OneDrive Differential Sync

A big bandwidth efficiency boost for OneDrive

Vendor: Microsoft

Product: OneDrive

Date: Now

What's New

Microsoft has long promised differential synchronisation of files as early back as 2014. Microsoft Office files were enabled for differential synchronisation in 2017. All other files types required full upload and download after each change.

The advantage of differential synchronisation is that it only uploads and downloads the actual changes within a file, rather than synchronising the whole file after every save.

For example, if you edited a sizeable image or video file, the complete file would be uploaded from your computer to OneDrive every time you saved the image. In turn, the image would be automatically downloaded on to all other users PCs that were subscribed to the same SharePoint library or Microsoft Team.

How Does This Benefit Me?

• Storing larger non-Microsoft Office files on OneDrive is easier.

• Allows large files to be saved and worked on while having a minimum impact on others within your organisation.

• Reduces data utilisation on your broadband.

• Faster uploads of file changes.

• Improved value in bandwidth starved and data capped connections.

References

• https://onedrive.uservoice.com/forums/913522-onedrive-on-windows/suggestions/6369855-enable-differential-sync-only-sync-parts-of-the-f