OneDrive Sync Status

Question

Since the 10 April MS Updates, the OneDrive folder in the Navigation pane of File Explorer no longer shows the green tick box that it did before. Before all folders and files showed the green tick box in the Navigation Pane. Now, I have a "Status" column, showing a status icon alongside each folder and file in the details window. However, the status of some folders is showing as 'Sync Pending', but I don't think this can be correct as none of the individual files in those folders show as "Sync Pending". I've tried re-saving the files in those folders and the status changes, temporarily, to a green tick. If I move away from that view in File Explorer and then back again, the "Sync Pending" icon re-appears against that folder. Rather than employ a suggested technical workaround, I would prefer to await a further update that fixes this, so, for now, I'd be interested if others are experiencing the same issue so that more people can be flagging the issue up. (I would have used the 'OneDrive' category in this community, but that is 'locked').

Answer 1

P.S. I am in contact with Microsoft support about this.

Answer 2

I am experiencing the exact same problem and it is really annoying.

I found that some of the files causing the "sync pending" issues were invisible resource forks from files originally copied from a MacOS system. But in many other cases there is simply no explanation, no invisible file and no reason for showing "sync pending", as in fact all files are both available locally and on OneDrive. 

Please MS stop changing the behavior of stuff that has been working fine for years ...

Answer 3

What might work some times and is a long workaround is to:

1. Set the whole folder to "Free up space" (before you may take a snapshot of the properties to have a count - I trusted that the files were actually on the OneDrive cloud, so I didn't copy them away).
2. Wait till the whole folder shows the cloud icon.
3. Now set the whole folder to "Always keep on this device".
4. Wait again.

For me, it worked in most cases.

Answer 4

Looking closer at the MS Community pages today, I can see that OneDrive help has moved from the Community to being 'In-App' or on OneDrive.com. I found an article in the help section of OneDrive.com that relates to Files on Demand. I think that the changes on the appearance and behaviour of my OneDrive folders and files is due to that functionality. Here is the article: https://support.office.com/en-us/article/Learn-about-OneDrive-Files-On-Demand-0E6860D3-D9F3-4971-B321-7092438FB38E?appver=ODC160&ui=en-US&rs=en-US&ad=US&fromAR=3

Answer 5

Many thanks for responding Xenomorph. I'm sorry that you're having the same issues, but at the same time, I'm re-assured that I not the only one! I haven't been able to find any mention anywhere of this change in OneDrive's appearance and behaviour apart from your reply. Like you, I wish that systems that work could be left alone. After all, what ain't broke..... Anyway, I painstakingly deleted all of the folders that were 'sync pending' and copied over the files from my hard drive to new OneDrive folders at about 50 files at a time (depending on file size) so that I could watch the progress as they are uploaded and then synced. Uploading that number didn't take long and syncing them took about 2 minutes each time. Very laborious, but I ended up with all folders having green circled ticks. I also have another (older) device. The same issue was present on that device when I turned it on yesterday, but with different folders. So I deleted those folders

on my newerdevice and re-copied the files as before, which eventually caused the folders on my older device to sync. That device also shows some different icons (available only on-line)against other folders, but I think that is where the OneDrive folders contain newer files that are not otherwise on the older device. I hope that makes sense and helps. Hopefully MS will provide some details somewhere of the changes to OneDrive and resolve the issues.