Intro…
Ok, for the last several days I’ve been “playing” with
OneDrive ( https://onedrive.live.com/
), and yesterday I went to post a suggestion to MS to this link here ( http://helps.ms/KLMgHC ) , as advised by
OneDrive support on Twitter ( https://twitter.com/onedrive/status/529975792093388800
). But since they accept only 1000 characters and after 15 minutes I wrote
~5000 (figures) I’ve decided to clean up a lot of dust from my old blog ( http://itflame.blogspot.com/ ), and add
a new post. I’ll send link to this page to Microsoft through their support web
form, and hopefully they’ll read. I’ll send it to their Twitter ( https://twitter.com/onedrive ) as well,
just in case, and will post it to windows.uservoice.com suggestion box for
Windows 10 ( https://windows.uservoice.com/forums/265757-windows-feature-suggestions
), and anywhere else I figure it could reach the right people. But since I’m
now on a blog and have unlimited space, let’s expand on those 5000 characters.
Before OneDrive
I’m and IT guy, and a geek, a tech enthusiast, and really love
new stuff. I’m also living in a country where paychecks arrive sometimes, and
sometimes not, and 80% of country lives from paycheck to paycheck. I’m a lucky
one, I can afford few extras from time to time. So I’ve been looking at cloud
storage for 2 years or maybe more, waiting for it to become good enough and
cheap enough for both what I need and what I can afford. I have a HD video
camera (Panasonic HDC-TM700) and a huge 3+ TB video collection from it. Add
some pictures, music, personal documents, numbers continue to rise. To be
straight, I have some 10TB storage space in total at my home, large part of it
is backup of my video & pictures archive (so just duplicates really), and then
a bunch of downloadable stuff (like OS
files, and Steam library and such), but this still ends up at 4.5-5TB of
personal data. So I needed a huge cloud, and a cheap one. The day came last
week when OneDrive published they are going for unlimited storage for Office
365 subscribers, including Home (personal) subscriptions ( http://blogs.office.com/2014/10/27/onedrive-now-unlimited-storage-office-365-subscribers/
). I was looking for a good deal for a day or two, and finally bought a yearly
subscription, and went ahead to test it.
Now I just have to upload, right?
Wrong! First of all, I have a lousy <1Mbps upload at
home. Download speed is just fine, 20Mbps, but up is slow. I just got an offer
for 100/20 link, but I figured I could use other ways around a problem for the
time being, and decided to use my company’s resources since it has 2 links,
each 100/100, and 90% of time 90% of bandwidth of both links stands there doing
nothing. So I figured ok, I’ll limit it to like 50%, and since I’m in IT I can
always see if total link is nearing limits so I can pause my uploads. And thus
on Monday I went with 2TB external drive to my office…
Next step – how to upload. Correct answer should be using
the OneDrive app, correct? Wrong! Well, not that I haven’t tried it, I did.
First you have to copy all files to OneDrive folder, meaning I would have to do
it in chunks because my PC in office does not have 2TB of free space in folder
that Microsoft designated as “OneDrive folder”. Not to do it all for nothing, I
took just one file as a test. But it took 2 minutes just to “prepare” this
single 4GB video chunk, and only then started uploading! And even then – speed
was dismal. I was waiting for 10 minutes to see 1%. Then I’ve canceled it. See,
my first attempt was actually through web browser, and speed there was slow,
but still faster than a built-in client. How is this possible! You have a
dedicated app, built into OS itself, has access to whatever Microsoft allows
it, and – simple web browser upload beat it. Yawn… Besides, app did not allow
me to login to different MS account from one linked to that PC (see below), and
did not have bandwidth management of any kind, so it actually had nothing to
offer vs web. Speed – slow. Upload from one fixed location. No management. No
dual / alternate account login. So I moved on quickly.
OK, like already mentioned, I’ve gone through the web first.
It allows for a login to any account (mostly), and you could upload files from
anywhere, even from external drive if you wanted to. There I’ve had several other
issues. First was – if you’re connected to your Live / Microsoft account in
Windows, which is a recommended setup by Microsoft (for Windows 8 and up), you
get auto-logged in to Microsoft services on web. Fine. But my business PC uses
one MS account, and I personally use a whole different account (one where I’ve
subscribed to Office 365). Sure, you can log-off, and login? Right? Well, most
of time. But whenever you close a window or open a new one, you’ll get your
default account linked to PC username currently in use. Also, IE does not
support folder uploads to OneDrive, so I went to Google Chrome which is the only
browser at the moment that works with folder uploads. Logged in, drag &
drop, and behold – uploads like crazy! Well, it created folders and transferred
small files like crazy, but once was introduced to 4GB video chunks (camera
auto-splits files at 3.99GB) it went to a stead 7-9Mbps. Not bad for mere
mortals, but I have 100/100 link at my disposal, and this is not nearly the
bandwidth expected. Test of the link confirmed – I have full 100Mbps upload
available. Checking the PC HDD showed no slowdowns, so it’s not the reason. Oh,
and to answer some questions forming in your heads – I did not upload directly
from external USB, I’ve transferred 250GB of files to HDD just for this reason,
wanted to make sure I’ll get best speed possible from my hardware /
infrastructure. So I started playing with different browsers and such, and soon
found out you get about 8Mbps x multiple browsers. To a limit it works with
single browser in multiple windows, but Chrome peaked at some 18Mbps, so let’s
say 2 x 8Mbps. Adding Firefox and IE in parallel got me to 25Mbps with bursts
up to 30Mbps. Much better! But now I had 10+ browser windows/tabs opened in 3
different browsers, and my CPU and RAM were going through the roof, and I was
still limited to <30Mbps. This setup lasted a full day, but after that I had
another set of problems. Many folders timed out, or browsers got stuck, and so
on, so I ended with a lot of half-uploaded folders, and folders with 0-byte
files etc. I had to check them all manually, and then re-upload as needed. This
took another chunk of my time. I ended up doing the following dance after that:
drag & drop all folders through Chrome, then wait a few minutes for it to
create all folders, and then cancel those folders that contain big MTS video
files and let it move on with uploading rest of small files (as usual in AVCHD
structure). Once Chrome creates all folders and finishes with smaller files,
open few browser windows (you can use multiple browsers and multiple tabs), and
then drag & drop just these large MTS files to where they belong. I keep
one tab per folder, as this allows you to check each folder on its own, you get
a few times better upload speeds than in just single tab/browser, and if one
folder fails with uploads for any reason others continue to upload. A lot of
manual management though, and you have to be near PC most of the time and check
it at least 2x an hour so you don’t end up with stuck failed uploads waiting
for you to click… well… “Retry” button.
I had one more idea, but it failed miserably. Sure, it’s not
supported by Microsoft, so can’t blame them for it. But first off I thought
maybe MS has FTP as an option. No. Box has it ( https://support.box.com/hc/communities/public/questions/200261028-Does-Box-support-FTP-or-WebDAV-
), OneDrive not. +1 for competitor. Then I saw people speaking about WebDAV and
mapping network drives, Box officially supports it, MS acts as it does not
exist. +1 for competitor again. But it actually kind of worked. There are
tutorials on the web how to do it, even on MSDN ( http://blogs.msdn.com/b/robert_mcmurray/archive/2014/09/30/using-the-webdav-redirector-with-onedrive-part-1-standard-security.aspx
) ! But don’t bother. It’s slow, and unreliable. Some files get uploaded but
then suddenly disappear (?!). Some stay. Some are just 0-byte files. And
browsing through folders is really slow, ranges about 5-10 seconds per click.
There are some bonuses, like you can actually right click folder and check
Properties in File Explorer to see if all your files are in it and if size is
same as your original copy. But that’s it mostly, everything else is just
easier and safer through web. Since it is unsupported “backdoor” of sorts, you
can’t bother Microsoft with it, so I gave up. Cute thing, if done properly it
would revolutionize OneDrive for at least some techy people, but this way it’s
best you take Microsoft’s word for it and act as if it’s not there.
Other people’s experiences
Since I’m like that, nosy and all, I was looking what other
people said. I’ve found a bunch of people with same problems, and no solutions.
And these include people like Paul Thurrot from http://winsupersite.com/ ( http://winsupersite.com/onedrive/so-whats-it-pushing-all-your-data-onedrive & http://winsupersite.com/onedrive/onedrive-data-dump-part-2-photos
) and Lowell Heddings ( https://twitter.com/howtogeek/status/527282081421070336
) from How-to Geek ( http://www.howtogeek.com/author/thegeek/
). They wonder the same thing. People commenting to their posts, tweets and
article wonder the same. And web is full of comments like these.
My message to support
OK, so to get back to a 5000+ character message I wrote to
OneDrive support… here it is, with some more details and some emotional
questions. Since it failed to be sent through the 1000 character limit here it
is in its whole:
Why are uploads so
slow on personal OneDrive? I've been uploading 250GB for 3 full days now, and
still unfinished - on a 100/100 optical fiber! There are no restrictions from
ISP. So facts: 250GB data, mostly MTS files (home videos) up to 3.99GB in size;
100/100 optics, tested, works great on other services; Speedtest.net and
similar bandwidth tests show 95+ up/down; on OneDrive client (built-in, Win 10)
- very slow; on web it's faster than client, but still around 8Mbps for a
single session; with several browsers and multiple windows / sessions I get to
around 25Mbps through web, but that's in 3 browsers and in about 10 windows!!
Thing is... I have close to 3TB of these videos, with current speed it will
take me 40-45 days (if I'm lucky), and with a lot of manual work (web isn't
very reliable for 4GB files, so sometimes I have to retry, or do it again
manually, have to check each folder after upload if it really uploaded, etc.
etc.). This is all direct opposite of what I’ve expected. I though I'll just
drag my files to OneDrive folder, and with 100/100 link I'll be done in 4-5
days... Obviously not. I know it's hard to give everyone 100% speed, but why
just 10% of speed that I we achieve? I've counted on let's say 60-70% of top
achievable speed, but this is really around 8-9% at the moment if I look at the
average speed during last few days. Please fix it! Please make client way
faster, please allow us 100% speed, even if only for a few days (initial upload
of files). Oh right, this is on Office 365 Home subscription, so 1TB currently,
going for unlimited. But what's with unlimited if I need to spend 40-45 days to
upload my data :-( Also, support isn't helpful, they just keep redirecting me
and others to "maximize your speeds" link ( like this: https://twitter.com/onedrive/status/529639159942873090 ) as if we're dumb and haven't tried all of
it already ( support link: http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/onedrive/upload-download-speed ). Also, you can read comments a little,
almost everyone have these upload speeds (if their ISP is at or over 10Mbps),
everyone get to about 50-70 gigabytes of data in one day, which means a lot of
time for data that we’ve accumulated with our digital pictures and videos.
Please please please! Listen to customers, improve speeds! New OneDrive
improved speeds by your words and blogs ( https://blog.onedrive.com/onedrive-now-supports-10-gb-files/
), but is still far away from what can be done! How can web upload to OneDrive
be faster than dedicated client, makes no sense! Also, we'd all love to be able
to access OneDrive through normal tools (like FTP client perhaps?), tools that
are proven to work, that can push tens of megabits per second without issues,
tools that know how to resume uploads, tools that won't duplicate your files,
tools that can upload from any disk/folder and not just from one folder.
OneDrive tries all of these things - but fails all. Speeds are slow in both
client and web. Client will resume uploads, but web won't, but since client is
so much slower than web it's useless, I'll rather upload few files twice (due
to connection errors on web etc.) than wait for all uploads forever to finish
through client. Client only uploads from its own folder, web can upload from
any but in that case connection errors will slow you down, you have to juggle
with several windows opened, can't restart PC (or all uploads will fail), etc.
So you have 2 major ways to upload from PC, and one has few perks, other has
other few perks, but neither is really good, and both are far from perfect.
This is all weird since I haven't had such issues with much older tools and
from much smaller companies than Microsoft. I can't get my head around the fact
that the largest software company in the word is doing this so badly, with
software so half-baked, lacking features, and so on. I'm not saying that
OneDrive as a service is BAD, it's fine for an average user, and it’s all
easily fixable. Just make a better Windows client. Web is currently great as a
quick way to upload some files or access them remotely, it shouldn’t be a tool
for 50GB uploads, and it's not Microsoft's fault if it’s not perfect experience
(timeouts happen, browsers break, etc.). But Windows OS client has to be solid
as a rock. Not a rock, a mountain. It has to have bandwidth management
(especially if built in OS as it is), allowing other services to use the
network, but if idle using 100% of capacity to sync. It has to allow for manual
settings, so we can limit bandwidth in app (look at any FTP client or P2P
client). It has to be error resilient even if you point it to a 2TB folder.
While at that, it has to allow us to upload from any and all folders. Just as
you add files to Library in Windows, you should be able to add any folder to
"OneDrive Library", which will trigger a sync. It has to allow us to
pick a per file/folder settings if we want files to sync one way or two ways,
if we want files to stay on OneDrive even if they are deleted (perhaps by
mistake) on PC or not. I know we can currently pick folders as "online
only" or "available offline", step in right direction, but it
can be done even better with more granularity. Easy way to just right click any
folder and say "sync to OneDrive" is one small but important feature
people will hail to. And there are many more. See what your competitors do,
copy it all, see what people say about OneDrive on uservoice.com inside Windows
10 TP opinion box ( https://windows.uservoice.com/search?filter=merged&query=onedrive ), there are awesome things suggested. Etc.
etc. But first and most important - make it usable. If it is slow service and
unreliable, and we can't even get your first sync easily to the cloud... than
no one will use it. You know, the first experience and how much it matters? Once
you make that happen, add the features, make it strong. Thanks!
Suggestion box aggregated
Not to be lazy, and to help OneDrive team, I even took some
time after writing everything above, and went through different forums and
comments which I’ve read looking for different solutions, and gathered them all
in one place for an ultimate wish list. Not to keep you waiting any further
(after 16k characters, right ;) ), here it is!
Edit (2014-11-08): Added links to onedrive.uservoice.com where I could find them. Added few more good suggestions to my list below.
Edit (2014-11-08): Added links to onedrive.uservoice.com where I could find them. Added few more good suggestions to my list below.
Ultimate OneDrive Wish List
-
Make dedicated onedrive.uservoice.com forum so
people can add more suggestions! (Edit 2014-11-07: found! http://onedrive.uservoice.com/forums/262982-onedrive )
-
Add FTP support
-
Add WebDAV / “Map network drive” support
(official), and make it so it supports all characters supported by Windows file
system, as currently some characters, even ones like comma or hash get replaced
-
Improve IE so it supports folder uploads (regarding: http://onedrive.uservoice.com/forums/262982-onedrive/suggestions/6326918-enable-uploading-of-folders-via-onedrive-com )
-
Make a web upload sturdier, allowing for “auto-retry”
on a failed upload
-
Allow OneDrive to be completely disabled and
uninstalled even on Windows 8.1 / Windows 10
-
Remove high differences in subscriptions between
countries, no country has 100% tax to justify the doubling of prices (10 EUR vs
8 GBP vs 8 USD vs …)
-
Remove clauses regarding forbidden content for
private folders (not shared), or at least make it more exact, people shouldn’t
be banned for having a nude photo of their newborn child, or their own nude
from vacation! This is still a problem, even though this article is from 2012.
This is – private – data! http://www.forbes.com/sites/kellyclay/2012/07/19/is-microsoft-spying-on-skydrive-users/
-
Add deduplication to OneDrive clients, so files
don’t get uploaded twice, should work even if 3rd party uploaded the
file before (e.g. freeware app, or copy-left picture, movies from public
domain, etc.)
- Differential sync / upload, goes with deduplication hand in hand, so again, doesn't matter if the file was uploaded by us or 3rd party, if upload can be smaller using deduplication + differential sync, than do it ( http://onedrive.uservoice.com/forums/262982-onedrive/suggestions/6369855-enable-differential-sync-only-sync-parts-of-the )
- Differential sync / upload, goes with deduplication hand in hand, so again, doesn't matter if the file was uploaded by us or 3rd party, if upload can be smaller using deduplication + differential sync, than do it ( http://onedrive.uservoice.com/forums/262982-onedrive/suggestions/6369855-enable-differential-sync-only-sync-parts-of-the )
-
Improve speeds in dedicated clients (built-in to
Windows, or apps for Mac or smartphones, all the same; http://onedrive.uservoice.com/forums/262982-onedrive/suggestions/6378854-improve-upload-performance & http://onedrive.uservoice.com/forums/262982-onedrive/suggestions/6384176-improve-sync-upload-download-speeds-using-the-desk )
-
Remove the artificial limitation on web uploads
(for me personally around 8 Mbps per session, as above)
-
Add bandwidth management in all apps – should
allow for manual setup of upload/download speeds, daily & monthly data
caps, exclusion of metered networks, or exclusion of manually selected network,
schedulers for time of day/week, etc. (partial: http://onedrive.uservoice.com/forums/262982-onedrive/suggestions/6379913-option-to-limit-sync-speed )
-
Upload from any folder, without moving files.
Add right click + upload to OneDrive. Add right click + sync with OneDrive
(permanent sync). Add option to OneDrive in My Computer on Windows to be
managed as a Library (simply adding more folders that we want to sync, even
from another partition / drive) (link: https://windows.uservoice.com/forums/265757-windows-feature-suggestions/suggestions/6565105-tag-folders-for-inclusion-in-onedrive-syncing ; DECLINED link, post comments to reopen!: http://onedrive.uservoice.com/forums/262982-onedrive/suggestions/6332340-allow-any-folder-to-be-synced )
-
Notify us when file changes, show list of
recently changed files (new, deleted or modified), similar to request below, should work together (link: http://onedrive.uservoice.com/forums/262982-onedrive/suggestions/6677605-provide-rss-notification-on-changes-made-to-onedri & http://onedrive.uservoice.com/forums/262982-onedrive/suggestions/6329227-allow-users-to-subscribe-to-notifications-on-a-sha )
- Give us a history feed of sorts, so we can see recent changes (files added, deleted, modified, when, by whom, etc.), without going from file to file, sort of a revision tool to easily check what’s going on (more or less same as above, so I'll put in same link, even though notifications and a feed is not the same, though they work hand in hand: http://onedrive.uservoice.com/forums/262982-onedrive/suggestions/6677605-provide-rss-notification-on-changes-made-to-onedri )
- Add screenshots to cloud (make OneDrive a screenshot tool, like Dropbox) (link, in progress: http://onedrive.uservoice.com/forums/262982-onedrive/suggestions/6376759-onedrive-capture-tool-and-quick-share-features )
- Give us a history feed of sorts, so we can see recent changes (files added, deleted, modified, when, by whom, etc.), without going from file to file, sort of a revision tool to easily check what’s going on (more or less same as above, so I'll put in same link, even though notifications and a feed is not the same, though they work hand in hand: http://onedrive.uservoice.com/forums/262982-onedrive/suggestions/6677605-provide-rss-notification-on-changes-made-to-onedri )
- Add screenshots to cloud (make OneDrive a screenshot tool, like Dropbox) (link, in progress: http://onedrive.uservoice.com/forums/262982-onedrive/suggestions/6376759-onedrive-capture-tool-and-quick-share-features )
-
Allow granular sharing control and management,
adding some users as read only, some as read/write, some with delete ability, and
some with modify but not delete, etc. (link: http://onedrive.uservoice.com/forums/262982-onedrive/suggestions/6677590-ntfs-like-permissions-on-shares-full-control-mod )
-
Show files that others shared with us (like
advanced shortcuts/bookmarks, similar to the shared view on the web; link: http://onedrive.uservoice.com/forums/262982-onedrive/suggestions/6328728-add-shared-shared-with-me-view-to-the-modern ), allow us
to copy them to our own storage pool for easy access and sync to PC (skipping
the need for manual download & re-upload, saving time and bandwidth; link: http://onedrive.uservoice.com/forums/262982-onedrive/suggestions/6536198-make-shared-by-others-better )
-
Support for multiple accounts in parallel, for
business vs personal separation (link for iOS: http://onedrive.uservoice.com/forums/262982-onedrive/suggestions/6621750-multiple-account-login-ios ; link for WP: http://onedrive.uservoice.com/forums/262982-onedrive/suggestions/6483132-multiple-personal-accounts-on-windows-phone ; link for Windows DECLINED!!: http://onedrive.uservoice.com/forums/262982-onedrive/suggestions/6327047-allow-multiple-onedrive-accounts-integrated-into-w )
-
Support for logoff and login as person that is
not logged to that PC with “connected account”, so either using local account
connected to Live account but using another Microsoft account to access
OneDrive, or using OneDrive with “ordinary” local account (not the connected
one) (link: http://onedrive.uservoice.com/forums/262982-onedrive/suggestions/6409926-allow-local-accounts-full-use-of-desktop-and-moder )
-
Improve the “properties” feature on web so it
can show more details for folders, like file properties in an OS (number of
files and subfolders in a folder, total size, etc.). Maybe even get the same
info if you select multiple files/folders and want to get their total
size/numbers.
-
Option for auto-retry of failed web uploads, so
it can be used in an un-attended mode, plus an upload resume ( partial: http://onedrive.uservoice.com/forums/262982-onedrive/suggestions/6650116-upload-resumption-in-web-interface )
-
Allow us to lock folders “read only” on the web
and in the client, thus protecting the online copy from accidental modifications,
deleting, attacks of malware or crypto lockers etc. (partial, similar to: http://onedrive.uservoice.com/forums/262982-onedrive/suggestions/6601662-mark-files-as-can-not-be-deleted )
-
Add versioning of all online files, at least in limited
ways ( http://onedrive.uservoice.com/forums/262982-onedrive/suggestions/6327142-enable-file-versioning-history-for-all-types-of-fi )
-
Improve handling of multimedia online. For
example, mp4v, mp4 and m4v aren’t handled the same online even though they are
essentially same container and file type. Also, when user uploads large videos,
make a background recoding to a stream friendly formats, and for example recode
1080/60p M2TS video to lower bitrate mp4 in 1080p/720p/480p. Allow us automatic
and manual choice of streaming of these lower bandwidth videos. Allow us to
share these original videos, but give everyone a choice if they’ll download
original file or recoded one. Make those recoded videos available for streaming
through OneDrive app. Make them available for streaming in video players, like Modern
Video app in Win 8/10, show them in Windows Media Player library for streaming
directly from cloud, etc. Do similar for pictures and audio formats, integrate
them in audio / video players and picture galleries. Ok, pictures are already
supported very well, but can be improved with better management, better meta
tag support, etc. (this is like 10+ requests in one, for details search http://onedrive.uservoice.com/ )
-
Add clear “online” and “offline” icons to files
and folders, otherwise how should we know if these are set to always
online/offline without clicking each and every one and checking properties ( http://onedrive.uservoice.com/forums/262982-onedrive/suggestions/6399236-icons-overlay-and-other-visual-help-needed )
-
Make OneDrive integrated with Windows backup
tools, or maybe even add backup capabilities to OneDrive client ( link #1 PC backup: http://onedrive.uservoice.com/forums/262982-onedrive/suggestions/6383674-automatic-backup-on-windows ; #2 folder backup: http://onedrive.uservoice.com/forums/262982-onedrive/suggestions/6442111-mirror-folders-on-local-pc-mac-to-onedrive ; #3 file history: http://onedrive.uservoice.com/forums/262982-onedrive/suggestions/6620634-integrate-with-history-file )
-
Remove limits of number of files syncing, makes
sense with unlimited data service ( http://onedrive.uservoice.com/forums/262982-onedrive/suggestions/6392647-remove-the-limit-20-000-of-files-that-can-be-sto )
-
Remove limits to folder and file name
size/length/depth, should be equal to Windows NTFS capabilities so we can
mirror our file/folder trees and organization to cloud undisturbed ( http://onedrive.uservoice.com/forums/262982-onedrive/suggestions/6325774-enable-long-file-paths-aka-file-name-too-long-p?page=2&per_page=20 )
-
Allow us local data encryption of selected
files/folders, before these leave our device. Also, allow transparent decryption
if used through this same client from cloud (or just ask for password before
opening those files). Do NOT make this the same password as it is for our
Microsoft/live account with which we login to OneDrive. (links: http://onedrive.uservoice.com/forums/262982-onedrive/suggestions/6423983-encrypt-from-local-device-files-to-onedrive-would & http://onedrive.uservoice.com/forums/262982-onedrive/suggestions/6423969-onedrive-bitlocker-encript-feature-secure-share )
-
Make OneDrive default viewer for files that can
be opened with online tools (Office Online and such), if there is no other app
installed on the PC. When being opened warn that it will upload file to web so
it can be opened there. This can also be just read only access (open, view,
print) if person is not Office 365 subscriber or similar. ( https://windows.uservoice.com/forums/265757-windows-feature-suggestions/suggestions/6542406-open-office-files-with-onedrive-if-office-is-not-i )
-
Make a sync filter by whitelisting/blacklisting
extensions (for example, allow all jpegs, disallow all dlls and exe files, partial suggestion link: https://windows.uservoice.com/forums/265757-windows-feature-suggestions/suggestions/6576168-onedrive-extend-sync-options )
-
When syncing don’t get sidetracked by files that
have sync errors, continue without them and warn user that OneDrive needs
attention (maybe this had been implemented, I haven’t had these issues so far) (not exact, but here anyway: http://onedrive.uservoice.com/forums/262982-onedrive/suggestions/6571001-make-upload-reliable )
-
Show better status of OneDrive in both web and
apps, but specially Windows app. It should show current sync status, if it’s
currently uploading it should say how much is uploaded, how much is left, how
far it went, which files are being uploaded at the moment, which files are
waiting for sync etc. If it is not uploading it should state if it’s 100%
synced, or if it is offline, or if it has sync issues and so on.
-
Right clicking should have an option to copy
short URL to clipboard for easier sharing (more or less: http://onedrive.uservoice.com/forums/262982-onedrive/suggestions/6533100-shorten-link-by-default ; this: https://windows.uservoice.com/forums/265757-windows-feature-suggestions/suggestions/6682726-add-ability-to-create-shortened-urls-to-onedrive-d )
-
“Smart sync” or “LAN sync” should be a part of
all apps, even smartphone/tablet apps, on all platforms. It should function
like a small P2P network, so if multiple devices in same network are sharing
same files/folders these should sync in LAN and not through web. Upload/download
once in a network, and not once for each device. Dropbox has something like
this, and some P2P sync tools as well. It should also allow limited OneDrive
functions without cloud, for example if home server has 2TB of files “always
offline”, and client PCs are setup as “online-only”, if this location has no
Internet access (technical reasons and such), OneDrive apps on server and PCs
should talk to each other’s and if one of “online-only devices” requests a file
from Cloud and it is available on another PC or home server, it should be able
to get it from there. It will increase speeds, and will allow more users to use
the services without overloading Microsoft’s infrastructure. (partial: http://onedrive.uservoice.com/forums/262982-onedrive/suggestions/6327930-syncing-over-lan )
-
If device opens an “online only” file, it should
be cached locally. There should be a user configurable amount of such cache. So
maybe I’ll put all files as “online only” but will allow for 200GB cache, and
files I use the most often or use them recently will be available for me. Smart
checking if cached version is the latest one is to be assumed if device is
connected to Internet. ( this is a partial: http://onedrive.uservoice.com/forums/262982-onedrive/suggestions/6475534-offline-access-on-android )
-
Ability to detach / block certain device through
web interface in case of theft or if it is lost. Also, add ability to delete
all OneDrive files from that device remotely (remote wipe) (link #1: http://onedrive.uservoice.com/forums/262982-onedrive/suggestions/6421416-remote-wipe ; #2: https://windows.uservoice.com/forums/265757-windows-feature-suggestions/suggestions/6602868-initiate-remote-wipe-erase-if-laptop-tablet )
- (added 2011-11-08) Remove file size limit ( http://onedrive.uservoice.com/forums/262982-onedrive/suggestions/6421614-allow-files-of-any-size-to-be-synced )
- (added 2011-11-08) URL "fetch" ability, so we can enter URL of an online file in the upload box (in apps and on web), and file would be downloaded directly to OneDrive, instead of downloading to PC and than uploading to OneDrive (like this: http://onedrive.uservoice.com/forums/262982-onedrive/suggestions/6642190-let-onedrive-fetch-files-for-me , and this: http://onedrive.uservoice.com/forums/262982-onedrive/suggestions/6484366-give-a-feature-to-import-data-from-other-cloud-sto )
- (added 2011-11-08) Remove file size limit ( http://onedrive.uservoice.com/forums/262982-onedrive/suggestions/6421614-allow-files-of-any-size-to-be-synced )
- (added 2011-11-08) URL "fetch" ability, so we can enter URL of an online file in the upload box (in apps and on web), and file would be downloaded directly to OneDrive, instead of downloading to PC and than uploading to OneDrive (like this: http://onedrive.uservoice.com/forums/262982-onedrive/suggestions/6642190-let-onedrive-fetch-files-for-me , and this: http://onedrive.uservoice.com/forums/262982-onedrive/suggestions/6484366-give-a-feature-to-import-data-from-other-cloud-sto )
I’ve probably skipped some, but like I’ve wrote before –
check forums, and uservoice.com. (EDIT: I'll be adding updates to the above list, either new suggestions that I find or think of, or if status of above suggestion changes.)
Good news for the end…
Well, since I’ve been writing this one and off for a whole
day, I got an early present in meantime. My OneDrive now shows 10TB. Thank you
Microsoft! This is a very nice service and worth every penny in my opinion, but
we just want it to be awesome as it deserves. Most of this just needs some
smart programming. Some of it will even make OneDrive cheaper for Microsoft to
support as it will lessen load on its infrastructure. Only small part of it
needs serious investments. So pick the “cheap” suggestions first, I won’t mind.
Just keep improving this service :)
Comments?
Do you have comments? Other suggestions? I made a mistake
and something can already be done or was already fixed? Anything at all to add?
Please comment below! Or contact me… just google me, you’ll find me ;) And
thanks for reading this monster post! :)
EDIT 2015-11-04:
Microsoft just made me give up from OneDrive. For more information please see official blog post here: https://blog.onedrive.com/onedrive_changes/
Here is my new blog post on this subject: http://itflame.blogspot.hr/2015/11/give-us-back-our-storage-onedrive.html
And people's (and mine) reactions on official Uservoice forum are here, currently top rated and hottest post ever on OneDrive Uservoice forums:
https://onedrive.uservoice.com/forums/262982-onedrive/suggestions/10524099-give-us-back-our-storage
EDIT 2015-11-04:
Microsoft just made me give up from OneDrive. For more information please see official blog post here: https://blog.onedrive.com/onedrive_changes/
Here is my new blog post on this subject: http://itflame.blogspot.hr/2015/11/give-us-back-our-storage-onedrive.html
And people's (and mine) reactions on official Uservoice forum are here, currently top rated and hottest post ever on OneDrive Uservoice forums:
https://onedrive.uservoice.com/forums/262982-onedrive/suggestions/10524099-give-us-back-our-storage
