Microsoft's OneDrive for Business gets Mac client, shared folder sync. Posted by. on Microsoft gave users and administrators of OneDrive for Business some that they’ve requested for a while. The company also launched a new Mac client for its business-focused cloud storage service that can be deployed outside the confines of the Mac App Store. Users will also be able to sync files from SharePoint sites and OneDrive for Business shared folders to their desktops, like they have been able to for files that they own.
OneDrive for Business for Mac, in its January 2015 beta, provides simple access to your corporate documents via a virtual hard drive. Also, I wish Microsoft used a slightly different icon for the menu bar for OneDrive for Business than it does for OneDrive. They're the same, so you're likely to pick.
IDC Research Manager Chandana Gopal said in an interview that she saw the new features are Microsoft’s attempt to play catch up with other players in the enterprise cloud storage market like Box and Dropbox, which already offer Mac clients and broad syncing of all the files stored in their services. What’s more, Box and Dropbox are working on making it possible for people to stream files from the cloud to the desktop when they need them. “If you think about it, some of the other cloud storage players that they’re competing with have gone beyond the sync client, they’re thinking beyond sync,” she said. Like Mac clients from competing services, the OneDrive for Business client will sync files from Microsoft’s cloud and make them accessible from a user’s computer.
Microsoft allowed Mac users to access OneDrive for Business files through the OneDrive app available in the Mac App Store. This standalone client gives IT administrators a way to directly deploy business-specific functionality. Allowing users to sync group shared folders and data from SharePoint means that teams can have up-to-date versions of broadly shared files automatically available to them. In the past, users had to go get those files from a web interface, or use an older version of the OneDrive client that supported SharePoint sync.
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January seems like the season for updates to cloud file storage services. Box just announced a to its Notes notetaking and collaboration product, and Dropbox is hosting a press event next week.
While these updates help address some of the key critiques of OneDrive for Business, Microsoft still has a list of other feature updates that it needs to tackle. For example, building applications that work with OneDrive for Business is a difficult process that it is working on, but those changes haven’t yet materialized.
I was recently involved in a discussion about the capabilities of OneDrive for Business for Mac, with my co-worker, Michael Toole. One of his customers was in the process of migrating network shares over to SharePoint. Majority of their user base was on Mac, and had very little experience with the web UI’s, so OneDrive sounded like a default choice for syncing their files to local machine. In this post, I share our experience and findings for a quick and easy way to address the sync problems on Mac (I’ll share the credit for this post with Michael). Currently OneDrive for Business does not have a sync client for Mac. It’s on the roadmap for later this year or early 2015 although expect it to be released with limited functionality such as only personal site sync (no team site).
In the meantime there are few third party apps which does the same. There is an app currently available in the iTunes app store but only works if you have a SharePoint Online or qualifying Office 365 business subscription. Else, look at using Microsoft Document Connection for Mac. This allows you to connect the libraries to your Mac in a very similar way as the windows explorer view on Windows. Although document connection does not support offline access. To get around that limitation, download files to the local device. When the Mac OS is offline, you’ll be able to make any changes using the local Office applications.
Once the Mac has a network connection, saving the updated documents to the Document Connection is available. It’ll also respect your check in and check out (read as exclusive check out). So, check out your document while you are online. Make changes while offline, and then check in back to the library when connected. Items also cannot be saved directly to OneDrive for Business through Document Connection. Newly created files on the Mac need to be stored locally and then uploaded to the system.
Spread out your files across multiple document libraries instead of folders in the same location. OneDrive for Business does not allow specific folder sync, but do allow sync across multiple libraries. In short try to go for flat structure across multiple libraries rather than the traditional folder structure. It’s not the most convenient way when compared to windows, but might be the best way until the public beta for OneDrive for Mac releases next year.
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