Enable differential sync (only sync parts of the files that changed)
Today OneDrive implements differential sync only for Office files (that is, syncing only the changes made to the file, instead of the entire file). It would be a significant improvement for this capability to work against any files in OneDrive - so smaller changes to a file would result in less data needing to be transmitted, meaning less time to sync changes back and forth, and more efficient use of network bandwidth.
PJD
shared this idea
We have completed the rollout for both personal and business users. Enjoy the better syncing!
219 comments
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Miguel V Macedo
commented
Any news on this one?
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Anonymous
commented
Yep, that would be really cool.
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Brandon
commented
This is a much needed feature that OneDrive needs to implement ASAP. Adding my support for this.
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Geoffrey Vancoetsem commented
Hello. Now that Music files are allowed to be streamed from OneDrive to Xbox Music, differential synchronization is a must for me too.
My music files are not all perfect so I use a software (EZ CD Extractor/Converter) to rip my CDs and sometimes I need to change tags to fix Xbox Music artists/albums/genres.
If I change any metatag or change the album cover, I need to resync the entire file. No fiber connection here, so it's very very slow to reupload my WMA Lossless 16/24 bits music files for a single metatag change.
Please think about it, and please excuse my english. It's not my native language.
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Anonymous
commented
It's been six months, and you're still thinking about it? How is this not the de-facto standard for a cloud-based file storage system, where bandwidth is critical?
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Peter
commented
This is one of two major features that has prevented me from considering switching from Dropbox for the bulk of my synchronisation / online backup needs. When making minor changes to large files, I don't need to have my households Internet connection killed by Onedrive having the sync the whole file instead of just the changes. There is also the question of LAN syncing - another missing feature - which would also benefit from delta changes across the network...
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Anonymous
commented
Not paying for one drive until this happens.
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Anonymous
commented
It's impossible to work with large files that need sharing backing up if OneDrive has to re-upload the entire file after the slightest modification. It is not just a "good suggestion", it is a critical feature for professional use of the product and would be a huge leap foreward against the competition.
This needs to happen in every Dropbox competitor and it's hard to believe it is already 2015 and there is still so much resistance to accepting this request, it's the only reason I don't use the huge storage space I get with Office 365.
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Tink
commented
DFSR
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Martin
commented
OneDrive, you have a lot to learn from Dropbox.
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Keith chan
commented
Crazy that this hasn't been implemented yet. It's 2015...
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Michael Beijer
commented
I can't believe how much time I just wasted. Starting the long trek back to Dropbox now. Ugh. I can't believe I was so stupid as to miss that OneDrive doesn't do (1) differential sync and (2) offers no revision history for non-Office files!!!
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Michael Beijer
commented
Sweet jesus. So I am almost finished migrating from Dropbox over to OneDrive, and guess what? I only today discovered that OneDrive DOESN'T DO INCREMENTAL UPLOADS!!! What?!?
I work with a program that saves changes to glossaries of around 750 MB each. Every single time I hit save, OneDrive has to re-upload the entire file!? I have had to switch off OneDrive when I work now because otherwise our internet at home crawls to a halt.
It took me weeks to upload everything, and now what? Move everything back to Dropbox???
Is there any timeline from Microsoft for when this will be fixed? Notice I said "fixed" and not added. It is absolute insanity this hadn't yet been done yet.
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Michael Beijer
commented
Sweet jesus. So I am almost finished migrating from Dropbox over to OneDrive, and guess what? I only today discovered that OneDrive DOESN'T DO INCREMENTAL UPLOADS!!! What?!?
I work with a program that saves changes to glossaries of around 750 MB each. Every single time I hit save OneDrive has to re-upload the entire file!? I have had to switch off OneDrive when I work now because otherwise our internet at home crawls to a halt.
It took me weeks to upload everything, and now what? Move everything back to Dropbox???
Is there any timeline from Microsoft for when this will be fixed? Notice I said fixed and not added. It is absolute insanity this hadn't yet been done yet.
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Andrew Macaulay
commented
Agreed, but it does generate some interesting challenges with other requests such as shared (multiple user) folders, plus some files where locking is going to be important otherwise the app might not understand that bits of the file are changing. It would be great, but needs to be reliable and maybe even configurable so that specific file types (where apps break with this sort of sync) can be excluded.
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Damian
commented
This NEEDS to happen (block level sync) I work with large 500MB files for work (training courses) everytime I make edits to the content, its another 500MB to upload on my 1mbit home upload link. Dropbox has had this forever!
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Anonymous
commented
This is a big kicker for updating the metadata on OneDrive photos, especially considering that OneDrive doesn't utilize the metadata properly anyways. Every time I edit a picture's metadata, it has to re-upload the entire picture to OneDrive? Come on!
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Nathan
commented
This is exceptionally important for MP3's, and should be developed in conjunction with the ability to stream music from OneDrive. Seems to me the OneDrive team needs to look at more use cases now that the storage quotas have been eliminated. There are going to be a lot of people now using it to host large archives.
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pm
commented
when i edit data on my android phone and open file from surface, i see an older timestamp, and when i open that file, all my new edits are gone. Is it possible for me to recover the latest version file?
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Anonymous
commented
Kinda like Google drive documents, how they only save the changes made and not the entire file again.
