Source
luketub•

How is OneDrive for Business dead?

3
technewsreaderOP•

OneDrive for Business is the client software shipped with Office 365/2016. It has been depricated and superceeded by the successor to Live Mesh which is called OneDrive. The OneDrive client is more a part of Windows than Office.

The new OneDrive client (previously in PREVIEW, but fully launched today) replaced the old broken client. You dont see the words OneDrive for Business anywhere in the web interface, it is only referred to as OneDrive or a "Microsoft Office 365 Group Sharepoint Site Document Library" (microsoft has naming problems.) (Microsoft if you see this, may I suggest an Office 365 GroupDrive)

To make naming problems / training worse, they have THREE different iOS apps that all access the "Microsoft Office 365 Group Sharepoint Site Document Library." They are called OneDrive, Sharepoint, and Outlook Groups. (Why it is called Outlook Groups and not Office 365 Groups on the iOS app is beyond me. Someone won a naming battle they should not have https://www.cloudave.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/07/20110627organizationalcharts1-S1.png ) Only the OneDrive ios client, not the other two, let you upload files to your Group Document Library. Only Outlook Groups lets you add or remove or promote members of your Group.

1
luketub•

I would argue that the "OneDrive" and "OneDrive for Business" products are much more than just their sync clients.

Just because OneDrive for Business isn't mentioned in the sync client doesn't mean the product doesn't exist. The API integrations for the OneDrive product and the OneDrive for Business product are quite different. Also, Microsoft is clearly still packaging OneDrive for Business, which is probably the best indicator that the product is very much alive.

https://products.office.com/en-us/onedrive-for-business/compare-onedrive-for-business-plans

2
technewsreaderOP•

This just happened yesterday or today. two days ago the product was still labeled PREVIEW. Give them time for all their marketing to catch up. The reason both Consumer and Business work with the new Client is because the API has been unified.

Office 365 Group OneDrives are the old SharePoint document libraries, with the new OneDrive API.

more info here https://blogs.office.com/2017/01/24/onedrive-brings-new-file-collaboration-and-management-features-to-the-enterprise/

1
diskserious•

Even if it isn't going to be referred to as OneDrive for Business, it is still thought of as separate from your personal OneDrive. For instance, if you sign up for a personal Microsoft account with your work email and then your org assigns you an O365 license, you have two OneDrives that are not the same. One is managed by you, your personal, and the other by your employer.

1
leleevray•

Is there still a use for OneDrive for Business though? Since OneDrive app is Windows-based, could we be removing OneDrive for Business from our subscriptions or is the Work/School portion of the OneDrive app based on the OneDrive for Business subscription? If that makes any sense. thanks.

1
technewsreaderOP•

I'm not sure what you're asking. The new client replaces the old client. You can't cancel services or pay less and get the same experience.

1
tree_sloth4•

Cool. A feature that relatively no one was asking for. Meanwhile I'm just sitting here waiting for the only feature that made OneDrive worth anything - placeholders.

1
technewsreaderOP•

If by no one you mean everyone in an enterprise environment, which is the majority of Microsof's paying customers.

2
Caleb__•

I only read "It's a great day for Canada, therefore the world".

2
gewruiaqhgeuiabghrey•

The big question is does it get rid of any of the stupid limitations of the ODfB client / infrastructure?

1
technewsreaderOP•

Yes, sync limits are gone.

Special character name limits will get fixed

1
gewruiaqhgeuiabghrey•

Thanks for that.

Fina-fucking-ly on sync limits. Only the name limits to go now then I guess (there's a lot of German, French and Chinese documentation in my case).

These were things I initially went into O365 thinking should be possible and reliable since they were pushing it to SMB's heavily. What amazed me was how broken it was considering it's a pretty core part of any kind of coworking. Incredible.

1
technewsreaderOP•

This has been in preview for months, you could have installed it by hand. Now it's deployed.

1
gewruiaqhgeuiabghrey•

This has been in preview for months, you could have installed it by hand.

Being a regular business we'll actually trial release software. Any mention of beta or preview gets ignored.

1