If you’re having issues with high CPU usage with your OneDrive for macOS installation you might want to try the following fix suggestions.

Dec 19, 2015. Run the program on your Mac. The first thing you need to do is to download and install the mentioned software on your Mac. Then launch it and click on the Document button at the upper right corner. Log in your OneDrive account. Select the OneDrive option from the list and then sign in the OneDrive account. Here, you will be.

Microsoft has made Files On-Demand available for High Sierra or later back in January 2019.

I have been using this in order to keep the Files On-Demand feature that has been available for some time now in a specific preview build. I can’t say though, if there has been any kind of update to this build Microsoft is making available (download here).

The Files On-Demand feature works well enough on this build and it’s so useful that I’ve been using despite the issues it has.

The main issue I’ve been struggling with is that OneDrive will stop working after some days – it will just crash without any warning soon after the app loads. As this is a silent crash, you won’t even be aware that your files are not being synced at all uploading files correctly, at least some files appear to get stuck in the upload queue.

Check File Permissions and Attributes

One issue that may be causing files getting stuck in Onedrive for Mac’s upload queue is wrong permissions. While Apple has a specific permission reset instructions article available, my experience it didn’t help. I found that the files getting stuck had 644 permissions in contrast to the rest, which had 755.

In the example above the two top files were stuck in the upload queue.

So using Terminal I reset these permissions for all files back to 755 by issuing the command below within the OneDrive folder:

sudo chmod -R u=rwx,g=rx,o=rx .

If your OneDrive folder is in the default user home location you can get there by issuing cd ~/OneDrive after which you can issue the command above.

The files didn’t upload straight away after these commands, but a few minutes later all were uploaded. After that I exited OneDrive, and started it again, after which I had no more excessive CPU usage.

Another Fix

The following instructions are only for the Standalone version of OneDrive (i.e. if you didn’t get OneDrive for Mac via the Mac Store; if this is your case, just try removing the app and clearing the KeyChain manually).

Considering that OneDrive is not loading or if it is constantly crashing, you might want to follow the steps below. This will reset all KeyChain entries (including the login), and some other settings, so you’ll basically have to login again and wait for OneDrive to check all your local files against the online stored versions.

Here we go:

1. Close OneDrive using the app (if open), by pressing the cloud icon and selecting Settings > Quit.
2. Open Activity Monitor and kill any OneDrive related task you find (there might be some OneDrive Finder Integration entries there as well).
3. Open Finder, navigate to Applications > OneDrive.app, right-click it and select Show Package Contents.
4. Navigate to Contents > Resources
5. Find “ResetOneDriveApp.command” or “ResetOneDriveAppStandalone.command” and double-click it.
6. After that a Console script should run on its own and you can close it when completed.
7. Open OneDrive again and login.

Caveats for the Fix above

Note that if you are using Files On-Demand and experiencing similar issues to mine, the procedure above will probably also reset your default selection for files and folders you have manually excluded from your synchronization selection (i.e. “Free up space”).

Essentially, you’ll have to choose whichever ones you want or leave it to OneDrive to manage it.

For More on OneDrive for Mac troubleshooting

Microsoft FAQ:

In its new OneDrive interface, Microsoft has managed to leave out the only useful way to download all the files in a shared OneDrive folder. Recently, I had to grab files for a client via a link to a shared OneDrive folder. Before I could even start, I had to log in or create a Microsoft account. This is where my client got stymied. She didn’t want to have to create yet another online account, and who can blame her? We already have far too many online logins to manage, and those are for the accounts we actually want. Fortunately, I already have a Live.com account, so I used that.

Once in, however, my own progress came to a screeching halt. I checked every icon and link and right-button context menu in vein for an option that would allow me to select all files and download them in one efficient click. Here’s the funny part. I could select one file and get a download link along the top. But when I selected more than one file, that nifty little option disappeared. Why? If Microsoft can imagine that I would want to download one of the shared files, is it inconceivable that I might want to download more than one file? At the same time?

The prospect of downloading over 200 files individually — ONE … AT … A … TIME — was daunting and unacceptable. Even Googling the problem, however, didn’t help in this case. Somehow, I managed to back into the solution. And you won’t believe how embedded this simple option was!

The Solution

Onedrive Failed To Download Mac Os

Here’s what you have to do to download more than one file at a time on OneDrive:

1. In the lower left of the new OneDrive interface, find and click the link to “Return to classic OneDrive.” Seriously, I had no idea I had ever left classic view.
2. Once in classic OneDrive, check the options button (the gear icon) at the top right and make sure the Ribbon is set to show. Some brilliant developer at MS decided that the really useful buttons on the ribbons weren’t necessary, so they didn’t simply hide the ribbon. They got rid of it altogether in the new UI. Apparently, they’ve recognized the error of their ways and will be bringing it back (see How to show the toolbar ribbon within the newest OneDrive user interface).
3. Next, click the Library tab, and select the option to “Open with Explorer.”

OneDrive – the classic interface

After a moment, you’ll get an Explorer window showing you the folder and file content of the shared OneDrive folder. At this point, you can use simple Windows file-management steps to copy or drag-and-drop the OneDrive files to a local folder on your computer.

The Rant

Onedrive Failed To Download Macos

Microsoft developers continue to make the same mistake every time they update an interface — they ignore what users actually do. A human-centered design is a design that begins from the standpoint of the user experience. Microsoft has always done the opposite. Each UI update imposes changes that developers decide are better. Users are forced to fumble around until they figure out where some useful toolbar or button has been moved to. If enough users complain, a subsequent update brings the feature back — like the Start Button in Windows 8.1.

Everything about Microsoft’s development strategy is wrong!

I wonder what staggering number of labor hours have been wasted over the years by Microsoft’s blatant disregard for the user experience. My recent one-on-one with OneDrive just added another hour to that tally. Fortunately, I persisted in finding a better way, or I would have wasted even more time tediously downloading one file at a time. The lesson in this for me and for you is to look for buttons and links that make it easy to download online content. If you search and come up empty, research the problem. And if all else fails, complain about it. Tell developers how you work and insist they give you the tools that simplify IT for you.