14 DAY TRIAL // Microsoft has confirmed at the Build developer conference today that it’s bringing back OneDrive placeholders with the next Windows 10 version called “Falls Creators Update” and due in September.
The feature will return as “Files On-Demand,” but it’s essentially an improved version of placeholders, a feature that debuted in Windows 8.1, but which was removed with the release of Windows 10 for a reason that only caused more frustration in the Windows community.
Placeholders allow users to browse the contents of their OneDrive accounts without actually downloading any files, thus making the whole process faster and without eating any bandwidth.
Joe Belfiore said at Build that OneDrive placeholders were the most requested feature in Windows 10, so the company uses it as living proof that it is listening to customer feedback.
Offline Folders for Android and iOS
A demo at Build showed how placeholders work in Windows 10 Redstone 3, revealing that users will be able to browse cloud files with 0 size on disk. This is exactly the way placeholders worked in Windows 8.1 too, so Microsoft retained pretty much the same behavior, but only with a bunch of improvements.
The company will bring a series of new features, including options to “always keep on this device,” so you can quickly sync a file for quicker access.
OneDrive Offline Folders is a feature that is similar to placeholders and which will debut on Android and iOS, though Microsoft hasn’t said a single thing about its mobile platform. There’s no indication that UWP version is in the works, though this is very likely given that Windows 10 S has become a big feature.
Users should start seeing this new feature in the incoming preview builds released in the next few weeks and months, while everyone else should receive it with the Falls Creators Update in September.