One of our users apparently had OneDrive stop syncing and didn't notice for about five days. They were working on an Excel spreadsheet saved on the desktop, but the file was ultimately saved as CSV, so all formatting disappeared when it was saved. The file history only showed a version from six days earlier, and that version was also a CSV.
I'm not sure whether OneDrive actually caused the problem or whether the user had been working locally and never saved the file in Excel format. Either way, how are others monitoring OneDrive? Is there a way to alert IT or the user when a device hasn't synced for a certain number of hours or days?
5 Answers
There may be two separate issues here. CSV files do not preserve Excel formatting, regardless of whether OneDrive is working. If the user formatted a CSV and kept it open for a long time, the formatting could have appeared to remain until the file was closed or saved again. The working file should be an XLSX, with CSV used only for import or export.
Monitoring and training both help, but users shouldn’t be the only detection mechanism for a business-critical sync service. Configure notifications for paused or failed synchronization, encourage regular restarts, and make sure important files are stored in the correct cloud location. For highly critical workflows, consider a properly backed-up file service or server-side storage instead of relying solely on a desktop sync client.
OneDrive is a synchronization tool, not a complete backup strategy. Keep independent backups or versioned historical copies, because a local file can continue to be edited even when synchronization has failed. A recovery plan is what protects the work when the client silently breaks.
Start with the Microsoft 365 OneDrive Sync Health dashboard. After enabling sync-health reporting through Intune or the relevant policy, you can see devices with sync errors, last check-in information, and other status details. It’s useful for finding broader problems, although it isn’t real-time and may take a while to flag an unhealthy client.
The dashboard is helpful, but it won’t reliably catch a client that is signed out, never started, or appears healthy while the sync engine is actually stuck.
An RMM or Intune remediation script can check whether OneDrive is running, restart it when necessary, and alert IT if it remains stopped. A scheduled task running every 15 minutes or every few hours can also notify the user, write a timestamped log, and record when the last successful sync occurred. Checking only for OneDrive.exe isn’t enough, though—the process can be running while the account is disconnected or synchronization is broken.
We use a periodic script that checks the sync state rather than just the process. If it can’t recover the client, it logs the machine and alerts support so the issue can be investigated before data is lost.
Also verify the exact filename and extension. A CSV normally won’t overwrite an XLSX with the same base name, so the missing formatting may have been caused by saving or opening the wrong file rather than by OneDrive.