneDrive website using the link here. Additionally, users must select a storage plan that meets their needs. The free version of OneDrive provides 5GB of OneDrive space. But if you need more cloud space, Microsoft OneDrive's plans are as follows: Basic plan: 100GB of storage for $1.99 per month. Microsoft 365 Personal: 1TB of OneDrive space for $6.99 per month or $69.99 per year. Microsoft 365 Family: Up to six users to have 1TB of space each for $9.99 per month or $99.99 per year. While OneDrive works the same on both Windows 10 and the 22H2 version of Windows 11, released in late 2022, introduced some changes to accessing OneDrive's settings. Nonetheless, Microsoft OneDrive remains a top choice for users seeking reliable and efficient cloud storage and file-sharing capabilities. You need a Microsoft account to use OneDrive- Image courtesy of Microsoft OneDrive Getting started with OneDrive Setting up OneDrive is a straightforward process that is available in both Windows 10 and Windows 11. If you missed the prompt to use OneDrive during the Windows setup process, don't worry. You can still access it by looking for the OneDrive icon in the System Tray. Clicking on the icon will give you access to the service. However, if you don't see the icon, you can manually trigger it by locating the OneDrive exe file in the File Explorer. First, click View > Hidden items. Next, navigate to C:\Users[YourUsername]\AppData\Local\Microsoft\OneDrive\ and double-click on the OneDrive.exe file. This will cause the icon to appear in the System Tray. Once you've accessed OneDrive, you will be prompted to sign in using your Microsoft account email address and password. You will then see a window for Your OneDrive folder, which will point to the default location for your local OneDrive folder. You can either click Change location to pick another destination or click Next to continue using the default location. The folder will then be created if it doesn't already exist. If it does exist, click the Use this folder button. The next steps will vary somewhat based on whether or not you are running the 22H2 update to Windows 11. Review the subsequent screens to complete the initial setup, and you may be prompted to open your OneDrive folder. How to add folders to Microsoft OneDrive? To add folders and files to your OneDrive location in File Explorer, simply select the folders and files you wish to include. For example, if you use a folder called "Powerpoint Documents" for your Microsoft Powerpoint files, move the entire folder into OneDrive. Follow the same steps for any other folders you wish to include in your OneDrive synchronization. You can also create new folders that you want to sync in OneDrive. To set up the folders you want to back up and sync to OneDrive, follow these steps in Windows 10 and prior versions of Windows 11. Click the OneDrive System Tray icon, select Help & Settings > Settings, then choose the Account tab and select Choose folders. Here, you can view all the files and folders stored in your OneDrive folder. If you wish to sync everything stored in your OneDrive folder, click the checkbox for "Make all files available" (or "Sync all files and folders in OneDrive" in Windows 11 22H2). Alternatively, you can select individual folders that you want to sync and uncheck any folders you do not want to sync. Any folders that you leave unchecked will remain on OneDrive but will be removed from your current PC. With these simple steps, you can easily set up and manage your OneDrive folder and sync your important files across all your devices. Adding folders to your OneDrive is simple and straightforward- Image courtesy of Microsoft OneDrive How to backup your files on Microsoft OneDrive? With OneDrive up and running, you can easily use it to back up important folders and files. To do this in Windows 10 and earlier versions of Windows 11, open the OneDrive settings menu and click the Backup tab. From there, you can select to back up your desktop, pictures folder, and documents folder. Simply check the items you wish to back up and click Start backup. Additionally, you can enable options that will automatically upload photos, videos, and screenshots to OneDrive storage. In Windows 11 22H2, select the Sync and backup category and then click the Manage backup button. Turn on the switches for the folders you want to back up, such as Documents, Pictures, and Desktop, and then click Save changes. Syncing your files on OneDrive By default, once your files are uploaded to OneDrive, they are deleted from local storage on your computer. However, the files you decide to remove from local storage will still appear in File Explorer. When you double-click on the icon to access it, the file is downloaded on-the-fly from OneDrive to your computer. You can change this option in Windows 10 and earlier versions of Windows 11 by opening OneDrive settings and clicking on the Settings tab. The Files On-Demand setting to remove your OneDrive files from local storage on your computer should be enabled by default. In Windows 11 22H2, you can access this setting by going to the Sync and backup category and clicking on the drop-down link for Advanced settings. Turn on the switch next to Files On-Demand if it is not already turned on. Your files will be deleted from your PC if you have send them to your OneDrive- Image courtesy of Microsoft OneDrive While this feature can save space on your hard drive, it also means that you will need to be online to access your files. We recommend turning off this option if you have plenty of drive space, but enabling it if you are running low on storage. You can also decide on a case-by-case basis, allowing you to store certain files online only while others are stored both online and locally. To set this up, you can do one of the following: Right-click on a folder or file stored only in the cloud and select "Always keep on this device" to permanently keep the file on your PC Right-click on a folder or file stored locally and select "Free up space" to remove the file from your PC and store it online only. With these options, you can easily manage your storage preferences and keep your most important files accessible at all times OneDrive 101: How to use Microsoft's cloud service?

Major Microsoft OneDrive update will change the way you share your files OneDrive is getting a significant overhaul later this year Microsoft is working on a major upgrade for OneDrive that is set to arrive later this year which will give users greater control over how they share files using the company's cloud storage software. According to four separate posts on the Microsoft 365 Roadmap, the software giant plans to overhaul the sharing experience in OneDrive with new options that will make it easier to share files and manage who has access to them once they've been shared. The first update to OneDrive's sharing experience will come in the form of new options to the service's Share menu that will provide easy access to additional sharing options including email, copy link, Microsoft Teams chat and more. This feature is currently in development and just like with the rest of the new features coming to OneDrive, it will arrive in November of this year. Microsoft is also working on a new “Shared with” list at the bottom of the Share dialog which will give users an at-a-glance view of everyone they've given access to a particular file. Accessing shared files In order to make it easier for users to access files that have been shared with them, Microsoft plans on updating the “Manage Access” experience in OneDrive. Once this update rolls out, users will have access to additional controls that will let them decide how recipients can access shared files. Microsoft will also replace the Copy link button in OneDrive with a footer in its upcoming update. In this footer, users will be able to set permissions for links before copying them to share with recipients. We'll likely hear more on the company's major update to its cloud storage service once we get closer to its release but in the meantime, you can test out the new 64-bit version of OneDrive that offers improved performance and makes it easier to transfer large files due to the fact that it can utilize all of the RAM in your Windows 10 PC. Major Microsoft OneDrive update will change the way you share your files

It appears that Microsoft has started rolling out the redesigned OneDrive app for Windows. It was spotted in July 2022 when an early build leaked to the public. Now the software giant is ready (as it seems) to offer the app to all users (via Dr. Windows). The redesigned OneDrive app features a Windows 11-like user interface and navigation. There are four vertical tabs for managing sync and backup, account, and notification settings. The fourth tab lets you check the current app version and sign up for OneDrive Insider preview updates. Another notable change is the storage indicator in the bottom-left corner, which lets you check your storage limit without navigating to a specific tab. Finally, the app now supports dark and light modes, something the legacy variant has never offered. Apart from the fancy UI and redesigned navigation, the new OneDrive app for Windows does not offer any new features. You can manage your backups, customize download rates, enable or disable files on demand, and more. Of course, OneDrive Settings is not something you visit frequently, but it is still great to see Microsoft giving this part of the operating system a much better-looking and modern user interface. There are no reports of this arriving on Windows 10 as of writing, however Microsoft has yet to announce the rollout of the new OneDrive app for Windows, and we will update the article once we have official information from Microsoft. Have you received the updated OneDrive app on your computer? What do you think about the redesign? Let us know in the comment section. Microsoft is rolling out the redesigned OneDrive app for Windows 11

Microsoft is working on a new OneDrive client for Windows 11. A preview build of the app has leaked, revealing Windows 11-like redesign for the Settings section that has not received major revamps in many years. Besides the new controls, new navigation, and overhauled visuals, the leaked app does not offer any new features. It lets you personalize sync settings, change notification options, add another account, see your storage quota, etc. Microsoft has not announced the new app yet, so the public preview version might look different compared to the leaked. You can try installing it at your own risk using this link (via @flobo09). It is also worth noting that running the leaked version does not guarantee you will get the new design. We tried installing the app on several machines (Dev and Stable channels), with none receiving the eye candy. In case you missed it, Microsoft recently announced stories coming soon to OneDrive, offering users a new way to share their photos. What do you think about the redesigned OneDrive app for Windows? Leaked OneDrive client reveals Windows 11-like redesign

The latest Windows 11 update in the Release Preview Channel continues making the Windows Insider program even more confusing. Besides having a higher build number than Beta, it introduces capabilities unavailable in less stable channels. Those testing Windows 11 updates in the Release Preview Channel (which is supposed to get new features downstream from Dev and Beta and work as the final testing ring before new stuff goes to the general public) can check out new alerts in the Settings app. Microsoft says Windows 11 build 22621.898 (KB5010044) has brought new storage alerts for OneDrive subscribers. The Settings app will start displaying banners on the System page once you get closer to the limit of your OneDrive storage. Those banners conveniently have links that let you buy more space in Microsoft's cloud. Here is how Microsoft describes the latest additions to the Settings app: New! We gave Microsoft OneDrive subscribers storage alerts on the Systems page in the Settings app. The alerts appear when you are close to your storage limit. You can also manage your storage and purchase additional storage, if needed. New! We provided the full amount of storage capacity from all your OneDrive subscriptions. It also displays the total storage on the Accounts page in the Settings app. Besides adding storage alerts, Windows 11 build 22621.898 has introduced the Windows Spotlight theme and a large list of various fixes and minor improvements. You can check out what is new in Windows 11 build 22261.898 in our dedicated article. This is not the first time Microsoft is adding OneDrive-related notifications to Windows 11. The company recently introduced Start menu badges that can push OneDrive "ads" and other notifications. Windows 11's Settings app to start displaying warnings when you run out of OneDrive storage

Microsoft has released emergency out-of-band (OOB) update KB5020953 today to fix the OneDrive crash issue the company recently informed about. Microsoft laid out multiple scenarios under which OneDrive was crashing or closing unexpectedly. This was the second major bug to hit after the October Patch Tuesday released earlier in the month, The first one produced massive network related issues as it was the outcome of TLS/SSL handshake failures. With this OOB update KB5020953, the build numbers have been bumped to 19042.2194, 19043.2194, and 19044.2194. The update is available for Windows 10 versions 20H2, 21H1, 21H2, and 22H2 for both Arm and x86/64. Microsoft has not disclosed exactly how it solved the issue. The changelog for the update only states the following: It addresses an issue that causes Microsoft OneDrive to stop working. This occurs after you unlink your device, stop syncing, or sign out of your account. Since this is an out-of-band release, the update is not available via Windows Update inside Settings. Instead, it must be manually downloaded from the Microsoft Update Catalog website. You can find the update here. Microsoft releases emergency OOB update KB5020953 to fix OneDrive crashing on Windows

Last month, we were tipped about a OneDrive issue by a Neowin reader wherein shared folders were suddenly turning into internet shortcuts. We investigated and found that the issue was fairly widespread with many users across various forums complaining about the bug and they had to do with workarounds. Now on one of the Microsoft forum threads, Mia.H, a moderator and Microsoft Agent, has responded confirming that Microsoft is looking into it. The response is thoroughly detailed and goes into the impact summary, latest update, and current status: You can find the answer in this thread (spotted by Dr. Windows). Hence, if you are one of the users facing this problem, the good news is Microsoft is aware of and is investigating it. Hopefully, the root cause will be identified soon and a fix will be deployed. Source Hope you enjoyed this news post. Thank you for appreciating my time and effort posting news every single day for many years. 2023: Over 5,800 news posts | 2024 (till end of June): 2,839 news posts

At Ignite 2021, Microsoft announced that OneDrive will natively support ARM-based Windows and Apple M1 devices, saying: ARM support We are thrilled to announce OneDrive support for ARM-based Windows devices Join us in the Insiders Ring to opt-in for the ARM preview by end of this year. M1 support We recently announced that OneDrive will be natively compiled for M1 and will be releasing a preview for the Insiders Ring in December. You can take full advantage of the performance improvements on M1 by early next year Now Microsoft has announced some detail of the rollout of a Preview of the ARM client to devices in the Current Channel (Preview). Following the preview release to Current Channel (Preview), it will release for General Availability. Both the Windows ARM client and the Apple Silicon client will begin rolling to the Current Channel (Preview) in early December and is expected to complete rollout mid-December. Standard users will begin receiving the update between late January and mid-February. To enable the preview, users will need to have joined the Current Channel (Preview) and enabled the preview in OneDrive Settings > About. Users can also opt out in OneDrive Settings > About. The functionality of the clients are the same, but the ARM client may perform better. Native Microsoft OneDrive for ARM-based Windows and Apple M1 devices rolling out soon

OneDrive on Windows has a back up feature that many users of the operating system may be unaware of. It requires a OneDrive account, free or paid works, and may be used to back up the folders Desktop, Pictures and Documents to Microsoft's online storage solution. Backing up files to OneDrive, or any other online storage solution, sounds like a good idea on first glance. You create a remote backup of important files and gain access to these files from any other device that you have access to and sign-in to OneDrive. Even better, it is quite easy to set up and have it run on autopilot from that moment on. To access the feature, left-click on the OneDrive app icon on the Windows taskbar and select the cogwheel icon and then Settings. When the Settings open, select the very first entry on the page. It is named Back up important PC folders to OneDrive. The Manage folder back up page opens. OneDrive lists the three root folders Desktop, Documents and Pictures. All three are selected by default and the space they occupy on the hard drive is displayed. Below that, OneDrive lists how much online storage space would remain after the folders have been backed up to the storage solution. A click on Start Backup begins the backup; it may take a while to complete, depending on the number of files in the folders and the Internet speed. Here is why backing up entire folders to OneDrive is not a good idea: This is an all or nothing approach. See the 24 Gigabytes of files in the Documents folder on the screenshot above? There is no option to deselect subfolders or individual documents to bring down the storage requirements, speed up the process, or prevent certain data from being uploaded to OneDrive. Many users may need to purchase extra storage to even start the backup. New OneDrive users get just a few gigabytes of storage space by default. Media is scanned by OneDrive to detect nudity and images that may be illegal. Microsoft may ban the entire user account if a single item is flagged by automatic scans. The data is not encrypted in a way that only the user has access to it. In closing, most Windows users may want to avoid using the back up feature. It is easy enough to select individual files or entire folders for uploading to OneDrive, if that is desired. Third-party tools like Cryptomator may increase the security of files uploaded, as they get encrypted properly before uploads. (Boxcryptor, another popular service, was acquired by Dropbox recently and started to shut down) Now You: do you back up files to online services? Should you back up important Windows folders to OneDrive?