Windows 10: OneDrive Status column missing and no Files On-Demand option

Hi there.I have two laptops, both running up-to-date Windows 11 Home 22H2 and OneDrive Build 23.142.0709.0001 64-bit for personal files.The first laptop has all the OneDrive files saved on its hard drive. In the Details view on File Explorer, all the files have a green dot with a white tick, in a column titled Status.I want the second laptop to be able to access any of the files in the OneDrive, but without holding a local copy basically shown with a cloud icon.However, when I start OneDrive on the second laptop, it has two problems: 1 in File Explorer, there is no column titled Status,

:)

 

"Status" column in File Explorer in Windows 10

Hello,

The Status column icons are part of OneDrive's
Files On-Demand feature available in Windows
10 Version 1709/build 16299.15 or later

For details about OneDrive icons, please refer:
https://support.office.com/en-us/article/what-do-the-onedrive-icons-mean-11143026-8000-44f8-aaa9-67c985aa49b3

You can turn off File-On Demand feature to remove those Status icons:

• Right click OneDrive icon on taskbar, select Settings.
• On Settings tab, under Files On-Demand, uncheck Save space and download files as you use them option to disable Files On-Demand feature. Click OK.

Read this article for detailed steps:

[How To] Configure OneDrive Files On-Demand In Windows 10

Hope this helps!

Note: Included link in this reply refers to blog post by a trusted Microsoft MVP.

 

File Explorer - Status column problem

Hi all,

In File Explorer on my Windows 11 laptop, the Status column is often missing or empty when I'm viewing folders that are synced to OneDrive. In other words, sometimes the column (including its heading) doesn't appear at all, and sometimes the column is there but it has no icons. Sometimes it's OK.



This was just an occasional problem at first, but it's been getting worse in the last couple of days. In the past, I could always fix it by restarting the laptop. Today, I've done several restarts (and tried shutting it down and switching it on again), and the problem hasn’t gone away at all.



I've tried right-clicking on the column headings, then selecting 'More' and then ticking one or more of the 'Status' items in the list (there are three of them!). But this just adds empty columns, and it only works for that specific folder anyway - I wouldn't want to have to do this for every folder.



A few minutes ago, the Status column was empty for the top-level folders (e.g. C:\Users\[…]\OneDrive […]\Documents), and completely missing for the lower-level ones. Now, it's completely missing everywhere except the main C:\Users\[…]\OneDrive folder.



OneDrive itself seems to be working OK all the time. If I click on the cloud icon in the taskbar, it shows the most recent syncings and (when appropriate) says 'Your files are synced'.



Does anyone have any advice, please? (N.B. If you suggest altering registry files, I'm not sure whether I'll do this unless it's very simple and very safe.)

Thanks and regards,

Graham

 

File History & OneDrive on Demand

I know that "files on demand" aren't saved on my computer. However, I still have the following problems:

• After starting a new File History backup from scratch (as suggested in the first response) the majority of my Onedrive , including almost all files that are marked as "Always Keep on this Device" are not backed up.

• Even for files marked as "Files on Demand" - surely File History should be able to back them up anyway? The whole point of a good backup system is that you have copies of files in multiple places (and OneDrive's cloud system only counts as 1). The creation
  of the file history would be download heavy as it copies every file to my backup device, but after that it should only have to download single files as changes are made.