MS OneDrive advice for a Linux newcomer

Newbie Corner
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#1

So, I finally made my move to Manjaro Linux, (loving AUR :kissing: :cupid:) and have decided not to dual boot Windows; if I ever need anything there I'll just run virtually.

On Windows, I'm used to this things with OneDrive:

  • File sharing folders and files with other people on a weekly (if not daily) basis + edit files in real time with them.

  • If there's anything I want on my phone (from my PC) I'd just drag and drop it, and boom! it's on my phone. So if I have to leave home (get off PC), I could continue with my file where I left now on my phone (pretty much anywhere I go/any pc).

Now my collage gave the office licenses and this keeps from switching...BUT! I can just work via the web browser as this is better for compatibility (because you can guess not all 40 students will have the exact same updated MS Office version), so yeah, this is fixed.

What am I looking for?

  • If there's anything I want on my phone (from my PC) I'd just drag and drop it, and boom! it's on my phone. So if I have to leave home (get off PC), I could continue with my file where I left now on my phone (pretty much anywhere I go/any pc).

I somehow need this, local-file-syncing, the drag and drop experience, it's fine if I cannot work on office apps because I can only, but I don't want to go every time to OneDrive web browser and DOWNLOAD the files I need and then UPLOAD them when I'm done...

Maybe I'm asking too much right...? Which app does this already for Linux? Dropbox? I guess I could make the switch...:lying_face:

#2

Google drive, Dropbox, Nextcloud, OwnCloud, Cozy drive. You have as many if not more choices in Linux than Windows.
The one choice is onedrive. Apparently, most of the linux tools for onedrive syncing suck something awful. I was disappointed myself when I looked into this, since I have 1T of storage on Onedrive.
But, keep in mind I haven't looked into onedrive apps on linux since I first got into Linux (A few months ago) so things might have changed.

#3

I've read a lot about NextCloud..I could also give Dropbox a try as this company was of the first's to implement local file syncing..

#4

I am not at my machine and wont be for a while, so I can't give you links, but to get you started:

I used various approaches over the years, the one most suitable for your use case seems to be the abraunegg Onedrive tool, you can find it in AUR

There is also skylion one, but when I looked at it this one was abandoned and the abraunegg one got forked.

Right now I am using rsync to mount my Onedrive. Significantly slower, but suits my use case better as I use Onedrive only as a backup location for encrypted archives.

Edit: The native Linux Dropbox client worked well for me und should fit your use case, I dropped it when they dropped support for btrfs filesystem

Edit2: It's rclone I use to mount my OneDrive folder, not rsync. Sorry for the confusion...

#5

I think I read somewhere that onedrive only supports NTFS but that may be the official app only.

#6

There's no official app for Linux as far as I know...

#7

But....
Microsoft :heart: Linux! :crazy_face:

but you're correct, there is no official Onedrive app by MS.

1 Like
#8

If MS releases Office Suite to Linux, Windows will be a completely dead horse. The only people will live on it are gamers and some professionals.

#9

I have accessed MicroSoft One Drive using a Google Chrome Web Browser on Manjaro.

And you can use rclone for backups and file syncing, but I have not tested it with OneDrive.
https://rclone.org/onedrive/

#10

You can try, ms-office-online from the repos, but it does not have a sync feature.

#11

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