OneDrive for Business - Current and Future Innovations
Microsoft has released a new version of the Next Generation Sync Client for the cloud storage service OneDrive that can directly synchronize libraries from SharePoint Online and Office 365 groups.
The previous versions of the Next Generation Sync Client were only capable to transfer OneDrive for Business and OneDrive libraries. The now released new version also supports the synchronization of OneDrive for Business shared folders. At the same time, the software company has released an independent OneDrive client for MacOS that no longer has to be installed through the Apple App Store. Another innovation, concerning Windows and Mac version, is the Activity Center, which provides a detailed overview of the current state and the synchronization activities.
However, there are a number of features that will be sorely missed in the OneDrive client for Microsoft’s cloud storage service. At least, the integration of a differential synchronization has been announced for the second quarter, which will transmit only changes, thus saving bandwidth while synchronizing large files.
For the same quarter, it may be expected that the synchronization client will also support the use of special characters in file names. At least, a post on Microsoft’s Office Developer Portal is announcing the possible support of the special characters # and %.
A relaunch of Smart Files is rather not to be expected for the second quarter. This function is using placeholders to display the whole content of a personal cloud storage, whether a file is locally available or left in the cloud. In the current version, however, always the complete content is synchronized from selected folders.