Microsoft have announced that they are introducing a setting which will allow you to exclude newly added OneDrive files from syncing to the cloud by file name or extension on Windows devices.
How this will affect you and your organization?
This setting lets you prevent the OneDrive sync app from uploading specific files to OneDrive or SharePoint. For example you can exclude syncing new shortcut files.
In File Explorer, the files appear with a ‘do not enter’ icon in the status column.
Image is not our own. Image courtesy of Microsoft, taken from Message Center email: Exclude specific files from OneDrive sync
This change will be visible to you via a new excluded icon and will not result in a red X error.
Image is not our own. Image courtesy of Microsoft, taken from Message Center email: Exclude specific files from OneDrive sync
What you need to do to prepare for this change?
You may need to first enable this setting. It’s a good idea to make sure it is applied by restarting the OneDrive sync app. Once enabled the sync app will not upload new files that match the rules you specified. There is no impact on existing filed uploaded to OneDrive and SharePoint.
When can you expect this change?
This change will be generally available in early December.