ALERT! Office 365 OneDrive Forced Update

Beginning in May 2016, Office 365 users with fewer than 250 Office 365 licenses will be required to use the OneDrive for Business Next Generation Sync Client to sync OneDrive for Business files. This automatic upgrade requirement has already started rolling out and will continue until July 31, 2016.

NOTE - It will NOT apply to those clients with more than 250 Office 365 licenses!

What does this mean for you?

If you are currently using less than 250 Office 365 licenses, you will be automatically upgraded sometime in the next month and a half and the following things will occur during the sync takeover:

• The old OneDrive for Business sync client (Groove.exe) will begin to stop syncing OneDrive sites.
• The new OneDrive for Business sync client (OneDrive.exe) will begin to sync the same OneDrive sites, but it will not re-download the content already there.
• The old OneDrive for Business sync client (Groove.exe) will stop running and will remove itself from automatically running upon system startup. The only exception to this is if the client is still syncing other such as SharePoint site libraries or on-premises OneDrive for Business.

How to delay updating OneDrive.exe until the second release wave

The OneDrive.exe update is planned to roll out in two waves. The first wave will begin when the update becomes available and will take one to two weeks to completely roll out. The second wave will begin rollout shortly after the first wave comes to a closure. There is a policy that will prevent OneDrive sync clients from being updated until the second way which is the “Delay updating OneDrive.exe until the second release wave” setting.

• By default, these updates are installed right after the first wave begins rolling out.
• By enabling this setting you will force the update to occur for you during the second wave only.

What to expect after you begin to the use new OneDrive for Business sync client

• The old OneDrive for Business sync client (Groove.exe) will still be the client you use to sync any site libraries or on-premises SharePoint content. You will be able to use both sync clients on the same computer without any issues.
• Links in the “Recent list” Office desktop have the chance of no longer working. This means you may have to re-pin the files you want to appear since they might lose functionality.

Contact Interlink Cloud Advisors if you have any questions on this or need help with your cloud update strategy.

For more information please check out the support article from Microsoft - Transition From the Previous OneDrive for Business Sync Client.