Imagine you’re working on a project and you have stored all your project files in OneDrive. You’re travelling and you find yourself in a location with poor or no internet connection, and you REALLY do like using OneDrive web…

TL;DR
Soon, on your Windows and macOS devices that have the OneDrive sync app installed, a new feature called “Offline mode” will be enabled for OneDrive. This feature will allow you to continue working with the OneDrive web app in your browser, OneDrive PWA (Progressive Web App), or Microsoft Teams when you’re offline.

You can view, rename, move, and copy your files, as well as create new folders when offline. You’ll also be able to open your files that are available offline on your device from inside OneDrive on the web and you’ll be able to resolve conflicts once back online, if there are any. Now due late February to late April 2024.

Details
When this feature is enabled for users in your organisation and you visit OneDrive for the web, Offline mode will be set up for the first time. A copy of your file metadata that powers OneDrive for the web is securely stored locally on your device. This data on your device is only available and accessible to you.

The below icon, which will appear in the top right corner of your OneDrive, indicates that Offline mode is ready for you to use:


A secure local web server on your device will handle the operations that you perform on your files in OneDrive for the web, such as viewing, sorting, renaming, moving, and copying. These operations were traditionally handled by the OneDrive cloud service, this removes the network as the bottleneck when loading and working with OneDrive for the web, resulting in faster interactions with your files. All of these actions will continue to work even when you are offline, lose internet connection, or run into a service disruption.

Notes from Microsoft:

  • OneDrive Offline mode lets you work on OneDrive when offline in the browser, OneDrive PWA (Progressive Web App) and in Microsoft Teams, improves performance on all kinds of networks and helps alleviate throttling related to working with large file collections
  • OneDrive Offline mode is currently supported on Windows devices (Windows 10 or later) and macOS devices (macOS 12 Monterey or later) that have the OneDrive sync app installed and on Chromium-based browsers (Microsoft Edge, Google Chrome)
  • Offline mode will be on by default for OneDrive on the web and both you and administrators will have the option to disable Offline mode
  • Offline mode is a per-device setting (configured separately for every device you use to access OneDrive on the web
  • The data is securely stored in a local database under your profile directory and requests are handled through a secure localhost HTTP server. Offline mode is powered by a separate background process (Microsoft.SharePoint.exe).

Availability
Due mid-November 2023 to January 2024.
Now due mid-December 2023 to early February 2024.
Now due mid-February to mid-April 2024.
Now due late February to late April 2024.

Source, related links, and references
MC686277.
Microsoft 365 Roadmap ID 168618.
Images: Microsoft.
Learn more, including step-by-step instructions and important limitations:  Work with OneDrive web app when offline – Microsoft Support.
For the admins: IT Admins – Use OneDrive policies to control sync settings – SharePoint in Microsoft 365 | Microsoft Learn.

Page originally published
5th November 2023 and kept up to date.

Want to know what else is late, new, and coming soon across M365 and Teams this month? Check out the latest roundup.

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