Sharepoint Online and Local file server sync

Question

I was thrown into an environment that has SharePoint online that is sync'ing to a local file server. I know this is not the best solution but this is the way they want to keep it. I have looked and looked and can not figure out how the sync part is setup. Can someone give some direction on where to look please?
Thanks

Answer 1

So I finally found where the sync was happening. Apparently you have to log in as the actual user that setup OneDrive. I was logging in as a domain admin but still the OneDrive process did not show in task manager, nor in Programs and Features nor as a running service. At any rate I finally found it. My next concern is that the one user is actually syncing many folders from the root with different groups and users. It is acting as the company's "file server". The server OneDrive is synced to needs to be replaced. So I need to move the data and setup the sync again on a new server. It is several hundred gigs of data. What is the best way to go about moving the 300+ gigs of data and reconfiguring the sync for the new server?
Thanks !!!

Answer 2

Try to explain to the customer why this is a bad setup and is unsupported by Microsoft if any issues arise. Do they use sharepoint for anything besides file access? Is there a need to have the files on a local file server (apart from some sort of backup)?

Each user can access the data through sharepoint all the time (inside or outside the office) via file explorer instead of the website if thats the concern. Turn off the ability to sync offline to avoid conflicts between users. I have clients that use only sharepoint/teams as their central file share.
https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/office/view-and-open-sharepoint-files-with-file-explorer-66b574bb-08b4-46b6-a6a0-435fd98194cc

If you need to continue syncing things this way then have the customer sign a disclaimer explaining why its a bad idea and unsupported by microsoft and you're not responsible if something goes wrong. Before starting this process.

You can build the new file server, and setup Onedrive on it to sync the same files down from Sharepoint online. Once everything is staged, cut the onprem users over to using the new file server. Let onedrive do all the syncing, otherwise you can end up with duplicate data.

Answer 3

anonymous user What is best practice? Do you have documentation? Why is it a bad setup?
I'm curious about setting up synching and could benefit from your perspective.

Answer 4

@Jessica Jackson - That depends on what you're trying to accomplish with the sync. OneDrive is pretty fragile, it's designed for use on an end user PC with a single user, not on a server. As the OP mentioned, the account that installed onedrive needs to be logged in to the server and into onedrive in order to sync data. Many things can go wrong with that like passwords expiring, server reboots, updates breaking onedrive, etc.

If you're looking to setup a sync on your PC for faster access to certain files already in sharepoint/teams (or to backup your home folders) then go for it, onedrive is an excellent fit for that use case.

If you're looking to sync / migrate a file server, then start by looking through the following articles, as it really depends on what type of data you're looking to move.

https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/sharepointmigration/fileshare-to-odsp-migration-guide
https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/sharepointmigration/migrate-to-sharepoint-online