Microsoft OneDrive now only works with NTFS drives

[WMGroomAK]

I'm honestly not sure if this was mentioned in a separate Microsoft article, however a recent update to Windows has created an error message that will pop up if your storage drive synced with Microsoft's OneDrive is not an NTFS.  Apparently a blog post by Microsoft indicates that this was how OneDrive was supposed to operate all along.  As for implications, if your drive is setup with the Windows default, it shouldn't be a big issue as that is NTFS, however, if it was something like an expansion disk then it may not be in the NTFS format then it may be incompatible with OneDrive.  

 

https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2017/07/onedrive-has-stopped-working-on-non-ntfs-drives/

Quote

OneDrive users around the world have been upset to discover that with its latest update, Microsoft's cloud file syncing and storage system no longer works with anything other than disks formatted with the NTFS file system. Both older file systems, such as FAT32 and exFAT, and newer ones, such as ReFS, will now provoke an error message when OneDrive starts up.

 

To continue to use the software, files will have to be stored on an NTFS volume. While FAT disks can be converted, ReFS volumes must be reformatted and wiped. This has left various OneDrive users unhappy. While NTFS is the default file system in Windows, people using SD cards to extend the storage on small laptops and tablets will typically use exFAT. Similarly, people using Storage Spaces to manage large, redundant storage volumes will often use ReFS. The new policy doesn't change anything for most Windows users, but those at the margins will feel hard done by.

 

In a rather odd statement made to OnMSFT, Microsoft said that it "discovered a warning message that should have existed was missing when a user attempted to store their OneDrive folder on a non-NTFS filesystem—which was immediately remedied." The company's position, apparently, is that OneDrive should always have warned about these usage scenarios and that it's only a bug or an oversight that allowed non-NTFS volumes to work.

So I guess this brings forward two questions... First, who is using OneDrive as opposed to something like Google Drive, Apple's Cloud or some other File Sharing Service? Second, is there anyone out there that is using OneDrive that this would affect as you are syncing with non-NTFS drives?

[iRileyx]

Google drive for most of my files. Any really  important ones(mainly uni work) i'll place on a USB as well as on google drive.

[Jito463]

There is so little I actually care about backing up on my computer, it literally fits on a 2GB flash drive with about 1.8GB to spare (that's in spite of having 11TB of storage on my computer).  Yes, it would be annoying to recover it all, but not impossible.

[Drak3]

I chose the closest one that applies to me. I don't keep things synced between systems, and I like having multiple local copies so that I can access them on other systems quickly as long as I have one of my externals with me.

 

Since my systems run different Windows versions, and fill different roles, there's basically no real need for me to keep them synced. Actually, with some systems on storage constraints, syncing presents an issue for my Pro 4 and Kahza build.

[sazrocks]

I use google drive for larger files and for files that do not need to be synced immediately (google drive can have a ~5min delay), and Dropbox for small files that need to be synced quickly.

 

At least one computer that the files sync to backs up hourly, which basically makes anything in either Dropbox or google drive very safe from accidental deletion.

[Master Disaster]

Jesus Satya Nadella seems hellbent on pissing as many users off as he can, I mean the fact it was working before shows this is nothing more than MS placing arbitrary restrictions in place for no good reason.

[tomoefuchs]

I use OneDrive simply because im lazy and it's already included in Windows and works well for me. Before Windows got Onedrive Sync i never really cared about any Cloud Storage, but when its already here, why not use it

 

[DrMacintosh]

Lol meanwhile Apple just created APFS to piss on NTFS and even their own HFS 

 

I personally use iCloud Drive because its the most convenient and more elegant imo. School forces us to use Google Drive though. 

 

 

[jagdtigger]

I use 2 NAS(one 2 bay and one 4 bay), both of them running raid1(the 4 bay will be upgraded to raid 10 in the near future). One stores all files(including important stuff. Second only important stuff. Plus i have several external HDD's for offline backup. So yeah, 0 cloud. They cannot be trusted...

[Kherm]

They did this because OneDrive placeholders, coming with the Fall creators update, requires NTFS. 

 

I was pissed off at first because my OneDrive is on my microSD card, but i simply reformatted it.

[elkenrod]

1 hour ago, jagdtigger said:

So yeah, 0 cloud. They cannot be trusted...

it's only a matter of time... All that data is just sitting there, waiting for someone to take it..... Or purchase it.

[79wjd]

1 hour ago, DrMacintosh said:

Lol meanwhile Apple just created APFS to piss on NTFS and even their own HFS 

 

I personally use iCloud Drive because its the most convenient and more elegant imo. School forces us to use Google Drive though. 

 

 

And Microsoft created ReFs and isn't supporting it with one drive. Mkay

[DrMacintosh]

9 minutes ago, djdwosk97 said:

And Microsoft created ReFs and isn't supporting it with one drive. Mkay

But hasn't been implemented anywhere. 

 

APFS can be put on any Mac that can run Sierra or higher. 

[79wjd]

4 minutes ago, DrMacintosh said:

But hasn't been implemented anywhere. 

 

APFS can be put on any Mac that can run Sierra or higher. 

Refs can be used on windows server. But its still weird that microsoft doesnt support it with one drive.

[DrMacintosh]

Just now, djdwosk97 said:

Refs can be used on windows server

well yeah but I'm talking mainstream, not servers. 

[Centurius]

35 minutes ago, elkenrod said:

it's only a matter of time... All that data is just sitting there, waiting for someone to take it..... Or purchase it.

That's why you use something like duplicati to make encrypted backups 

[RadiatingLight]

I only use onedrive since I have a terabyte of storage on there, comes with my office 365 subscription, which is only $99 a year for 5 installs (my whole family), (each install gets a terabyte) since my dad works at Microsoft.

[RadiatingLight]

1 hour ago, Kherm said:

They did this because OneDrive placeholders, coming with the Fall creators update, requires NTFS. 

 

I was pissed off at first because my OneDrive is on my microSD card, but i simply reformatted it.

 

2 hours ago, Master Disaster said:

Jesus Satya Nadella seems hellbent on pissing as many users off as he can, I mean the fact it was working before shows this is nothing more than MS placing arbitrary restrictions in place for no good reason.

 

[Tribalinius]

Currently using 3 flavors of OneDrive (My business one, my sharepoint one and my personal one), google drive for certain projects and dropbox for other misc. stuff. I'm fully embracing the Cloud conversion as it is.

[captain_to_fire]

OneDrive because I unfortunately have to use Microsoft Office. Google Drive for pictures and G-Docs and iCloud to backup my iPad's app data. 

[LAwLz]

Wait, so according to onmsft and some other posts I looked at, it actually used to work on other file systems, but now it no longer works?

So Microsoft just went "oh it works on other file systems? Let's make it so it doesn't work!".

 

Have Microsoft stated any technical reason for why it doesn't work, or is it just Microsoft trying to force everyone to use their shitty standards like usual?

Seriously, fuck NTFS. It's terrible and should have been replaced long ago. And I am not talking about ReFS either.

[Lurick]

I have my own storage solution at home that I do all my dealings with. Nobody but me can spy on the data this way! MWAHAHAHAHAHA!

[WMGroomAK]

4 minutes ago, LAwLz said:

Have Microsoft stated any technical reason for why it doesn't work, or is it just Microsoft trying to force everyone to use their shitty standards like usual?

MSFT hasn't listed any technical reasons as of yet so everyone is left to speculate and the current speculation is that this is in preparation for the Fall Creators Update to try and 'make the use of local and remotely stored files virtually seamless'. 

[linkboy]

I've been a Nexus user (and have a Pixel XL on order), so I've always just used Google drive. It does everything that I need it to do.

[Beskamir]

I don't trust "cloud" sharing systems so I use my own freenas server + syncthing and it does everything I need it to do. Also isn't restricted to ntfs file systems.