How Long Should It Take to Sync with OneDrive?

Article
2017-02-10

Question

_{Friday, February 10, 2017 8:14 PM}

Current configuration of laptop that I'm sending to a remote user (and this is repeatable for 12 more users):

Windows 10

O365 with Office 2013

OneDrive 2016 (to be more clear, OneDrive - <yourcompany> is what we have)

I've installed OneDrive and synced all data for the general folders (e.g., Documents, Pictures, Desktop). The initial sync worked as most files in OneDrive have a green check by the names. The only exceptions are a small few with # in the names, which prevented from syncing.

I removed the # in the original location, yet it's been three days and it still has not synced again with OD. I've also saved new files in Documents, and they have not synced with OD yet. Should it take this long? I thought it was somewhat instantaneous depending on the bandwidth.

To be clear, maybe I went about this the wrong way (which might be part of my problem). I logged in and configured OneDrive for my company, and then I manually copied the folders to OD. I verified that they were set up to sync as well. If there is another way, please advise.

All replies (3)

_{Monday, February 13, 2017 8:49 AM}

Hello,

>>The only exceptions are a small few with # in the names, which prevented from syncing.

# character in file names isn't supported when you sync OneDrive for Business. See the following article for more information:

https://support.microsoft.com/en-gb/help/3125202/restrictions-and-limitations-when-you-sync-files-and-folders-using-the-new-onedrive-for-business-sync-client

>>I logged in and configured OneDrive for my company, and then I manually copied the folders to OD.

Copy or drag folders/files to OneDrive folder will only upload these folders/files to OneDrive which will let you access then on another computer when logon to OneDrive using the same Microsoft account. However, it will not sync the folders you copied/dragged to OneDrive.

If there is anything unclear, please don't hesitate to post back.

Regards,

Steve Fan

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_{Monday, February 13, 2017 4:28 PM}

Thanks, Steve. I'm aware of the symbols, size, etc. limits. I should have clarified that with my # comment (or left that piece out altogether).

So copying the data manually only allows for access from other devices, correct? My goal is to set up OD so that, whenever a user saves a file to a folder (e.g., an Excel file to Documents), it automatically syncs - OR BACKS UP - the data to OD.

Is that possible? Ultimately I was thinking that OD could be leveraged as an automatic backup for our users where we just set OD to back up specific folders and the users don't have to think about it.

_{Friday, February 17, 2017 3:20 AM}

>>My goal is to set up OD so that, whenever a user saves a file to a folder (e.g., an Excel file to Documents), it automatically syncs - OR BACKS UP - the data to OD.

If you want to achieve this, you may consider to map the folders that you want synchronized to the OneDrive folder. See the following blog article for more information:

https://blogs.msdn.microsoft.com/developingfordynamicsgp/2014/09/11/synchronizing-any-folder-on-your-system-with-onedrive/

If I've misunderstood something, please feel free to let me know.