News

OneDrive To Become Office 365's Default 'Save' Location

Starting as early as next month, Microsoft plans to change Office 365's default document-saving behavior to OneDrive and OneDrive for Business folder locations.

This policy will take effect for both Windows and Mac users starting sometime in February, according to Microsoft's Jan. 25 announcement. The new save behavior for Office 365 users will save Excel, PowerPoint and Word files directly to folders in the OneDrive cloud storage service.

The change is being made to make it "easier for you to get your files into the cloud," Microsoft's announcement explained. Office 365 end users, though, will still have an option to choose a different folder from the default locations, and they can also set a particular folder as a default location by right-clicking on it, according to a response within Microsoft's announcement by Ben Schorr, a senior content developer on the modern assistance and support experience team at Microsoft.

IT pros, on the other hand, won't be able to alter this Office 365 default save behavior. A Microsoft spokesperson explained this point in a Monday e-mail in response to questions:

IT admins will not have control over the save dialog. That said, end users can change their default save location for Office programs. Office programs will save files in the default location, but the default working folder can be changed. To then save the copy in a different location, the end user can click a different folder in the folder list.

The new save policy change won't alter IT pro-created Office 365 settings. The spokesperson said that "admin configurations and organization policies will not be overwritten."

If OneDrive storage is limited or file sizes are too large to be saved to the default OneDrive cloud storage space, then end users can select a different location from the default one, according to the spokesperson.  

"The goal of the new default save location is to make it easier to save to the cloud," the spokesperson said. "But if the file exceeds a user's OneDrive storage limitations, they can select a different location to save the file from the dropdown."

Microsoft already has a "Known Folder Move" feature that syncs files and gives users the ability to control whether those files are stored locally on a PC or in the cloud (that is, in Microsoft's datacenters) or in both locations. Given that, I asked why the new default save policy was needed for Office 365 users. Here's the explanation, per the spokesperson:

This is an easy way to ensure files are saved and protected in the cloud at the time of file creation. Additionally, if a document is created and saved in OneDrive, the user can take advantage of collaboration features like co-authoring.

It's not wholly clear if the new policy is associated with Microsoft's flawed Oct. 2 release of Windows 10 version 1809. The operating system was recalled by Microsoft after some users experienced data losses. Microsoft later attributed the problem to a "Known Folder Redirection" feature that had deleted folders containing unmoved files. The issue apparently was fixed with the Nov. 13, 2018 rerelease of Windows 10 version 1809.

Microsoft worked with the people who said they had lost files via help at its retail stores, but it's unclear if those file recovery attempts were successful. Perhaps the new Office 365 save policy, which compels files to be saved to Microsoft's datacenters first, is aiming to avoid such issues in the future, although Microsoft didn't confirm that notion.

About the Author

Kurt Mackie is senior news producer for 1105 Media's Converge360 group.

Featured

  • Microsoft Appoints Althoff as New CEO for Commercial Business

    Microsoft CEO and chairman Satya Nadella on Wednesday announced the promotion of Judson Althoff to CEO of the company's commercial business, presenting the move as a response to the dramatic industrywide shifts caused by AI.

  • Broadcom Revamps VMware Partner Program Again

    Broadcom recently announced a significant update regarding its VMware Cloud Service Provider (VCSP) program, coinciding with the release of VMware Cloud Foundation (VCF) 9.0, a key component in Broadcom’s private cloud strategy.

  • Closeup of the new Copilot keyboard key

    Microsoft Updates Copilot To Add Context-Sensitive Agents to Teams, SharePoint

    Microsoft has rolled out a new public preview for collaborative "always on" agents in Microsoft 365 Copilot, bringing enhanced, context-aware tools into Teams channels, meetings, SharePoint sites, Planner workstreams and Viva Engage communities.

  • Windows 365 Cloud Apps Now Available for Public Preview

    Microsoft announced this week that Windows 365 Cloud Apps are now available for public preview. This aims to allow IT administrators to stream individual Windows applications from the cloud, removing the need to assign Cloud PCs to every user.