Only download files on demand onedrive

I'm now on my third round of tech support calls with Microsoft and have yet to find anyone who seems to be able to connect with the right group to resolve this issue. I'm not new at this and I'm stumped. Does this happen for only PDF files? I've never had issues with the search index forcing a download of "on demand" files, however I've seen other software causing issues including some of the built-in Windows apps.

I did find the article you mention, but there have been no notifications which could be clicked to initiate the block until I finally did see one yesterday. Unfortunately I was not fast enough to click it and it disappeared and did not remain in the notification area. I think blocking SearchProtocolHost. This article:. If I could figure out how to define a value for SearchProtocolHost.

We are not using any third-party indexing tools and the files and their metadata are not being modified. The files are clearly being downloaded by SearchProtocolHost. As far as I can tell we have no group policy that is affecting this and we have non-domain-joined machines that are doing it as well which pretty much eliminates that possibility. We do have all of the machines managed through SCCM, but we aren't enforcing anything non-standard in terms of indexing or anything like that.

We are now finding this happening on Windows machines, too, so it's not just a recent development with rolling out I'm more suspicious that it's something in the latest binaries of OneDrive. With all of this experimentation I have discovered that Windows Search is tightly coupled to the Files on Demand function. If you disable Windows Search, the "Free up space" option will be greyed out in the menu unless you are clicking on a file or folder that has been made available locally.

I'm pretty frustrated as our whole Office rollout strategy is based around this feature. I have tech support incidents in progress with both the OneDrive and Windows teams who don't talk to each other! I have three customers with the same issue, and myself. One I found was a Dell optimization tool that had Antivirus built into it. Each time the antivirus touched the file on demand it would download it. I have a couple open tickets with MS, but nothing resolved yet. Make sure you're running Windows 10 Fall Creators Update version When OneDrive Setup starts, enter your personal account, or your work or school account, and then select Sign in.

Follow the instructions to Turn on Files On-Demand. To learn more about notifications when Windows automatically downloads online-only files for your apps, see Automatic file download notifications in Windows OneDrive disk space and file size don't match.

OneDrive storage plan and billing questions. If you still need help, select Contact Support to be routed to the best support option. Files On-Demand might not be compatible with some third-party antivirus solutions. Notes: Files On-Demand settings are unique to each device, so make sure you turn it on for each device where you want to use it. Notes: New files or folders created online or on another device appear as online-only to save maximum space.

Need more help? Expand your skills. Get new features first. Was this information helpful? Yes No. Thank you! Here's how you do that. Select the OneDrive cloud icon up in your Menu bar, select the three dots to open the menu, and select Preferences. Select the Account tab, and then select Choose folders.

Important: Files On-Demand settings are unique to each device, so you may need to do this on each device where you want to keep a folder hidden. Yes, you can move online-only files within your OneDrive folder for that OneDrive account.

When you move files outside that OneDrive folder, the files download to the new folder and are removed from your OneDrive. If you accidentally delete something, you can restore files or folders by going to your OneDrive recycle bin. When you delete an online-only file from your device, you delete it from your OneDrive on all devices and online.

You can restore deleted files and folders from your OneDrive recycle bin on the web for up to 30 days. If you delete a locally available file, it also appears in your device recycle bin. If you want to hide a folder on your device, see Choose a folder to hide on your device. No, changing a file to online-only doesn't delete it from your OneDrive. The file no longer takes up space on your device, and you will still be able to see the file from OneDrive mobile apps or on the website.

The latest updates will allow you to see all your files in Finder under the Location section on the Sidebar and get new information about each file. To redirect the known folders back to the user's device, please select "No. To redirect the known folders back to the user's device and enable this policy, set the following registry key value to This setting forces users to keep their Documents, Pictures, and Desktop folders directed to OneDrive.

If you enable this setting, the Stop protecting button in the Set up protection of important folders window is disabled, and users receive an error if they try to stop syncing a known folder. If you disable or do not configure this setting, users can choose to redirect their known folders back to their PC. The B2B Sync feature of the OneDrive sync app lets users at an organization to sync OneDrive and SharePoint libraries and folders shared with them from another organization. For more info, see B2B Sync.

Enabling this setting prevents users at your organization from being able to use B2B Sync. After the setting is enabled value 1 on a computer, the sync app does not sync libraries and folders shared from other organizations.

Modify the setting to the disabled state value 0 to restore B2B Sync capability for your users. This setting shows the following window that prompts users to move their Documents, Pictures, and Desktop folders to OneDrive. If you enable this setting and provide your tenant ID, users who are syncing their OneDrive see the previous window when they're signed in. If they close the window, a reminder notification appears in the Activity Center until they move all their known folders.

If a user has already redirected their known folders to a different OneDrive account, they are prompted to direct the folders to the account for your organization leaving existing files behind.

If you disable or do not configure this setting, the window that prompts users to protect their important folders doesn't appear. For info and recommendations, see Redirect and move Windows known folders to OneDrive.

This policy sets the threshold for how many files a user can delete from a local OneDrive folder before the user is notified that the files will also be deleted from the cloud.

If you enable this policy, users will see a notification if they delete more than the specified number of files from OneDrive on their local computer. The user will be given the option to continue to remove the cloud files, or restore the local files. Even if you enable this policy, users won't receive notifications if they've selected the "Always remove files" check box on a previous notification, or if they've cleared the "Notify me when many files are deleted in the cloud" check box in OneDrive sync app settings.

If you disable this policy, users will not receive a notification when they delete numerous OneDrive files on their local computer. If you do not configure this policy, users will see a notification when they delete more than files within a short period of time.

This setting makes users confirm that they want to delete files in the cloud when they delete a large number of synced files. If you enable this setting, a warning always appears when users delete a large number of synced files. If a user doesn't confirm a delete operation within seven days, the files are not deleted.

If you disable or do not configure this setting, users can choose to hide the warning, and always delete files in the cloud. Any user who has a OneDrive that's larger than the specified threshold in MB is prompted to choose the folders they want to sync before the OneDrive sync app OneDrive.

The default value is We release OneDrive sync app OneDrive. This setting lets you specify the ring for users in your organization.

When you enable this setting and select a ring, users aren't able to change it. Production ring users get the latest features as they become available. This ring is the default. Deferred ring users get new features, bug fixes, and performance improvements last. This ring lets you deploy updates from an internal network location, and control the timing of the deployment within a day window. We recommend selecting several people in your IT department as early adopters to join the Insiders ring and receive features early.

We recommend leaving everyone else in the organization in the default Production ring to ensure they receive bug fixes and new features in a timely fashion. See all our recommendations for configuring the sync app. If you disable or do not configure this setting, users can join the Windows Insider program or the Office Insider program to get updates on the Insiders ring.

Set the value 4 for Insider, 5 for Production, or 0 for Deferred. For more info on the builds currently available in each ring, see the release notes. For more info about the update rings and how the sync app checks for updates, see The OneDrive sync app update process. We recommend deploying the silent policy for existing devices and new devices while limiting the deployment of existing devices to 1, devices a day and not exceeding 4, devices a week.

We also recommend using this setting together with Prompt users to move Windows known folders to OneDrive. If moving the known folders silently does not succeed, users will be prompted to correct the error and continue. You can move all folders at once or select the folders you want to move. After a folder is moved, this policy will not affect that folder again, even if you clear the check box for the folder.

If you enable this setting and provide your tenant ID, you can choose whether to display a notification to users after their folders have been redirected. If you disable or do not configure this setting, your users' known folders are not silently redirected to OneDrive.

If you don't set any of the following policies then the default policy will move all the folders Desktop, Documents and Pictures into OneDrive. If you want to specify which folder s to move then you can set any combination of the following policies:. For more info, see Redirect and move Windows known folders to OneDrive. If you enable this setting, users who are signed in on a PC that's joined to Azure AD can set up the sync app without entering their account credentials.

Users will still be shown OneDrive Setup so they can select folders to sync and change the location of their OneDrive folder. If a user is using the previous OneDrive for Business sync app Groove. This setting is frequently used together with Set the maximum size of a user's OneDrive that can download automatically on PCs that don't have Files On-Demand and with Set the default location for the OneDrive folder.

We recommend enabling silent account configuration when you configure the sync app. For more info about this feature, including troubleshooting steps, see Silently configure user accounts.

Let us know if you have feedback on this feature or encounter any issues. Right-click the OneDrive icon in the notification area and select Report a problem. Tag any feedback with "SilentConfig" so that your feedback is sent directly to engineers working on this feature. Files On-Demand helps you save storage space on your users' computers, and minimize the network impact of sync.

The feature is available to users running Windows 10 Fall Creators update version or later. We recommend keeping Files On-Demand enabled. If you enable this setting, new users who set up the sync app see online-only files in File Explorer, by default.