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Enable sync client to allow editable synching of team sites with mandatory metadata columns

As at 23rd Jan 2017 the newly relased One Drive for Business synch client enables synching of Team sites BUT if any libraries have mandatory meta data or require check out, the synched folder/library is read only. This cripples collaboration by teams on documents. This needs to be fixed

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Mark Moore shared this idea  ·   ·  Flag idea as inappropriate…  ·  Admin →

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  • Tomas commented  ·   ·  Flag as inappropriate

    This is unbelievable. How somebody can have a though of removing support for one of the key features of SharePoint in OneDrive ??? Think fast, we want to get it back.

  • Daire Ryan commented  ·   ·  Flag as inappropriate

    I cannot believe this is happening. We are going to have to move away from Microsoft Onedrive as they don't appear to have any respect for their customers and their needs.

  • Vicki Little commented  ·   ·  Flag as inappropriate

    Have you thought about it long enough yet Douglas? This is a real inconvenience. The mandatory metadata is a bonus that should not stop the ability to use another system bonus.

  • Greg Jones commented  ·   ·  Flag as inappropriate

    This comes down to primarily one thing....a good user experience, not an IT or Technical thing. Forcing changes that don't make sense in OneDrive is just dumb....I can tell you that in a hybrid environment for the past 1+ years and having all these changes in OneDrive Sync client and having to use the old client for certain things and the new client for others, lack of support in new client for key features that should just exist and our actual business users expect is a terrible experience. To have to explain, yet another shortcoming with this Sync client is just pitiful, in my humble opinion. Please make this better, not for IT and Technical people but more for the business users who we are trying to get to adopt these tools!

  • Dave commented  ·   ·  Flag as inappropriate

    The more information support page (https://support.office.com/en-gb/article/Learn-more-about-the-Sync-button-update-on-SharePoint-sites-9762aef3-d17f-4486-aae3-9c20bb979cbf?ui=en-US&rs=en-GB&ad=GB) on the latest changes states:

    "The following types of libraries will transition from the old sync client as read-only:

    -Libraries that contain multiple required columns, extra metadata, or custom columns. See Create a column in a SharePoint list or library.
    -Libraries that require check-out of files."

    However, apparently these are not the only circumstances.

    Our sharepoint site/document library has:

    1. No mandatory columns.
    2. No metadata (?)
    3. No required check out

    However, in Library Settings under Document Version History we have "Create major and minor (draft) versions Example: 1.0, 1.1, 1.2, 2.0" checked.

    And, under Draft Item Security we have "Who should see draft items in this document library? : Only users who can edit items" checked.

    This scenario also causes files to sync as read only. Checking "Any user who can read items" makes it sync properly, but this defeats the purpose of draft items.

    I was so excited to move to the new Sync Client because the old one periodically needed reinstalled/reconnected to fix sync errors. But with this new client, we actually lose the functionality that makes it worth using at all...

  • Anonymous commented  ·   ·  Flag as inappropriate

    Hi Douglas,

    Saw this today: https://support.office.com/en-us/article/Learn-more-about-the-Sync-button-update-on-SharePoint-sites-9762aef3-d17f-4486-aae3-9c20bb979cbf?ui=en-US&rs=en-US&ad=US

    Here we are months later, and the latest news is "not only are we not fixing it, we are making it so that you can no longer use the old client which you were using as a workaround also".

    Checking in and out documents and having extra metadata are some of the best features in SharePoint. I'm glad that you are giving us an option to opt-out of the change that permanently removes the old client that allowed this functionality, but it sounds like doing that also means that we are opting out of updates for the NGSC, which works GREAT for OneDrive.

    Why do we have to lose one functionality in order to have another? Why can't we have a great OneDrive sync experience AND retain some of SharePoint's best features?

    -- David

  • Anonymous commented  ·   ·  Flag as inappropriate

    Peter good catch this is a massive backwards step from Microsoft and one that might make us move away.

  • Peter White commented  ·   ·  Flag as inappropriate

    As the old OneDrive for Business is being phased out the OneDrive for Business software stops working and throws an error that you need to move to the latest sync client. After being forced to upgrade we have found out that the new sync client doesn't handle syncing libraries with:

    'Checkout, Required columns or metadata, or when Draft Item Security is set to either Only users who can edit or Only users who can approve items in Version Settings of the library'

    https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/3125202/restrictions-and-limitations-when-you-sync-files-and-folders

    Any libraries meeting these conditions will be synced as Read Only so that users can't edit any files. This completely defeats the purpose of SharePoint where the power comes from metadata, checkout and permissions and has made the Onedrive client unusable for any business users. I can only assume this is a massive oversight by the MS team..?

    This behaviour needs to be addressed. The correct behaviour would be for the sync to allow editing of files if the metadata has already been filled in and the file has been checked in while if the file is checked out or has not had the metadata populated to remain read only.

    To confuse things further the sync behaviour does work correctly if a library has a site content type added with required fields etc, however once the library level columns are changed to mandatory and the content type inheritance is broken it all fails.

  • Anonymous commented  ·   ·  Flag as inappropriate

    Hi Douglas, it has been three months since your response. Can we get an update? We keep discovering new ways the need to run both the old and the new sync client blocks the collaboration that is supposed to be the core purpose of SharePoint.

    This month's exciting discovery: there is NO prior sync client (groove.exe) for Macs. Since we have to keep SharePoint set to NOT use the new client so that the majority of our staff can use check-in/check-out functionality that we've relied upon for years, the Mac people don't have a sync client at all.

    I can't wait to see what we find next month.

    Some indication that Microsoft didn't remove functionality and then abandon its users would be appreciated.

    Thank you in advance.

  • Leigh Brown commented  ·   ·  Flag as inappropriate

    Needs sorting as soon as possible.
    Complete nightmare trying to work with SharePoint documents in a local copy of excel or word.

  • Ricardo Diaz commented  ·   ·  Flag as inappropriate

    Even though the document libraries are not marked as required to check out files, pressing the edit button in the yellow bar that appears (at least with Excel files) doesn't work properly all the time.

  • Anonymous commented  ·   ·  Flag as inappropriate

    how are you going to release an update that takes the original feature away. Who even does your QA?

  • ILYA commented  ·   ·  Flag as inappropriate

    WHATS GOING ON?! MICROSOFT!!! return back my office 365 money! WHEN you fix this ISSUE?!

  • GeorgeM commented  ·   ·  Flag as inappropriate

    Douglas, please provide a status update, what holdup you are addressing. This resolution is needed as it's affecting all our users who depend on the check-in/out feature to manage their shared files.

  • Kambiz Tahan commented  ·   ·  Flag as inappropriate

    This issue shall be fixed, ASAP. Don't just think about it!!!! Take some corrective action and fix it before loosing clients.

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