If you open the settings of the Next Generation Sync Client you will find a section “Office”. You may switch it on, if you want to coauthor with Office 2016 (2013) programs like Excel, Word and PowerPoint. In the past, the coauthor feature was only available in Office Online, where you have to work with Office Online inside of a web browser.

But you also may work with the native apps. But back to the settings:

If You say yes:  “Use 2016 to sync Office files”, another dialog will open, to handle the sync conflicts. You may change these settings only if you have Office installed.

	Let me Choose to merge changes This should be the standard settings. Only if a sync conflict will occur, you should be asked, what will happen with the file. But the next option is activated.
	Always keep both Copies If you use these settings, both versions will be kept.

Even if you have not select, that Office 2016 will handle syncing, it could be happen, that you will be have a look of the second part.  Do activate “Use Office 2016 to sync Office files” , to see the second part, maybe change the second part and after that, deselect the option.

General the Option “Use Office 2016 to sync Office files” has different behavior.
The following things were tested with Windows 10, Version 1709 and Office 2016, and you have a folder in OneDrive for Business, that is only in the cloud (and not synced to this device).

attempt 1 Word

NGSC settings Office: no activated
Word: save a document in “OneDrive for Business”

The document will be save in the Cloud (not on the local machine), the file status is “Cloud only”

attempt 2 Word

NGSC settings Office: activated
Word: save a document in “OneDrive for Business”

The document will be save local, synced to the cloud, the file status is “synced locally”.

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Copy and Move of files in Windows Explorer

Has nothing to do with the Office switch in the settings of the Next Generation Sync Client (OneDrive.exe), but I found some interesting things, during some copy and move actions in Windows Explorer:

	Source: A folder, which is only available in the Cloud Destination: A folder, which is only available in the Cloud
ODFB	OneDrive for Business
OD	OneDrive Personal
SPOnline	Document library in SharePoint Online (Teamsites, Groups)
Condition Source	Condition and icon after copy/move actions on Source
Condition Destination	Condition and icon after copy/move action on destination

 

Action	Source	Destination	Condition source	Condition dest.
1- Copy	File in ODFB / OD	Cloud Only in ODFB /OD
2- Copy	File in ODFB /OD	Cloud Only in SPOnline
3- Move	File in ODFB /OD	Cloud Only in ODFB / OD	–
4- Move	File in ODFB /OD	Cloud Only in SpOnline	–

We see, there is an exception on Action 3. Move within a SharePoint Site collection, f.e move a file from one folder in OneDrive for Business to another folder in OneDrive for Business. So the action will be transported with the Next Generation Sync Client to the cloud, no local sync will be done. If you do a move action between different site collections (from one folder inside a group) into another folder in another group,it must first be synced to the local device (down) and the synced to the new destination (up).