Sharepoint OneDrive and Excel: Upload Failed + New Version Available

Question

Hello,

For a few days, I have a lot of errors coming up from different users, but what makes it complicated is that not all of them have them...

These errors are "New Version Available" and "Upload Failed".

We have shared documents on a Sharepoint Librairy, that users can view and edit through Windows Explorer, OneDrive and (in this case) Excel.

For some people, everything works fine, even with co-authoring. For some other, when they try to open a file, they have always an error and can't work on it. This error is either:

• "Upload Failed" We can't merge your changes with those of another person. Save a copy and Excel doesn't respond. Or Discard changes and the file closes and reopens with the same error.

or

• "New Version Available" > Making a copy makes a copy but there is an error with the copied file, it cannot be uploaded to OneDrive (eventhough it has another name). Discard the change reopen the file and the first error above prompts.

I've tried so many things already:

• Restart computer
• Clear Office Upload Center, but it is empty.
• Restart OneDrive, by ending also the remaining processes (Microsoft OneDrive (32 bit) and Microsoft OneDrive Co-Authoring Executable (32 bit))
• Reset OneDrive (via %/OneDrive.exe /reset in cmd)
• Reset the sync with the Shared library
• Log out then in of Excel (and Office Apps)
• Keep files online (in OneDrive Windows Explorer > Free up space)
• Clear Excel Cache

Note: It is still perfectly possible to work online, with an internet browser.

Note: When someone opens this file and has the error, it still appears in the icon bar of users currently editing the file (visible from another user).

I have no idea how to solve this, and no idea how to reproduce it. We all have the same versions (from the company).

It does look like an error of sync between Excel and OneDrive. Like if Excel had a local copy it cannot update.

Answer 1

Hi G_711,

Here is an update about your problem:

First, according to this official article: Change sync conflict settings for Office files, the cause of the "upload failed" is the sync conflict.

 

Furthermore, refer to this article: Collaborate on Excel workbooks at the same time with co-authoring, there are many possible cause for a sync conflict, generally, it can be:

 

1.       Someone uses an Excel feature that is not fully supported in Excel co-authoring yet. This is known issue cause. Refer to Remove unsupported features from the file, below is the list 

2.       Multiple people are making a change to the same thing.  This will sometimes cause conflict. My experience is, for example, when multiple users editing the same sheet but use filter/sort/custom view.

That’s why the issue happens occasionally.

And in your first reply that "clearing Office cache can temporarily make the problem go away", clearing cache will let OneDrive and Office forget the unsaved changes, so that they will not try to merge conflict, that’s why the issue can disappear by clearing cache. But once there’s a sync conflict caused by any possible cause again, the error message can appear again.

Furthermore, just like your test result, the sync conflict doesn’t happen when all users are editing only with Office Online, but generally happen when users co-authors with other desktop apps in different devices. That is because only when they edit on those desktop apps, the sync will happen, the sync conflict will happen.

Best regards,

Jazlyn

Answer 2

Hi,

So you are telling me OneDrive is not reliable. The only way I found to collaborate without issue is to open the library in Explorer. To do so, we have to open the library with Internet Explorer, then in the classic view, in the LIBRARY tab, click on "Open with Explorer". This open a view of the library but in Windows Explorer. Users work then directly on the server files and not on local copies of OneDrive that OneDrive can't sync properly. No sync = No sync problem. Co-Auth is still possible with Office files.

Guillaume