The SharePoint Virtual Summit (held May 16th), contained some important news about changes coming to OneDrive For Business and Consumer. The biggest announcement was the introduction of OneDrive Files On Demand – the long awaited Placeholders update/replacement.
We’ll focus here on the OneDrive and SharePoint news. If you want a recap on the entire Virtual SharePoint Summit, here you go.
OneDrive Files On Demand
“OneDrive files on demand is the way anyone can see, access and open their files from their desktop – and not actually have that file stored locally on their hard drive.”

image courtesy Microsoft
How does that differ from what you have now – selective sync? With selective sync, you choose which folders and files you want to sync to your computer or device(s). Then when you look in Windows Explorer or Finder (for Mac), you see only the documents you’ve chosen to sync.
With OneDrive files on demand, you will see all your folders and files from within Windows Explorer or Finder, but you actually won’t have to have any of them on your local computer.
You’ll be able to tell which are local and which are cloud by the icon. Of course, you will need an internet connection to take advantage of this feature. So keep that in mind as you decide which files you want to sync.
The three OneDrive sync icons are:
Green check mark – stored on your computer
Cloud – stored in the cloud
Green check with filled green circle – currently syncing to your computer