OneDrive Placeholders Are Returning
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https://mspoweruser.com/onedrive-placeholders-coming-back-now-called-demand-sync/
Yup, the much loved feature that was removed is returning. Thanks to @David-Scammell for pointing me to this one.
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This is really good news!
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@coliver said in OneDrive Placeholders Are Returning:
This is really good news!
Depending on how the links work, and if they are exposed to crypto variants.
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@BRRABill said in OneDrive Placeholders Are Returning:
@coliver said in OneDrive Placeholders Are Returning:
This is really good news!
Depending on how the links work, and if they are exposed to crypto variants.
Isn't the current way even more exposed? Why does moving from full files to placeholders make it more vulnerable? Placeholders aren't for security they are designed to save space on the local disk.
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@coliver said in OneDrive Placeholders Are Returning:
@BRRABill said in OneDrive Placeholders Are Returning:
@coliver said in OneDrive Placeholders Are Returning:
This is really good news!
Depending on how the links work, and if they are exposed to crypto variants.
Isn't the current way even more exposed? Why does moving from full files to placeholders make it more vulnerable? Placeholders aren't for security they are designed to save space on the local disk.
Right, the current way is 100% exposed, which is why I (and others) do not use it.
If the new system just sets up links to every file, I'm not sure how it would be any more secure.
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@coliver said
Isn't the current way even more exposed? Why does moving from full files to placeholders make it more vulnerable? Placeholders aren't for security they are designed to save space on the local disk.
Not MORE vulnerable. Equally vulnerable.
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The reason they got rid of placeholders, as I understand it, was because each placeholder took like 1-3K, if a person has thousands or more files in their OneDrive, it's possible that they could fill up a device that had only 16 GB of local memory with just placeholders.
I wonder how this new solution works.
Their saying that 9 GB of data in OneDrive uses only 3 MB locally doesn't tell us anything. Maybe that's a single 9 GB file, the fact that it would take a 3 MB local to point to it would be horrible. I'm sure that's not how it is, but you see the point.
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@BRRABill said in OneDrive Placeholders Are Returning:
@coliver said in OneDrive Placeholders Are Returning:
@BRRABill said in OneDrive Placeholders Are Returning:
@coliver said in OneDrive Placeholders Are Returning:
This is really good news!
Depending on how the links work, and if they are exposed to crypto variants.
Isn't the current way even more exposed? Why does moving from full files to placeholders make it more vulnerable? Placeholders aren't for security they are designed to save space on the local disk.
Right, the current way is 100% exposed, which is why I (and others) do not use it.
If the new system just sets up links to every file, I'm not sure how it would be any more secure.
is it 100% exposed? I don't think so - are the sync'ed files 100% exposed - yes they are, but the non exposed ones aren't when you're not online, and are when you are online.
I doubt the new placeholders will change this in anyway.
We find ourselves needing/wanting an offline access method that doesn't expose the files to cryptoware. Off the top of my head I'm thinking that you'd have to have a local application that syncs files into a local DB of sorts to accomplish this and an app that plugs into your applications to allow access to that data.
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@Dashrender said in OneDrive Placeholders Are Returning:
@BRRABill said in OneDrive Placeholders Are Returning:
@coliver said in OneDrive Placeholders Are Returning:
@BRRABill said in OneDrive Placeholders Are Returning:
@coliver said in OneDrive Placeholders Are Returning:
This is really good news!
Depending on how the links work, and if they are exposed to crypto variants.
Isn't the current way even more exposed? Why does moving from full files to placeholders make it more vulnerable? Placeholders aren't for security they are designed to save space on the local disk.
Right, the current way is 100% exposed, which is why I (and others) do not use it.
If the new system just sets up links to every file, I'm not sure how it would be any more secure.
is it 100% exposed? I don't think so - are the sync'ed files 100% exposed - yes they are, but the non exposed ones aren't when you're not online, and are when you are online.
I doubt the new placeholders will change this in anyway.
We find ourselves needing/wanting an offline access method that doesn't expose the files to cryptoware. Off the top of my head I'm thinking that you'd have to have a local application that syncs files into a local DB of sorts to accomplish this and an app that plugs into your applications to allow access to that data.
Right, only the synced files are 100% exposed. If you sync no files, there is no exposure.
What I am saying is that if they create links to every file, that might be an issue.
If it works like file access does in the newer Office applications, it won't be an issue.
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@Dashrender said in OneDrive Placeholders Are Returning:
The reason they got rid of placeholders, as I understand it, was because each placeholder took like 1-3K, if a person has thousands or more files in their OneDrive, it's possible that they could fill up a device that had only 16 GB of local memory with just placeholders.
I wonder how this new solution works.
Their saying that 9 GB of data in OneDrive uses only 3 MB locally doesn't tell us anything. Maybe that's a single 9 GB file, the fact that it would take a 3 MB local to point to it would be horrible. I'm sure that's not how it is, but you see the point.
So they moved to a system that would sync everything all the time? I'm confused as to how that is better for devices with low storage.
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@coliver said in OneDrive Placeholders Are Returning:
@Dashrender said in OneDrive Placeholders Are Returning:
The reason they got rid of placeholders, as I understand it, was because each placeholder took like 1-3K, if a person has thousands or more files in their OneDrive, it's possible that they could fill up a device that had only 16 GB of local memory with just placeholders.
I wonder how this new solution works.
Their saying that 9 GB of data in OneDrive uses only 3 MB locally doesn't tell us anything. Maybe that's a single 9 GB file, the fact that it would take a 3 MB local to point to it would be horrible. I'm sure that's not how it is, but you see the point.
So they moved to a system that would sync everything all the time? I'm confused as to how that is better for devices with low storage.
I don't follow?
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@Dashrender said in OneDrive Placeholders Are Returning:
@coliver said in OneDrive Placeholders Are Returning:
@Dashrender said in OneDrive Placeholders Are Returning:
The reason they got rid of placeholders, as I understand it, was because each placeholder took like 1-3K, if a person has thousands or more files in their OneDrive, it's possible that they could fill up a device that had only 16 GB of local memory with just placeholders.
I wonder how this new solution works.
Their saying that 9 GB of data in OneDrive uses only 3 MB locally doesn't tell us anything. Maybe that's a single 9 GB file, the fact that it would take a 3 MB local to point to it would be horrible. I'm sure that's not how it is, but you see the point.
So they moved to a system that would sync everything all the time? I'm confused as to how that is better for devices with low storage.
I don't follow?
So each placeholder took 1-3kB right? That would require ~559 thousand files (if each place holder was 3kB) to fill 16GB. That's above the maximum for OneDrive so that wouldn't make sense. They instead removed the placeholders and now are just syncing everything to the device, so if you have 4-5 really big files that you rarely use but need to keep around, they would still get synced instead of a 3kB file.
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@BRRABill said in OneDrive Placeholders Are Returning:
@coliver said in OneDrive Placeholders Are Returning:
@BRRABill said in OneDrive Placeholders Are Returning:
@coliver said in OneDrive Placeholders Are Returning:
This is really good news!
Depending on how the links work, and if they are exposed to crypto variants.
Isn't the current way even more exposed? Why does moving from full files to placeholders make it more vulnerable? Placeholders aren't for security they are designed to save space on the local disk.
Right, the current way is 100% exposed, which is why I (and others) do not use it.
If the new system just sets up links to every file, I'm not sure how it would be any more secure.
It would slow a crypto malware, but not stop it. It would force network traffic for it to work, though, so far more detectable and stoppable.
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@BRRABill said in OneDrive Placeholders Are Returning:
@coliver said
Isn't the current way even more exposed? Why does moving from full files to placeholders make it more vulnerable? Placeholders aren't for security they are designed to save space on the local disk.
Not MORE vulnerable. Equally vulnerable.
Not equally, but vulnerable.
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@scottalanmiller said in OneDrive Placeholders Are Returning:
@BRRABill said in OneDrive Placeholders Are Returning:
@coliver said
Isn't the current way even more exposed? Why does moving from full files to placeholders make it more vulnerable? Placeholders aren't for security they are designed to save space on the local disk.
Not MORE vulnerable. Equally vulnerable.
Not equally, but vulnerable.
Well, as I originally posted, it depends how they do it.
Do you consider Word 2016 is making these files vulnerable?
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@BRRABill said in OneDrive Placeholders Are Returning:
@scottalanmiller said in OneDrive Placeholders Are Returning:
@BRRABill said in OneDrive Placeholders Are Returning:
@coliver said
Isn't the current way even more exposed? Why does moving from full files to placeholders make it more vulnerable? Placeholders aren't for security they are designed to save space on the local disk.
Not MORE vulnerable. Equally vulnerable.
Not equally, but vulnerable.
Well, as I originally posted, it depends how they do it.
Do you consider Word 2016 is making these files vulnerable?
Depends on how you are using Word 2016. If you use the built in OneDrive integration then no they aren't vulnerable. Word works directly with the OneDrive database so it doesn't place anything, but temporary files, on the local machine.
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@coliver said in OneDrive Placeholders Are Returning:
@Dashrender said in OneDrive Placeholders Are Returning:
@coliver said in OneDrive Placeholders Are Returning:
@Dashrender said in OneDrive Placeholders Are Returning:
The reason they got rid of placeholders, as I understand it, was because each placeholder took like 1-3K, if a person has thousands or more files in their OneDrive, it's possible that they could fill up a device that had only 16 GB of local memory with just placeholders.
I wonder how this new solution works.
Their saying that 9 GB of data in OneDrive uses only 3 MB locally doesn't tell us anything. Maybe that's a single 9 GB file, the fact that it would take a 3 MB local to point to it would be horrible. I'm sure that's not how it is, but you see the point.
So they moved to a system that would sync everything all the time? I'm confused as to how that is better for devices with low storage.
I don't follow?
So each placeholder took 1-3kB right? That would require ~559 thousand files (if each place holder was 3kB) to fill 16GB. That's above the maximum for OneDrive so that wouldn't make sense. They instead removed the placeholders and now are just syncing everything to the device, so if you have 4-5 really big files that you rarely use but need to keep around, they would still get synced instead of a 3kB file.
Oh, I see. yeah, they changed from placeholders to selective syncing, not full on syncing. So you could choose not to sync those 4-5 files, but sync many other smaller ones that you need with you.
As for the number of files to fill the space, I don't recall the specifics, but this was talked about during the beta stages of Windows 10 by Paul Thurrott on Windows Weekly.
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@coliver said in OneDrive Placeholders Are Returning:
@BRRABill said in OneDrive Placeholders Are Returning:
@scottalanmiller said in OneDrive Placeholders Are Returning:
@BRRABill said in OneDrive Placeholders Are Returning:
@coliver said
Isn't the current way even more exposed? Why does moving from full files to placeholders make it more vulnerable? Placeholders aren't for security they are designed to save space on the local disk.
Not MORE vulnerable. Equally vulnerable.
Not equally, but vulnerable.
Well, as I originally posted, it depends how they do it.
Do you consider Word 2016 is making these files vulnerable?
Depends on how you are using Word 2016. If you use the built in OneDrive integration then no they aren't vulnerable. Word works directly with the OneDrive database so it doesn't place anything, but temporary files, on the local machine.
This is assuming those files aren't already synced to the local machine.
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@Dashrender said in OneDrive Placeholders Are Returning:
@coliver said in OneDrive Placeholders Are Returning:
@BRRABill said in OneDrive Placeholders Are Returning:
@scottalanmiller said in OneDrive Placeholders Are Returning:
@BRRABill said in OneDrive Placeholders Are Returning:
@coliver said
Isn't the current way even more exposed? Why does moving from full files to placeholders make it more vulnerable? Placeholders aren't for security they are designed to save space on the local disk.
Not MORE vulnerable. Equally vulnerable.
Not equally, but vulnerable.
Well, as I originally posted, it depends how they do it.
Do you consider Word 2016 is making these files vulnerable?
Depends on how you are using Word 2016. If you use the built in OneDrive integration then no they aren't vulnerable. Word works directly with the OneDrive database so it doesn't place anything, but temporary files, on the local machine.
This is assuming those files aren't already synced to the local machine.
Correct, but if you're using Word and OneDrive how they are meant to be used then that is a non-issue.
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@coliver said in OneDrive Placeholders Are Returning:
@Dashrender said in OneDrive Placeholders Are Returning:
@coliver said in OneDrive Placeholders Are Returning:
@BRRABill said in OneDrive Placeholders Are Returning:
@scottalanmiller said in OneDrive Placeholders Are Returning:
@BRRABill said in OneDrive Placeholders Are Returning:
@coliver said
Isn't the current way even more exposed? Why does moving from full files to placeholders make it more vulnerable? Placeholders aren't for security they are designed to save space on the local disk.
Not MORE vulnerable. Equally vulnerable.
Not equally, but vulnerable.
Well, as I originally posted, it depends how they do it.
Do you consider Word 2016 is making these files vulnerable?
Depends on how you are using Word 2016. If you use the built in OneDrive integration then no they aren't vulnerable. Word works directly with the OneDrive database so it doesn't place anything, but temporary files, on the local machine.
This is assuming those files aren't already synced to the local machine.
Correct, but if you're using Word and OneDrive how they are meant to be used then that is a non-issue.
And that is what I am asking.
If these "placeholders" work like that, it won't be an issue.
If they are "links" to every file, it could be.
