OneDrive for Business vs SharePoint – Synchronizing folders in libraries

When I use OneDrive for Business  to synchronize documents in my SharePoint libraries I have found some differences between Office 365 and SharePoint on-premises.

OneDrive

When I look in my file explorer I get 3 options:

• More OneDrive sharing options
• View Online
• Choose OneDrive folders to sync

Today I’m looking at synchronizing at a folder level. So my OneDrive gives me the option to synchronize files at a folder level. So that I can exclude some folders.

SharePoint Document Libraries

Now I compared this with Document Libraries in SharePoint ( both on-premises and in Office 365).

There is only one option available (The “>” doesn’t work)

So is there a way to synchronize at a folder level when using SharePoint document libraries?

First I updated my sync client: Install the previous OneDrive for Business sync client with Office and SharePoint

Ok, that now seems to be working better, but there is still no option available to synchronize at a folder level.

My next attempt is to use the new team sites. So I created a new team site/Office 365 group and I started synchronizing my document library.

Ok, that’s not great.

Following Hans Brender’s advice, after installing the latest sync client from here: https://onedrive.live.com/about/en-us/download/ This problem went away. But I’ve still only got a working solution for a cloud based SharePoint.

SPSync

So so far the only option I have found is SPSync where I can select the folders that I want to synchronize.

The only downside that I have found is that it is extremely light weight. The user interface. All is controlled through some options in my system tray.

Pieter Veenstra

Is your business still running on paper trails, sprawling Excel files, or ageing Access databases? There's a better way — and I can show you exactly what it looks like. I'm the Technical Director of Vantage 365, a Microsoft solutions consultancy working with clients across the UK, the Netherlands, and worldwide. For over 30 years I've been turning messy, manual business processes into clean, automated systems that save time, reduce errors, and give teams the visibility they need to make better decisions. SharePains is not just any blog run by a Microsoft MVP. Have you ever used Try-Catch in Power Automate? The original post about Try-Catch in Power Automate can still be found on this site, https://sharepains.com/2018/02/07/try-catch-finally-in-power-automate-flow/ Or have you ever used the Pieter’s method to avoid variables and speed up your flows? https://sharepains.com/2020/03/11/pieters-method-for-advanced-in-flows/ You can contact me using contact@sharepains.com