Microsoft has acknowledged OneDrive’s Files on-Demand issue in Windows 10 May 2020 Update and has released a troubleshooter as a workaround to affected devices to restore access to Files On-Demand.
After updating to Windows 10 2004, some users may receive this error from OneDrive:
“OneDrive cannot connect to Windows. Files on-Demand require a connection to Windows in order to show your files without taking up space on this device. OneDrive can keep trying to connect to Windows or you can choose to download all your files. You won’t be able to use online-only files until this fixed”.
Today Microsoft confirmed that “some older devices or devices with older apps installed that use legacy file system filter drivers might be unable to connect to OneDrive via the OneDrive app” after updating to Windows 10 May 2020 Update.
The company says devices affected, may not be able to “download new Files on-Demand or open previously synced/downloaded files”.
Microsoft has released a troubleshooter to affected Windows 10 2004 devices to restore access to OneDrive’s Files on-demand feature.
Depending on Troubleshoot settings in Windows 10, the Troubleshooter might run automatically on your device.
Microsoft recommends users to allow the Troubleshooter to run and also suggests to verify that it has run by following the below steps.
- Select Start and type: troubleshoot
- Select Troubleshoot Settings
- Select View History in the Troubleshoot section of the Settings dialog.
- If the troubleshooter has attempted to run, you will see a recommended troubleshooter with the title, Files On-Demand troubleshooter and description You may have lost access to your Files On-Demand. This troubleshooter restores access or prevents the loss of access from happening in the near future. Important: Please reboot your device once the troubleshooter is finished.
- If it was able to run successfully, it will say, Successfully ran on <date> with the date it ran on. If it was not able to run successfully, it will say Could not be run on <date> with the date it ran on.
- Important If your device has not been restarted since the troubleshooter was run, you will need to do so before following the rest of the steps to complete the mitigation.
- Important To verify Files On-Demand is still enabled, right click or long press on the OneDrive icon in the notification area, select Settings.
- In the OneDrive dialog, select the Settings tab and verify that Save space and download files as you use them is enabled then select the OK button.
- If you are using more than a single OneDrive account within the app or are using both OneDrive Personal and OneDrive for Business, you will need to repeat steps 5 and 6 for each account.
- OneDrive app should now connect and run as expected.
The company says it will provide a fix for this issue with an upcoming update.
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