OneDrive to be M1-Native on Mac by Late 2021

One year after Apple shipped its first M1-based Macs, Microsoft plans to finally update OneDrive to run natively on that hardware.

“We are thrilled to announce that later this year, we will be updating OneDrive for Mac to run natively on M1-powered Macs,” Microsoft’s Ankita Kirti explains. “This means that OneDrive will take full advantage of the performance improvements on M1, making you even more productive on the latest iMac, MacBook Air, 13-inch MacBook Pro, and Mac mini.”

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Today, OneDrive uses Apple’s Rosetta 2 translation service to run on M1-based Macs, but I noted serious performance and usability issues on a Mac Mini and a MacBook Pro. After the latter experience, Microsoft asked me if I’d share my OneDrive application logs, and I agreed. But they never told me about the results of their investigation.

In other news, Microsoft is also bringing other features to OneDrive.

Known Folder Move (KFM) support is arriving soon on macOS, allowing users to redirect their Desktop, Documents, and/or Pictures folders to OneDrive. The OneDrive sync experience is getting a big update later this year that will improve the Finder experience for OneDrive in part by adding the OneDrive folder under Locations in the Finder sidebar. And the OneDrive Sync Admin Reports feature for Windows is coming to macOS as well, though it’s not clear when.

Microsoft says, too, that it recently improved the performance and reliability of OneDrive on the Mac, and has reduced CPU usage by 40 percent. It also now allows IT administrators to prevent users from uploading specific file types (like .exe and .mp3 files) during OneDrive sync. And later this month, OneDrive users on iPhones and iPads will be able to edit Word and PowerPoint documents that they have marked for offline use. Offline editing is also coming to the standalone Word and PowerPoint apps.

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Conversation 8 comments

  • j5

    Premium Member
    09 June, 2021 - 1:20 pm

    <p>Sweet! Looking forward to this major update. </p><p><br></p>

  • bettyblue

    09 June, 2021 - 2:49 pm

    <p>"<span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">Known Folder Move (KFM) support is arriving soon on macOS, allowing users to redirect their Desktop, Documents, and/or Pictures folders to OneDrive."</span></p><p><br></p><p>That is huge. I use iCloud now to do this so I can just put stuff on my desktop and pickup where I left off on a another Mac. I think OneDrive is better in terms of cloud performance and iCloud still does not have versioning which helps with a ransomeware attack.</p>

  • behindmyscreen

    09 June, 2021 - 2:51 pm

    <p>I am so close to pulling the trigger on a new Macbook pro. I just need to wait until the revisions/new lines</p><p>are available.</p><p><br></p><p>I wonder if Parallels + WOA + Citrix installed in WOA will give me the ability to have a Windows style Citrix experience with separate app icons rather than the nonsense Mac experience with viewer icons that hold all the apps from a single server session in them.</p>

  • riadon

    09 June, 2021 - 3:22 pm

    <p>I really wish they would bring personal vault to the Mac. I’m sure it’s not an easy task however I hate not having it in the UI</p>

  • ajaxbeach

    09 June, 2021 - 3:58 pm

    <p><br></p><p><br></p><p>Be careful with onedrive. It doesn’t clearly let you opt out of syncing primary folders before the “damage” is done.&nbsp;&nbsp;I have several machines each dedicated to one of my disparate activities but that use the same user name etc. An organization that worked for me, one that left me in control of which files were where. Same name files were organized by file location(which machine, not syncable global folder name), so no problem.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Without clear and loud warning, onedrive blended the files across my machines. Now no location separation. Files in global folder names were everywhere much to my surprise.&nbsp;&nbsp;Moreover, many apps looked for their files in local system folders, not folders in onedrive. So these apps would fail. Solution: multiple logon accounts, but that creates file ownership issues when trying to access a different machine’s files. And doesn’t fix where apps look for their files.&nbsp;&nbsp;I just wish for a big bold frame that warns of folder sharing and gives me the option of opting out -BEFORE the syncing first begins. And as folders are synced, these option choices also should be synced.&nbsp;&nbsp;So, be careful.&nbsp;</p>

    • davidjhupp

      Premium Member
      17 June, 2021 - 1:40 am

      <p>Blame your OneDrive administrator. As I understand it, whether or not the end user is prompted for Known Folder Move, or whether it happens transparently, is a decision on the part of the OneDrive administrator, although presumably that’s only the case on devices fully managed by the organization.</p>

  • matsan

    10 June, 2021 - 12:48 am

    <p>i hope they will be able to fix some other stability issues as well. </p><p>OneDrive on my two Macs (Intel and M1) is by far the most beachballing application I have, specially when moving large distances in the file tree or across accounts. Further more, many times the file dialogues in applications that default to using online locations can take up to 15 seconds to appear. Since the behavior is not consistent it’s very annoying. </p><p>starting and stopping my VPN with a OneDrive location open is also a great way to make Finder hang for a minute or so.</p><p>I mainly keep OneDrive turned off and start when needed. </p>

  • jimchamplin

    Premium Member
    14 June, 2021 - 7:13 pm

    <p>That was a really long recompile.</p>

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