Skydrive Sync on Windows 8.1

[rdubmu]

I tried to download the skydrive app for windows 8 desktop, but it doesn't seem to want to work. Does it work automatically now with 8.1?

 

[stevearsenault]

If you go to the Charm Bar Settings > Options > Access all files offline, and it will work just like the desktop version.

 

[CJ Thunder]

If you go to the Charm Bar Settings > Options > Access all files offline, and it will work just like the desktop version.

How do you know? I mean no icon on the folder or system tray.

 

[rdubmu]

How do you know? I mean no icon on the folder or system tray.

exactly what I am seeing. I don't know if it is working or not.

 

[rdubmu]

I just did a test, I made a document on my Lumia 920, and saved the document as testing123456789, IT appeared on my Surface Pro in the skydrive folder even thou there is no skydrive running in the system tray.

 

[jhoff80]

They've instead integrated the Metro Skydrive app with the OS. So to make something available offline (ie to store a copy locally) you can open the Metro Skydrive app, select it, and choose that option. Or, on the desktop, right click a file or folder, and choose "make available offline". It works just as well as before, only now it's part of the OS.

 

[CJ Thunder]

At first it was showing as offline only in explorer's status bar at the bottom. I guess it deleted everything when I upgraded as size on disc was 10mb even though size was 15gb.

 

[anon(5415472)]

Installed windows 8.1 preview. Skydrive is indeed integrated. There's a skydrive node in the navigation panel. You dont need to install the skydrive desktop program.
In windows 8 + skydrive desktop you set the sync settings for each individual folder from the skydrive desktop settings then access files and manage them using skydrive app, skydrive folder, and skydrive desktop. In 8.1 your online skydrive is treated as just another folder. As soon as I setup my account and checked out skydrive, and it was already populated with correct sizes. That surely can't be true as I have 10+ Gb of data and unless I have a T1 connection should have been impossible! I can only assume that what populated my skydrive folder on the PC are shortcuts/hardlinks to their online counterpart and not the actual files so your skydrive is treated as just any other folder by your OS.

A quick test would verify this. I right click on one of these items on the skydrive folder ( on the PC) and the context menu displays an option to "make available offline". I made some of them available offline then disconnected the PC from the internet. Only the files made available offline are still accessible, but all other files ask that you go online for you to be able to access them. Files made available offline look the same but other files are semi-transparent and their filenames are replaced with what I think are skydrive GUIDs ( does that sound right?).

So they really did integrate the skydrive app into 8.1, and now instead of fiddling with skydrive in IE, skydrive app, skydrive desktop and doing all sorts of copy/delete operations, its more or less automatic. It would have been all perfect except for the skydrive modern ui app dropping the "shared with me" view. Are they going to phase that out?

 

[hoovermac]

Ok folks - now I have an interesting one that I can't seem to figure out. The new sync works like a charm but now when I open a document, I don't have the ability to have multiple edits going on like before. As an example, if I open a document on the PC and then on the Surface since I upgraded both to Win 8.1, it says the document is "locked for editing by..." username....." if you want to save changes..." Previously, it used to tell me that the person was still editing the document, and that I would have to refresh to see changes. It seems that the documents are "checked out" when you open them from Skydrive now in the same way they get checkout out of a Sharepoint Site. Am I missing a setting or something? I've looked in the usual places for a setting for check out when editing or something like that and I can't seem to find anything that could point me to the cause? Also, the changes made to the document by the other user are not highlighted like they were previously.

 

[loribinca]

so how do I resync this? it's out of sync on the surface with my other systems and the skydrive browser?

 

[CJ Thunder]

so how do I resync this? it's out of sync on the surface with my other systems and the skydrive browser?

That is why it is beta. On my desktop it will no longer sync properly... don't know how many files are getting fubar'd, now I know at least to do everything in the web app until this goes gold.

I edited a word doc on my WP7.8, SkyDrive online sees the changes properly. My desktop does not.

 

[Shelldrake07]

OK, so I used to be able (before upgrade to 8.1 there was SkyDrive icon in the system tray) to right click on the notification area/system tray icon and connect to a remote home computer via SkyDrive if I was out and about - i.e. using SkyDrive as a gateway it would set up a "VPN" into my home network. How can I do this now, that the icon has disappeared with integration into the OS?

Cheers
W.

 

[jhguth]

That was removed from Skydrive before 8.1 hit, that was removed months ago

 

[stephen_az]

OK, so I used to be able (before upgrade to 8.1 there was SkyDrive icon in the system tray) to right click on the notification area/system tray icon and connect to a remote home computer via SkyDrive if I was out and about - i.e. using SkyDrive as a gateway it would set up a "VPN" into my home network. How can I do this now, that the icon has disappeared with integration into the OS?

Cheers
W.

If you have connected another machine to Skydrive via the old app and have made the files accessible, as long as the machine is connected to the internet you can still access the files by going to the Skydrive website in your browser.

 

[freshfelicio]

I have a problem. I'm on my PC with 1TB harddrive. I keep all my files on SkyDrive. Now, after installing Windows 8.1, the first thing I did was turning on "access all files offline", expecting it to work just like before. But after a restart, it set itself back to "off" and suddenly all new files I added were "online only". Which was a serious problem, because I was organizing my picture library, which lies on SkyDrive, and suddenly SkyDrive moved everything in the cloud and left me with the "smart files". So I turned it back on, and it took forever to download all my photos back to my harddrive. But after a restart the setting switched back again! Did anyone experience this issue too? Because it's a serious problem for me, I feel like I'm not in control of my files anymore, because SkyDrive is stealing my files
Anyone knows a fix for this? Or is it a new backdoor for NSA so they get total control of our data?

 

[Vertego]

The biggest issue I have with my Windows 8.1 update is the inability to access files via Skydrive that are stored locally on my PC, as I could before the 8.1 update.

Microsoft's 'explanation'

?You can use a PC running Windows 8.1 to fetch files that are on another PC, but you can't fetch files that are on a PC running Windows 8.1, even if you install the SkyDrive desktop app on that PC.

Why not?

This, as far as I am concerned, is a retrograde step. Maybe Microsoft are trying to strongarm users into increasing their Skydrive storage space, which of course will increase revenue for them.

27Gb of cloud storage is fine for me, with online access to my local files on demand. If Microsoft wish to remove the ability to access my local files then perhaps they should increase my Skydrive storage space for free. Otherwise at least let me choose whether local files can/cannot be accessed via Skydrive.

 

[jim_h]

The biggest issue I have with my Windows 8.1 update is the inability to access files via Skydrive that are stored locally on my PC, as I could before the 8.1 update.

Microsoft's 'explanation'

•You can use a PC running Windows 8.1 to fetch files that are on another PC, but you can't fetch files that are on a PC running Windows 8.1, even if you install the SkyDrive desktop app on that PC.

Why not?

This, as far as I am concerned, is a retrograde step. Maybe Microsoft are trying to strongarm users into increasing their Skydrive storage space, which of course will increase revenue for them.

27Gb of cloud storage is fine for me, with online access to my local files on demand. If Microsoft wish to remove the ability to access my local files then perhaps they should increase my Skydrive storage space for free. Otherwise at least let me choose whether local files can/cannot be accessed via Skydrive.

Wow that does not seem right. Where did you find that explanation? Was it acknowledged as a bug?

 

[Vertego]

Wow that does not seem right. Where did you find that explanation? Was it acknowledged as a bug?

Direct from a link on my Skydrive page:


to Fetch files on your PC - Microsoft Windows Help

Doesn't appear to be a bug but a deliberate change in 8.1.

 

[jim_h]

Weird.

 

[Vertego]

I think so, but clearly Microsoft know 'better'.