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OneDrive and OneDrive for Business – not the same thing obviously!

The purpose of this post is to describe and confused state that I got myself into and also to clarify understanding about the Microsoft OneDrive service.

I am an everyday user of both GoogleDrive and DropBox and these services seem to work seamlessly for me.  I have the required applications installed on my laptop and on my hand held devices and my files automatically appear in each of the configured devices.  I expected the same experience when using the Microsoft OneDrive service.
As a Glow user I wanted to share my Glow OneDrive contents to my laptop (Mac), iPhone and iPad.  I can access my Glow OneDrive through my web logon ( and it called as you might expect – OneDrive ).

I proceeded to setup the OneDrive application on my laptop and this installation went well – OneDrive is available from the Apple Store and is free.

However when setup I found that the files I was seeing on my laptop we not the same as the ones I was seeing on the web interface.  I will not detail the process of debugging this apparent mismatch but here is an explanation for the underlying reasons for the problem I was seeing.

Here are the Facts:

1 There are two OneDrive services which Microsoft offers  which are called OneDrive (free to any user) and OneDrive for Business (only available to enterprise users – Glow is classed as an enterprise services in this context)

2  The OneDrive service I see in my Glow account is called OneDrive – (notably not OneDrive for Business)

3  If you go to the Apple App Store on your computer and search for OneDrive you find there an application called OneDrive  this would at first sight appear to be the correct application that you need to install to access your Glow OneDrive !!!!  There is not an application called OneDrive for Business.

4  I had made the mistake of installing the OneDrive application on my computer which in fact accesses a completely different OneDrive service.

5  There is another product from Microsoft called OneDrive for Business Preview for Mac (http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=45519) which you can download to your computer.  This is the correct application which is needed to replicate a Glow/O365 One Drive to your computer.

6   Just to clarify again – there are two OneDrive services with their own set of applications for computers and hand held devices.  So it is critical that this is understood and the correct matching applications are installed on your devices to match the service you are trying to sync with.

Once I understood the above facts I was able to install the OneDrive for Business Apps on my computer and hand held devices and all was well with the expected files appearing on each of my personal devices.

In my case as a Mac User I am using the OneDrive for Business Mac sync client Preview which seems to work OK for now.

I have also installed the set of applications to sync my OneDrive to my devices – these services are distinct form one another and can contain the correct content.

Possible explanation for how I got myself into this confused state.
I think that the route cause for my confusion is that I had been doing some experimentation with another MS product called OneNote and when I installed that full application on my computer it lead me to create a “free” OneDrive and I used my Glow credentials for this purpose.  So I have two OneDrive accounts which both use the same user ID which is my Glow email address (jbuchan@glowmail.org.uk).

 iPhone and OneDrive

There are two Apps which can  be installed on an iPhone – some notes follow.

OneDrive – this is the one you can install which actually supports the two OneDrive services.  When you install and add a OneDrive account the app asks if you want to access OneDrive or OneDrive for Business. ( you can setup both services and switch between them)

There is also an app called OneDrive for Business which can be installed which only supports an enterprise OneDrive such as the Glow O365 one.  I have installed both on my iPhone but the OneDrive is more convenient as it provides access to both of the OneDrives I have installed.  If you use the OneDrive for Business – it will prompt to “go to the OneDrive app on start-up – I expect that this may man that Microsoft will cease the OneDrive for Business app in due course.

Windows and OneDrive

Again I was seeing both the OneDrive and OneDrive for Business  on my Windows virtual machine – I looked at the setup of these an have been able to alter the configuration to show my OneDrive for Business only which is my preference.

 

PS – I noticed that since installing the “OneDrive for Business” application on my Mac that I was encountering the following error on system start-up.  “A problem occurred while access the Office Document Cache”  I appreciate that the application a preview so not a fully released product so no surprise that there is some issues.   After some google-ing here is the solution to this problem – at least is worked for me.  Delete the OfficeFileCache folder as follows – this does not seem to affect the OneDrive application which I also have installed.  this also cured an issue with my system fan being on continuously!!!

– Stop OneDrive for Business

– Find the folder “OfficeFileCache” using Spotlight.

– Delete the OfficeFileCache

– Restart OneDrive for Business