OneDrive files not accessible on local machine (Ventura 13.1)

Hi George,

I don't think it will be necessary after all to open a ticket with M365 Admin Center. I found the solution, and I think I know the cause. External volumes under MacOS can have file ownership enabled or disabled. When an external drive is formatted, at least when it's formatted as an APFS volume, the default is apparently to disable (i.e. ignore) file ownership. When in this state, the OS does not enforce or respect file ownership nor, I'm told, even file permissions, ACLs, or extended attributes on the volume. It is likely that this prevents Apple's AFP from syncing from the cloud to the local cache. I did not know about the ignore ownership flag, and had the default set the last time I tried to run OneDrive with my home directory on the external SSD drive. After repeating the move with the option to enforce file ownership on the destination volume, OneDrive works as it is supposed to; I am able to see and access files in the cloud via the local cache, opening them downloads them into the cache, and so forth.

It might be worthwhile if your OneDrive team could test out my findings and if replicated, post a tech note so that no other users are bitten by this odd behavior. I would be happy to supply step-by-step instructions on how to replicate the problem, if they would like.

Best wishes.

I recently bought an m2 Mac Mini with Ventura.

So all i could see in Onedrive folder were the folder structure with no files, but they were taking up space.

The files are actually in:

/Users/ <user name> /Library/Group Containers/UBF8T346G9.OneDriveSyncClientSuite/OneDrive.noindex/OneDrive/

Only thing i could do is add this folder as a favorite in sidebar and live with it for now.
Can only wish that Microsoft support people would actually know a thing or two instead of just copy pasting.

I think I should clarify that it is clear that the files have been downloaded - they take up space. That can be seen by clicking on the disk in the Finder and choosing Get Info, or via the command line in Terminal (du -sk). And if I choose "Download files as you use them (recommended)" again, that space is freed up. The problem is that the file system doesn't know the files are there - only the enclosing folders are visible to it, in either the Finder or via ls on the command line.

And this is true regardless of whether the OneDrive folder is on the system drive or the external drive. The only thing I have not tried is to move my account back onto the system drive - because I really do not have enough space on it to do that.

Hence, I've changed the thread title (was "OneDrive files not downloaded (Ventura 13.1)).

Hi George,

Thank you for your reply.

1). I'm not sure what you mean. I display the contents of folders in the Finder in the Columns view. When I click on the OneDrive folder, its subfolders are displayed, and when I click on them, their subfolders are displayed, and their sub-subfolders, all the way down to the innermost subfolders. But no files whatsoever are displayed. If I am storing data online, on-demand only, the folders have a cloud icon beside them. If not, once "downloaded" the folders have only a check mark. But in neither case are any files visible.

2). As far as I can tell, the Reset OneDrive operation made no difference at all. With the default on-demand setting I once again see folders but no files. I just started downloading all the files and once again, disk usage goes up so the data is going somewhere, but only the folders are visible, not the files themselves.

As to opening the files online using Office apps, I tried this with Power Point and got nowhere. Looking inside the OneDrive folder in the Online Locations dialog, I see only folders, same as in the Finder. And moreover, not all of the files stored on my OneDrive are Office files.

Best wishes for the holidays,

Liz

Dear Elisabeth,

Good day! Thanks for posting in the community. We are happy to help you.

According to your description, I would like to collect more information about the situation on your side. The information will help us to better troubleshoot.

1. My understanding is you didn't see any files in the OneDrive folder. If so, I would like to know how you opened the OneDrive folder. From Finder? What if you click the OneDrive icon in your Menu bar, Open folder, does the situation happen again?
2. Please try to reset OneDrive, then check if the situation still happens or not.

Also, before fixing the situation, as a workaround, to open these Office files in your OneDrive, you can run the related Office applications first, then click File> Open> Online location, then go to the related location and open these files in your Office applications.

We look forward to your response. Thanks for your cooperation.

Sincerely,

George | Microsoft Community Moderator