{"id":12081,"date":"2023-06-28T03:39:49","date_gmt":"2023-06-28T10:39:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.coretechnologies.com\/blog\/?p=12081"},"modified":"2023-06-28T03:39:49","modified_gmt":"2023-06-28T10:39:49","slug":"how-to-turn-off-files-on-demand","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.coretechnologies.com\/blog\/onedrive\/how-to-turn-off-files-on-demand\/","title":{"rendered":"How to Turn Off Files On-Demand in OneDrive"},"content":{"rendered":"<div align=\"center\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"no-lazy-load\" style=\"margin-bottom:20px;\" src=\"\/blog\/images\/onedrive-files-always-available.webp\" title=\"How to Turn Off Files on Demand in OneDrive\" alt=\"How to Turn Off Files on Demand in OneDrive\" border=\"0\" width=\"400\" height=\"120\"\/><\/div>\n<div id=\"blog-toc-container\" style=\"margin-top:20px;\">\n<p id=\"blog-toc-title\">In this article&#8230;<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"#what-is-files-on-demand\">What is OneDrive Files On-Demand?<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"#files-on-demand-problems\">What&#8217;s the problem with online-only files?<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"#disable-files-on-demand\">Disable Files On-Demand and make OneDrive download all your files to your computer<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/div>\n<p><a name=\"what-is-files-on-demand\"><\/a><\/p>\n<h2 class=\"blog-caption\">What is OneDrive Files On-Demand?<\/h2>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/support.microsoft.com\/en-au\/office\/save-disk-space-with-onedrive-files-on-demand-for-windows-0e6860d3-d9f3-4971-b321-7092438fb38e\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Files On-Demand<\/a> saves space on your hard drive by <b>&#8220;lazily&#8221; downloading the contents of your files from OneDrive<\/b> only when necessary.<\/p>\n<p>With Files On-Demand, all your files are actually listed on your computer. And as you can see below, each file displays the cloud icon in the status column indicating that it&#8217;s <b>online-only<\/b>:<\/p>\n<div align=\"center\"><a href=\"\/blog\/images\/onedrive-online-only-files.png\" class=\"zoomPopup\" title=\"Online-only files\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"image-padding\" src=\"\/blog\/images\/onedrive-online-only-files.png\" title=\"Online-only files (click to enlarge)\" alt=\"Online-only files\" border=\"0\" width=\"520\" \/><\/a><\/div>\n<p>To be clear, <b>an online-only file does not have its contents downloaded onto your hard drive<\/b>. You can think of it as a shell &mdash; a placeholder for the &#8220;real&#8221; file in the cloud.<\/p>\n<p>The great thing is that online-only files take up virtually no space on your hard drive. And that&#8217;s true regardless of the size of your files in the cloud. As a result, if all your files are online-only, your local OneDrive folder will be tiny &mdash; even if you have many gigabytes stored online.<\/p>\n<p>Note that when you first setup the OneDrive desktop application, Files On-Demand will be active by default. All your files will be online-only:<\/p>\n<div align=\"center\"><a href=\"\/blog\/images\/onedrive-file-on-demand-active.png\" class=\"zoomPopup\" title=\"Files On-Demand is active by default\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"image-padding\" src=\"\/blog\/images\/onedrive-file-on-demand-active.png\" title=\"Files On-Demand is active by default (click to enlarge)\" alt=\"Files On-Demand is active by default\" border=\"0\" width=\"520\" \/><\/a><\/div>\n<p>We&#8217;ll show you how to change that below.<\/p>\n<p><a name=\"files-on-demand-problems\"><\/a><\/p>\n<h2 class=\"blog-caption\">What&#8217;s the problem with online-only files?<\/h2>\n<p>While Files On-Demand is great at saving space, it has one major downside. Whenever someone tries to access an online-only file, <b>the OneDrive desktop application must be running<\/b> to download the file&#8217;s contents.<\/p>\n<p>If OneDrive isn&#8217;t running, any attempt to work with an online-only file fails with a cryptic error:<\/p>\n<div align=\"center\"><a href=\"\/blog\/images\/error-sccessing-online-only-file.png\" class=\"zoomPopup\" title=\"Error when accessing an online-only file\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"image-padding\" src=\"\/blog\/images\/error-sccessing-online-only-file.png\" title=\"Error when accessing an online-only file (click to enlarge)\" alt=\"Error when accessing an online-only file\" border=\"0\" width=\"390\" height=\"118\" \/><\/a><\/div>\n<p>And the need to have OneDrive always running can cause unforeseen problems, especially in commercial environments.<\/p>\n<p>For example, let&#8217;s say you have OneDrive installed on a server. You&#8217;ve shared your OneDrive directory over the network, to allow your users to access the files without having OneDrive installed.<\/p>\n<p>Everything works well when your server is on and OneDrive is running. Your users can access all files just fine &mdash; even the ones that are online-only.<\/p>\n<p>However, if OneDrive.exe is not running on the server &mdash; maybe because the server rebooted and you didn&#8217;t log in yet &mdash; your users won&#8217;t be able to access the online-only files. Their <b>programs will fail in strange ways<\/b>, like Adobe Acrobat did when we tried to open an online-only PDF file:<\/p>\n<div align=\"center\"><a href=\"\/blog\/images\/adobe-acrobat-cannot-open-file.png\" class=\"zoomPopup\" title=\"Acrobat cannot open an online-only PDF file\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"image-padding\" src=\"\/blog\/images\/adobe-acrobat-cannot-open-file.png\" title=\"Acrobat cannot open an online-only PDF file (click to enlarge)\" alt=\"Acrobat cannot open an online-only PDF file\" border=\"0\" width=\"517\" height=\"181\" \/><\/a><\/div>\n<p>It&#8217;s easy to see how the inability to get to the files could cause head-scratching and frustration!<\/p>\n<p>Fortunately, it&#8217;s easy to avoid those problems. Simply turn off Files On-Demand.<\/p>\n<p><a name=\"disable-files-on-demand\"><\/a><\/p>\n<h2 class=\"blog-caption\">Disable Files On-Demand and make OneDrive download all your files to your computer<\/h2>\n<p>To turn off OneDrive Files On-Demand:<\/p>\n<ol style=\"margin-bottom:24px\">\n<li>\n<p>Click the OneDrive tray icon to summon the tray window. From there, click the gear in the upper right and choose <b>Settings<\/b> from the menu:<\/p>\n<div align=\"center\"><a href=\"\/blog\/images\/open-onedrive-settings-window.png\" class=\"zoomPopup\" title=\"Open OneDrive Settings\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"image-padding\" src=\"\/blog\/images\/open-onedrive-settings-window.png\" title=\"Open OneDrive Settings (click to enlarge)\" alt=\"Open OneDrive Settings\" border=\"1\" width=\"361\" height=\"641\" \/><\/a><\/div>\n<\/li>\n<li>\n<p>In the <b>Sync and Backup<\/b> section, scroll down and expand <b>Advanced settings<\/b>.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<li>\n<p>Under <b>Files on Demand<\/b>, click <b>Download all files<\/b>:<\/p>\n<div align=\"center\"><a href=\"\/blog\/images\/files-on-demand-download-all-files.png\" class=\"zoomPopup\" title=\"Files On-Demand Settings: Download all files\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"image-padding\" src=\"\/blog\/images\/files-on-demand-download-all-files.png\" title=\"Files On-Demand Settings: Download all files (click to enlarge)\" alt=\"Files On-Demand Settings: Download all files\" border=\"0\" width=\"520\" \/><\/a><\/div>\n<\/li>\n<li>\n<p>Finally, click <b>Continue<\/b> to confirm that you want OneDrive to download all your files:<\/p>\n<div align=\"center\"><a href=\"\/blog\/images\/onedrive-confirm-download-all-files.png\" class=\"zoomPopup\" title=\"Confirm download all OneDrive files\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"image-padding\" src=\"\/blog\/images\/onedrive-confirm-download-all-files.png\" title=\"Confirm download all OneDrive files (click to enlarge)\" alt=\"Confirm download all OneDrive files\" border=\"0\" width=\"510\" height=\"227\" \/><\/a><\/div>\n<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<p>After a few minutes (or hours if your OneDrive is immense), all your files will be available on your hard drive. You&#8217;ll be able to access them without issue &mdash; even when the OneDrive desktop application isn&#8217;t running.<\/p>\n<div style=\"margin-top:30px\" align=\"center\">\n<div class=\"cta-button-1\">\n<table role=\"presentation\" cellspacing=\"0\" cellpadding=\"0\" border=\"0\" align=\"left\">\n<tbody>\n<tr>\n<td align=\"center\"><a href=\"\/blog\/tag\/onedrive\/\" title=\"More about running OneDrive as a Windows Service\"><span><nobr>Read more articles about OneDrive&#8230;<\/nobr><\/span><\/a><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<!-- relpost-thumb-wrapper --><div class=\"relpost-thumb-wrapper\"><!-- filter-class --><div class=\"relpost-thumb-container\"><style>.relpost-block-single-image, .relpost-post-image { margin-bottom: 10px; }<\/style><h3>You may also like...<\/h3><div style=\"clear: both\"><\/div><div style=\"clear: both\"><\/div><!-- relpost-block-container --><div class=\"relpost-block-container relpost-block-column-layout\" style=\"--relposth-columns: 3;--relposth-columns_t: 2; --relposth-columns_m: 2\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.coretechnologies.com\/blog\/alwaysup\/version-15-advanced-monitoring\/\"class=\"relpost-block-single\" ><div class=\"relpost-custom-block-single\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"relpost-block-single-image\" alt=\"AlwaysUp 15: Helpful Diagnostics, plus Advanced Monitoring for Dropbox, OneDrive and Google Drive\"  src=\"https:\/\/www.coretechnologies.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/new-update-150x150-1.webp\" style=\"aspect-ratio:1\/1\" style=\"aspect-ratio:1\/1\"><\/img><div class=\"relpost-block-single-text\"  style=\"height: 75px;font-family: Arial;  font-size: 12px;  color: #333333;\"><h2 class=\"relpost_card_title\">AlwaysUp 15: Helpful Diagnostics, plus Advanced Monitoring for Dropbox, OneDrive and Google Drive<\/h2><\/div><\/div><\/a><a href=\"https:\/\/www.coretechnologies.com\/blog\/alwaysup\/onedrive-folder-permissions\/\"class=\"relpost-block-single\" ><div class=\"relpost-custom-block-single\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"relpost-block-single-image\" alt=\"Q&amp;A: Why Can&#039;t OneDrive Find my Folder?\"  src=\"https:\/\/www.coretechnologies.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/onedrive-security-150x150-1.png\" style=\"aspect-ratio:1\/1\" style=\"aspect-ratio:1\/1\"><\/img><div class=\"relpost-block-single-text\"  style=\"height: 75px;font-family: Arial;  font-size: 12px;  color: #333333;\"><h2 class=\"relpost_card_title\">Q&amp;A: Why Can&#039;t OneDrive Find my Folder?<\/h2><\/div><\/div><\/a><a href=\"https:\/\/www.coretechnologies.com\/blog\/alwaysup\/version-17-enterprise-security\/\"class=\"relpost-block-single\" ><div class=\"relpost-custom-block-single\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"relpost-block-single-image\" alt=\"AlwaysUp 17: Hang Protection, Enterprise Security Improvements &amp; Much More\"  src=\"https:\/\/www.coretechnologies.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/alwaysup-v17-hang-protection-enterprise-security-improvements-150x150-1.webp\" style=\"aspect-ratio:1\/1\" style=\"aspect-ratio:1\/1\"><\/img><div class=\"relpost-block-single-text\"  style=\"height: 75px;font-family: Arial;  font-size: 12px;  color: #333333;\"><h2 class=\"relpost_card_title\">AlwaysUp 17: Hang Protection, Enterprise Security Improvements &amp; Much More<\/h2><\/div><\/div><\/a><\/div><!-- close relpost-block-container --><div style=\"clear: both\"><\/div><\/div><!-- close filter class --><\/div><!-- close relpost-thumb-wrapper -->","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>In this article&#8230; What is OneDrive Files On-Demand? What&#8217;s the problem with online-only files? Disable Files On-Demand and make OneDrive download all your files to your computer What is OneDrive Files On-Demand? Files On-Demand saves space on your hard drive &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.coretechnologies.com\/blog\/onedrive\/how-to-turn-off-files-on-demand\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":12088,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[204],"tags":[83,110,323],"class_list":["post-12081","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-onedrive","tag-files-on-demand","tag-onedrive","tag-onedrive-online-only"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.coretechnologies.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12081","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.coretechnologies.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.coretechnologies.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.coretechnologies.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.coretechnologies.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12081"}],"version-history":[{"count":22,"href":"https:\/\/www.coretechnologies.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12081\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12107,"href":"https:\/\/www.coretechnologies.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12081\/revisions\/12107"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.coretechnologies.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/12088"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.coretechnologies.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12081"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.coretechnologies.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12081"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.coretechnologies.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12081"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}