Hans Brender's Blog

I have written an article about “OneDrive GPO: Configure team site libraries to sync automatically” and I must update this article.

First, and that is important: If we are looking inside the OneDrive Group Policies, you will see, there is a Group Policy in both parts (Machine and User) with the same name

Configure team site libraries to sync automatically

I have described the GPO, which is a Machine policy. But there are other Scenario’s with more than one user and Microsoft has decided, to have the same Group Policy also in the Users Section.

The name is the same. The group Policy looks like the same. The Functionality is the same. Only the Key in the Regedit is different

Machine

[HKLM\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\OneDrive\TenantAutoMount] "LibraryName"="LibraryID"

User

[HKCU\Software\Policies\Microsoft\OneDrive\TenantAutoMount]"LibraryName"="LibraryID"

Why Microsoft decided to have the same Group Policy in the Users section?

Its very easy, because if you look for devices, where different people from different departments will login, then there is the answer. If you have a machine policy, you are only may connect to team sites, where all possible users have the rights. Changing that to a User Policy, you may have to rollout several different GPOs, that will only work with this subset of AD.

Other questions received me, thank you, and I try to give you the right answer:

Why do we have the limit of 1000 devices?

We have to know, how OneDrive is working. Microsoft uses Windows Push Notification Services (WNS) to sync files in real time. The main important part is: WNS informs the sync client whenever a change actually happens, eliminating redundant polling and saving on unnecessary computing power. So on the Server side:

• A change occurs in Office 365.
• WNS alerts the OneDrive sync client of the change.
• OneDrive adds it to the Internal Server Changes Queue.
• – Any metadata changes happen immediately, like renaming or deleting files.
• – Downloading content also starts a specific session with the client.
• Office 365 has metadata pointers directing it through Microsoft Azure.
• The changes are processed in the order they are received.

The previous OneDrive for Business sync client (Groove.exe) used a polling service to check for changes on a predetermined schedule. Polling can lead to system lag and slowness because it requires a lot of computing power. Using WNS is a significant enhancement.

Now back to our question: WNS has one limit: 1000.

This is the current limit of devices that can subscribe through the WNS pipeline to get notifications from the service about file changes. After that limit is reached, the remaining clients will go into polling mode, which means they will poll the service every few minutes to see if there are any changes.

Why does take up to 8 hours, until the client machine receives the files?

This is because of the potential spike of requests of mounting a team site both on the customer’s network as well as on the backend service.

This Group Policy is in Preview. Microsoft will see on telemetry data, how this Group policy will be used. In other words. It could be change in the future

For the Next Generation Sync Client (OneDrive.exe) Microsoft has created several group policies. One of them is for companies, so we may automatically connect with a document library. This can be interesting, but people asked me, they have no success with this group policy.

First, you must read the policy Configure team site libraries to sync automatically carefully

Prerequisites

• Windows 10
• Windows Insider on the machine or Office Insider
• Enabled group Policy OneDrive Files on Demand
• OneDrive adml and admx files installed

Limitations
This time, the group policy works only, if you are a Windows insider or an Office Insider, that means it runs only on a machine where f.e. Windows Insider is running. This has nothing to do with the OneDrive Insider Ring

To get the SharePoint Online Library ID, the pop-Up window only shows me, if I use chrome or a private window in Edge

In the article Microsoft says, you should not apply to the GPO “Configure team site libraries to sync automatically”, if there are not more than 1000 devices. I think, that is a bad limit:

Why?

Thinking for Midsize or Enterprise Organizations: The Onboarding process could be more easily, if we connect the sync client automatically with let’s say HR team site. So here is a good starting point for “all employees”, where all important documents a reside. The new Employee have nothing to do. It’s on his machine, takes no space (Files on demand), and if documents are updated form HR people, all employees will sync the docs automatically, but only if there are not more then 1000 devices, connect to this document libraries of other Sites automatically.

Another issue is the time. It may up to 8 hours, after a user signs in, before the library begins to sync. That means, my example above also will not work

Please Microsoft, unlock this limit

To make this group policy run, please do the following steps:

Picture	Description
	Installing the adml and admx files If you have SCCM (System Center Configuration Manager) or any other management Software, you know, what you must do. I show here the installation with a local group Policy Editor. Microsoft has renamed many Group Policies, therefore it is recommended, that you refresh the files

You find the 2 OneDrive files here:

C:\Users\[USER]\AppData\Local\Microsoft\OneDrive\19.043.0304.0004\adm\

Here you have the Onedrive.adml and OneDrive.admx in English language version plus 16 additional languages:

Copy the OneDrive.admx into the folder %systemroot%\PolicyDefinitions
Copy the OneDrive.adml into the corresponding language folder

Picture	Description
	Start your local Group Policy Editor Navigate inside the Computer Configuration to Administrative Templates, OneDrive
	Enable “Use OneDrive Files On-Demand”
	Enable “Configure team site libraries to sync automatically”    For this group policy we need the entire library ID. We have to move to the Team site in a Web-Browser, where we want to connect later automatically as a SharePoint Admin (or higher) Here we have to klick on Sync
	Klick on Copy library ID Note: I have several issues using edge, also in a private session. I always get the pop up window with the Chrome Browser and see the “Copy library ID” link Nothing happened. Well there is no response, but the complete Library ID is copied to the clipboard and looks like…

tenantId=2ac472%2D29bf%2D4d2a%2Dbe89%2D7b69e0524eb4&siteId=%7Bc561681c%
2Dbed8%2D4f3a%2Db111%2D923ahbc6e3ce%7D&webId=%7Be5ee028a%2Dff81
2D452c%2Da882%2D61e470496100%7D&listId=%7BC40DF92C%2DC130%2D4210
2D91D9%2DF46193060F8F%7D&webUrl=https%3A%2F%2Fmvphs%2Esharepoint
2Ecom%2Fsites%2FDirectConnect&version=1

you see, there is the TenantiD, siteId, WebId, ListID and webURL.

Now switch back to Local Group Policy Editor

Picture	Description
	“Configure team site libraries to sync automatically” and press Show
	There are 2 fields: Value name and Value Value name: Here you must enter a friendly name, that you are able to identify the library, because here you may insert more document libraries in other sites, and you must identify them. Value: That’s the complete library ID, you have in the clipboard Press two times OK to enable the GPO.

Start Regedit.exe and go to:

Computer\HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\OneDrive\TenantAutoMount

Reboot your machine and wait up to 8 hours. I have waited 2 hours and then automatically I found a new library and all files are displayed as Cloud Only.

04/04/19 additional Blog post with changes

Microsoft Source