How can I hide the SharePoint online Sync button without disabling sync (no to offline client download)?

Question

We want our users to use the "add shortcut to one drive option" to access SharePoint online libraries via file explorer or Finder to remove the confusion of how to stop syncing vs removing shortcut option. I can remove it by turning client offline availability off but this prevents access to the shortcuts from the local computer (works in web). I have teams that work with a lot of pdf files and need to use file explorer to save.

Turning off sync for one drive in the admin center only effects one drive sites not SharePoint sites.

Is it even possible? If not, it should be...

Answer 1

Hi Michelle,

A couple of weeks ago I received the same question of a user.

I ended up formatting the view 'All documents' of the document libraries.

It might not be the prettiest solution, since every user that has 'Edit' permissions (or more) will be able to create a new public/personal view within the document library, and this will reset all command bar properties. But for our guests, this solution was sufficient.

I believe the property you are looking for is 'sync'.

Your JSON-schema will look like this:

{
"$schema": "https://developer.microsoft.com/json-schemas/sp/v2/row-formatting.schema.json",
"commandBarProps": {
"commands": [
			{"key":"sync","hide": true}
			]
	}
} 

More information:

1. https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/sharepoint/dev/declarative-customization/view-commandbar-formatting
2. https://github.com/SharePoint/sp-dev-docs/issues/8546

You can probably automate this too in all sorts of ways (PowerShell, REST API)

Answer 2

Yes, this is possible. Please read aka.ms/TSSyncOff

Answer 3

Hi @Michelle Roy ,

No, it's not possible to hide Sync button while keeping client offline availability open. I would suggest you can submit your feedback to MS here: https://feedbackportal.microsoft.com/feedback/forum/06735c62-321c-ec11-b6e7-0022481f8472. Customer feedback is very important to us – your ideas can change and improve products for users around the world.

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