Hans Brender's Blog

Microsoft published 2 new Updates on June 5th 2018. So the name of the Updates could be a little bit confuse:

… update for OneDrive for Business for Office …

If you think, yeah, that’s for the new sync engine, called New Generation Sync Client, you are wrong. it is for the old Groove.exe.With this Update the old Groove Version should be lift up, that you may migrate later on… But wait

You may first read KB3178712 (Office 2013) or KB4011100 (Office 2016). First, it is only for MSI installations of Office. And yes, then you may update the version of Groove.exe

Be aware that the update in Download Center applies to Microsoft Installer (.msi)-based edition of Office 2013 or Office 2016. It doesn’t apply to the Office 2013 /2016 Click-to-Run editions such as Microsoft Office 365 Home

To determine whether your Office installation is Click-to-Run or MSI-based, follow these steps:

1. Open an Office 2013/ 2016  application, such as Microsoft Word 2013/2016.
2. On the File menu, select Account.
3. For Office 2013 /2016 Click-to-Run installations, an Update Options item is displayed. For MSI-based installations, the Update Options item isn’t displayed.



You will found the file groove.exe here:  X:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\Office15 for Office 2013 and  X:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\Office16 for Office 2016

So the version for Office 2013 of the file should be 15.0.4907.1000 or higher.
And the version for Office 2016 of the file should be 16.0.4504.1000 or higher.

But the description in the KB article is a little bit confusing:

OneDrive (OneDrive.exe) can take over the synchronization relationships from OneDrive for Business (Groove.exe) now.

This update adds the capabilities to Groove.exe to prepare it to silently and automatically migrate synchronization tasks from Groove.exe to OneDrive.exe. Future updates to OneDrive.exe will mate with this change to complete the automatic migration.

After update you may migrate to the OneDrive.exe. But that is not always true. I descriobe with some pictures, what you may sync with these two sync clients:

You still have to use the old sync client called “Groove.exe) to sync to all of document libraries on all SharePoint Server on premises. The Next Generation Sync Client (OneDrive.exe) is used to sync  to all Document-libraries in Office 365 (SharePoint Online and OneDrive for Business).

So that’s correct, but we have to dive a little bit deeper:

You must use  the Groove client to sync data to all SharePoint Server onPremises versions. There is no selective sync (You may sync all or nothing). And there are more limitations in this KB2933738 article.

With the Groove client, and that’s is shown in the picture above, you may sync to IRM protected document libraries and other document libraries in SharePoint Online. And with that IRM stuff you have ta have it done till end of 2017. Although you are syncing with the cloud, you still have the same limitations, written down in KB2933738.

Because of that situation, and because of the issues at the beginning with the Next Generation Sync Client, Microsoft want to establish a smooth migration part for these MSI Office installations. So then You may use the Next Generation sync client.

But only to the Cloud

The Next Generation is not able to sync your data from libraries of SharePoint Server 2007, 2010, 2013 or 2016 == onPremises.

If you want to sync your document libraries of SharePoint on Premise, you have to install/upgrade to Version SharePoint Server 2019, which will be available at the end of the year 2018.