New OneDrive for Business capabilities announced SPCNA


You asked. You voted. You shall receive.

Microsoft has offered to listen to your feedback through a public, user driven forum aptly named OneDrive UserVoice (https://onedrive.uservoice.com/forums/262982-onedrive/filters/top). If you have a suggestion or have a request for an improvement or feature, this is the place to suggest it. In addition to requesting, you also have the capability to vote on other suggestions that have been submitted. As a collective voice, OneDrive UserVoice became the collaborative, driving force for the new capabilities that were announced at the SharePoint Conference in North America for OneDrive for Business.

Scan and Photos Experiences on Mobile

Scan Experience: a dedicated icon in the tab bar allows easier access to the built-in scan functionality. Annotating, adding multiple pages, and changing the destination folder or file name can now be done in the capture experience.

Camera Upload: photos and videos captured on your local camera roll in iOs and Android platforms are now automatically uploaded.

Sharing and Collaboration Security

Password Protected Links: Sharing a file or folder with your collaborators will have an additional level of security with the ability to not only set a password, but the recipient will also require a password. This will prevent accidental sharing of information if your recipient forwards or shares the link. Password protected links are unnecessary if secure external sharing is applied.     

Block Download: View-only links allow you to share Office documents in the cloud but with block download, users are prevented from downloading files for the purpose of keeping and storing them offline.

Deployment and Onboarding

Known Folder Move: Administrators will have the capability to seamlessly move folders such as Documents, Pictures, and Desktop, from their PC to OneDrive. This is supported during initial account configuration and for post-deployment migration.

Team Site Automount: Administrators can automatically connect and synchronize specific SharePoint Team Sites as part of the process of deployment or upgrading to OneDrive.

Sharing Controls

External Sharing Reports: Site administers will be able to see all the files that are being shared on their site, including files that are being shared through secure external sharing and anonymous links with this report. By setting filters, the data can be further refined for capture and can be exported to Excel or Power BI. This data report can then be used to analyze end user patterns, including sharing usage. These reports can also be imported into third-party management software as well as security software.  

Customization of Sharing Emails: For outbound and emails that are being shared with recipients, Administrators will have the ability to brand these emails with their company logo; however, Azure Active Directory Premium P2 is a requirement for this functionality.

Transfer Ownership for Deleted Users: A user’s ownership of their OneDrive files is currently transferred to their manager when they leave the organization. Soon, Administrators will have the ability to transfer the ownership to any individual in the organization.  

 

When does this all roll out?

These are truly exciting features that have been announced! The various stages of the updates and rollout dates can be found on the Office 365 Roadmap (https://products.office.com/en-US/business/office-365-roadmap?filters=#) and I suggest that you check here often as release dates have not yet been announced.     

Versioning Update for SharePoint Online and OneDrive


The Importance of Version Control

Version control, or versioning, allows a file or item to be restored to an older state that is chosen from the version list. With versioning enabled, items and files in the SharePoint list or library are protected from unwanted, miscalculated and inadvertent errors. 

Applications of Versioning

Track Version History: version history discloses information about when an item or file was changed, by whom, what was changed, and any comments that were made when files are checked into libraries

Restore Previous Version: file or items that are corrupt can be restored from a previous version. A previous version can also be restored if mistakes are made in the file or item, or if the previous version is more akin to what is wanted. The restored version becomes the current version

View Previous Version: Before reverting to a previous version, there is the capability to compare two versions within a Microsoft Office document, such as Word or Excel, to determine the differences between the two documents without overwriting the current version.    

What is New with Versioning

Versioning is becoming more crucial as software and technology advances, as exemplified by the evolution of AutoSave and Restore Your OneDrive. Leveraging versions allows greater confidence for users and administrators alike while delivering better user experience.

In line with development, Microsoft recently announced they will be enabling versioning on all Document Libraries in team sites in SharePoint Online and OneDrive for Business with a default of retaining a minimum of 100 major versions. If your library is set to retain 100 or more major revisions, then this update will not affect you. However, existing libraries that are set to retain less than 100 major versions will be updated to meet the minimum criteria of 100 events.

Roll out will begin in June for first release customers while remaining tenants worldwide will receive the update in July. The rollout is expected to be completed by the end of July.

Who is Impacted

As mentioned, all team sites for OneDrive for Business and SharePoint Online will be affected. Will you be impacted if your team sites are not connected to an Office 365 group? The answer is “yes”, the rollout will update to the 100 minimum major revisions if you are not set to be 100 or above.

What if we are On-Prem for SharePoint? Will this affect us? The answer is “no”, this will have no impact on your SharePoint document libraries.   

What Else Changes

Once the update is rolled out to your tenant, site owners and administrators will not be able to set a versioning limit of less than 100. In addition to this, they will not be able to disable document library versioning as it will now be standard practice to have it enabled.

What About Storage Space?

Prior to the redevelopment of the flat collection sites with Office 365, versioning of document libraries required large storage sites. This, in turn, created issues for the allocation of storage for site collections. The result of limited storage was the stringent, low versioning limit. With the new approach of flat collection sites, storage is less of a concern than it was in the past; however, with audits, the speed of change in technology, and the increase in collaboration between teams and individual members, errors and corrupt files can be incurred, which places a priority on the ability to restore and recover these files and items. Hence, the rollout of the new higher, minimum versioning limit of 100.    


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