Microsoft Is Rolling Out OneDrive’s Offline Mode For Web

Microsoft has announced the rollout of a new offline option for work and school customers on OneDrive on the web. This is all a part of OneDrive’s continuous transformation, which has also seen updates to the cloud storage service’s UI, folder colours, and other features.

With the new OneDrive offline mode, web users of the service can access their favourite files, the OneDrive home section, and files that have been reported available offline without requiring an internet connection. Additionally, users can move, copy, sort, and rename files; all of these actions will be updated as soon as there is an internet reconnection.

Even if you do have an internet connection, the offline mode still offers performance benefits. When viewing or interacting with files stored in OneDrive on the web, or from the OneDrive app in Teams or Outlook, Microsoft claims that loading times can be up to three times faster. According to Microsoft principal product manager Andrey Esipov, “Offline mode uses your device’s local storage to store certain file information such as file name, size, author, last date accessed, etc.” “The OneDrive Sync app, which cleverly saves a cache of your files’ metadata locally, makes this possible.”

While OneDrive’s offline mode on the web is not currently available to consumers, users with Microsoft 365 business or school accounts can set it up now. Once you open OneDrive online in Chrome or Edge, it will “trigger an automatic one-time set up of offline mode.” You’ll need the most recent version of the OneDrive sync program for Windows or macOS.

This new offline option further enhances the already-existing Files On-Demand feature, which can be accessed in OneDrive via File Explorer or the Mac Finder. You may now choose which files should always be available on your computer by utilizing the Files On-Demand option in your browser.