OneSync Now Supports OneDrive for Business

April 5, 2016

I added support for OneDrive for Business accounts in OneSync. OneSync now can autosync files and folders between Android device and both types of OneDrive. If you are one of those users who liked OneSync but couldn’t use it because of the lack of support for OneDrive for Business, please go to Google Play, install the app and give it another try. This new feature has gone through beta testing in the last few weeks and should be ready for prime time.

Despite similarity in their names OneDrive and OneDrive for Business are two different products. OneDrive (aka OneDrive for consumers or OneDrive Personal) is what you get when you sign up as an individual. OneDrive for Business is what comes as part of Office 365 for Business. If you have a Microsoft account at work or school, it’s OneDrive for Business. OneDrive for Business is built on top of Microsoft SharePoint product which has been around for years. OneDrive Personal is a new thing.

Recently Microsoft added the same unified API on top of both products. That’s what OneSync uses. But despite the same API, a similar name, and a similar login process OneDrive for Business has a couple of limitations

Folders someone shared with you are not syncable

Those folders don’t show up in OneDrive API. OneSync does not see them and can’t sync them. The same applies to the official OneDrive client for PC. Note you can sync folders you own but share to someone else just fine. This limitation is about folders from someone else (schoolmates, co-workers) who share them with you. These shared-with-me folders can be accessed only via OneDrive for Business web site.

Resumable upload is not supported

[ UPDATE April 10, 2016: resumable upload is now supported ]

For medium and small files this is not a problem. But uploading large files (say videos larger than 100 MB) needs stable network connection. If the connection is flaky and breaks in the middle of the upload process, OneSync must restart from the first byte at its next attempt. And if the connection to the server breaks again, the app will have to restart from the first byte, again. If you are not familiar with resumable file transfer and why it’s useful please read my old blog post. It talks about DriveSync but the principle is the same.

Microsoft is aware of these limitations. They are quite active with OneDrive product development. Let’s hope that they will address them adequately in a reasonable time frame.