Microsoft removed placeholders in build 9879

Nov 15, 2014 07:08 GMT  ·  By

Windows 10, the new Microsoft operating system that's supposed to fix most, if not all, of the annoyances found in Windows 8, is now trying to deal with the very first round of criticism coming from users, as a recent change implemented by the software giant in Technical Preview build 9879 is causing protests online.

With the new build, Microsoft practically removed placeholders from OneDrive, thus forcing users of its own cloud-based storage service to download all files from their account.

Here's how this thing worked until now. In Windows 8.1, Microsoft introduced the concept of smart files, which were basically files stored in the OneDrive account, but available on all devices with the help of placeholders.

Once a user logged in on a Windows 8.1 computer with his OneDrive credentials, these files were also available in File Explorer thanks to these placeholders, but in reality, only a very small part of the file were actually downloaded. Needless to say, this helped preserve bandwidth and storage space, so it was a pretty neat feature for those who wanted to keep an eye on their files all the time.

Every time a user clicked on a placeholder, the OneDrive client automatically downloaded the file itself, thus making it available in full on the target PC.

In Windows 10 Technical Preview build 9879, Microsoft made a sudden change and removed placeholders, requiring users to sync their files in order to access them. In other words, you need to download everything from your OneDrive account to your PC in order to be able to access it.

The move isn't surprising at all, and Dropbox works pretty much in the same way, but it sparked criticism online on Microsoft's very own feedback platforms.

Microsoft versus users

Even though the Technical Preview build 9879 was released only a few days ago, users were really quick to post on Windows 10's UserVoice thread their complaints over the new OneDrive system.

As the first poster says, these changes remove “any advantage to using OneDrive over any other cloud service,” especially since they now work pretty much the same. At this point, the post has nearly 3,200 votes and 260 comments.

Jason Moore, OneDrive team group program manager, joined the talk and explained that placeholders were removed because “we were not happy with how we built them,” so the new system is much better for everyone (you can read his full answer right after the end of the article).

At the same time, Moore explains that the new OneDrive system will be significantly improved in future builds and this is only the very beginning of a much more advanced sync tool that will provide you with access to your files easier than before.

He says that “you'll be able to search all your files on OneDrive, even those that aren't synced on your PC, and access those files directly from the search result.”

The short answer to the feedback suggestion would be “no, placeholders aren't coming back in OneDrive,” so you should learn to live without them for now. Or just switch to another cloud-based storage service until Microsoft rolls out more features.

Jason Moore's Full Answer

OneDrive in Windows 10 TP 9879 (10 Images)

OneDrive on Windows 10 TP build 9879
OneDrive folders on Windows 10 TP build 9879OneDrive configuration on Windows 10 TP build 9879
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