OneDrive Syncing Issues on Mac: Keychain, Reboots and Reinstalls


OneDrive is good value for money – when it works – but there have been a number of times when syncing has needed a kickstart, most recently after an OS X update. The recent El Capitan update insisted that I change my log-in password so that it no longer matched my iCloud one (although it had been a previous update that insisted I change my password to the iCloud one), which led to another prompt when Safari updated about entering my old password to sort out keychain issues. Anyway I'd see in one of the App Store reviews that the reviewer had a keychain issue, and that there was a solution based on this, so I thought it worth a try, because there might be some connection with these recent password and keychain prompts. As luck would have it, the following did solve my troubles (this time):
  1. quit OneDrive
  2. open Keychain Access.app (Applications > Utilities > Keychain Access.app or type Keychain into Launchpad search)
  3. search All Items for 'OneDrive'
  4. delete com.microsoft.OneDrive-mac.HockeySDK AND OneDrive Cached Credential
  5. restart OneDrive and log-in, etc. (the two files you deleted will be recreated)
Other things that have solved syncing problems in the past:
  1. quit and reopen OneDrive
  2. reboot machine
  3. quit OneDrive on all computers currently running it, then let one machine at a time log in until all have synced successfully
  4. OneDrive > Preferences… > Accounts > Unlink Account (then reopen and relink)
  5. Uninstall (from Launchpad hold down alt key, or do a long press on an app icon, and click the X next to OneDrive) and reinstall from App Store

Note: there are times, when you have a lot of files, that OneDrive really is 'Processing files...' or 'Scanning files...' and it is worth being patient for an hour or so, but these two statuses can also be an indicator that progress is simply hanging and you need to take action like the above.

Further Note: Syncing problems can be caused by path length,
"The entire path, including the file name, must contain fewer than 255 characters. Shorten the name of your file or the name of subfolders in OneDrive, or select a subfolder that's closer to the top-level folder." (Microsoft)
They can also be caused by use of certain symbols in file names, and by individual files over 1 GB in size. If any of these issues occur you should see a warning symbol appear on the OneDrive icon in your menu bar and there should be an option appear when you click on the icon to inspect and correct these errors.

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