new onedrive for business sync client changes

There are also new admin features in the Office 365 dashboard, like blocking syncing of specified file types, control over device access, and usage reporting. Today’s announcement also includes a new standalone Mac client, which can be deployed centrally, and an enhancd UI with an Activity Center. (I had no idea until I looked today how much support the feedback had received). I was among those complaining so it is pleasing to see that Microsoft, a mere 15 months later, has met my request, by adding support for Team Sites to its new client. Users with both had to run both the old and new sync clients side by side. Many businesses make more use of Team Sites than they do of the personal storage.

The new client did not support Team Sites, also known as SharePoint Online, but only personal OneDrive for Business cloud storage. “The preview client adds OneDrive for Business connectivity to our proven OneDrive consumer client,” explained Microsoft, abandoning the problematic Groove. Microsoft is therefore replacing it with a new OneDrive for Business sync client, which has been in preview since September 2015. Every so often it stops syncing and there is often no solution other than to delete all the local copies and start again. Problem is that the old OneDrive for Business sync client, called Groove, is just not reliable. If you use WebDAV, repeated authentication prompts and lack of offline capabilities are annoyances that many find it hard to cope with. Microsoft pushes users towards the second option.

One uses WebDAV and only works online, the other makes a local copy of the documents and synchronises them when it can. Technically, there are two ways to access OneDrive with Windows Explorer. Microsoft has announced new capabilities for its next-generation OneDrive for Business sync client – the software that lets users access OneDrive documents through Windows Explorer rather than having to go via a web browser.

New onedrive for business sync client changes