[Update 11/23/2020]

The post has become bigger, so I wrote a separate blog post about it. So first read here, then switch to the new blog post

Exclude specific kinds of files from being uploaded is the name of a new Group Policy for the OneDrive Syn Client.

Requirement: You have installed the Insider version 20.201.1005.0006
According to the announcement the functionality will be rolled out in the first weeks of December 2020.

Don’t worry, at the moment Group Policy is not working yet. I’m in contact with the OneDrive product group of Microsoft in Redmond, USA to find out why the functionality is not yet available. I will keep you up to date (best is to subscribe to this blog- right sidebar email subscription)

First of all. With every OneDrive update, not only will you get a new version of the sync engine, but you’ll also get the latest version of the Group Polices in 16 languages.  The version 20.201.1005.0006 contains the admx and adml files, and these are almost all Group Policies that can be used for OneDrive. (Storage Sense can be found in the Windows system)

The above group policy allows at machine level to exclude files from uploading by specifying their name. The administrator can also use wildcards.

Example:

Configuration	Exclusion of
Verkauf.docx	all files with the name Verkauf.docx
*Verkauf*.docx	docx files, in which the name Verkauf occurs
*.pst	All pst files

But there are a few little things to consider:

• The OneDrive Sync Client 20.201.1005.0006 or higher is required
• It is a computer policy, affects all files that are synchronized.
• Files already synchronized are not touched
• If a file should be uploaded nevertheless, this is possible in the web browser.

Here are some pictures to test the functionality on individual devices:

As we can see, this is a computer policy.

this is now the opened policy. An error has crept in on the tab under the options. I have already informed Microsoft about it.

	If you click on Show keywords, they will be displayed.
	Display in OneDrive
	and in Windows Explorer a new icon

and this is what it looks like in the Explorer.

Summary:

• Not clarified are other placeholders in Group Policy, such as „Test??.docx“.
• What is not clarified is that the policy also affects other additional tenants.
• The user does not know which files / placeholders have been entered.
• Not a bad idea, but bypassing it via web browser is too cumbersome