Onedrive for Buisness has excessive OfficeFileCache file size and filling up my SSD

hi nigelpatterson4291,

the officefilecache consists of the following elements:
document library files synced, file attachments in sharepoint lists synced, files opened directly from sharepoint online by office applications. once we sync files to the local folder from onedrive for business, it will also sync to the local officefilecache folder in order to support the features such as co-authoring. that’s why the file cache is growing big.

the high storage in the officefilecache may be caused by the big volume of onedrive for business caches, so if you can find the officefilecache in c:\users\yourusername\appdata\local\microsoft\office\15.0, you don’t need to do what you said above and you just need to clear the officefilecache manually (it's ok if one or two items cannot be deleted) to free up the ssd hard drive.

when you use onedrive for business to resync files, the cache files will be reproduced in the officefilecache folder again, so generally deleting the files in the officefilecache folder will not affect your computer.

if you can’t find hkey_current_user\software\microsoft\office\15.0\common\internet on windows 10, i’d like to confirm the following.
1. can you find the officefilecache in c:\users\yourusername\appdata\local\microsoft\office\15.0? if yes, clear it manually (it's ok if one or two items cannot be deleted) to free up the ssd hard drive.
2. where do you download the onedrive for business library? how do you install it? can you share us with some steps?
3. could you capture some screenshots showing that “only problem is my one drive for business install dose not have the hkey_current_user\software\microsoft\office\15.0\common\internet registry key. it has hkey_current_user\software\microsoft\office\15.0 only” ?
to upload a screenshot, click use rich formatting and then click edit/insert media.

thanks,
cliff

Hi NigelPatterson4291,

Do you have any updates? Do you need further help?

Thanks,
Cliff

hi cliff,

thanks for your help.

a quick google search clearly demonstrates that this issue is effecting many of us. when we install overdrive for business how would we know it keeps a cache of the entire contents of the one drive. everyone with a ssd hard drive is going to have this problem and they are.

to make matters worse, it seems there is not a standard configuration for installing onedrive. if you install the app from the overdrive home page you get a different set of registry keys than if you have windows 10 or office 365. have a look at the screenshot i have included, there is no \[your username]\appdata\local\microsoft\office\15.0\officefilecache registry key.

i have an open case office 365 ticket [edited by msft moderator] and this has even confused them. they are advising me to stop syncing all libraries and start over pretty much. that's a  complete re-sync of all onedrive data and even then i'm not convinced they properly understand the problem and the officefilecache folder will be in exactly the same place and get just as big.

how can i move the location of the officefilecache premently and please microsoft address this issue because your giving onedrive a very bad rep!!

and what happens when i upgrade to office 2016, will it just put the officefilecache right back to the default location?

Hi Cliff, In addition to my previous reply I have since found this https://community.office365.com/en-us/f/172/t/423831?ss-src=related

Is what it says about Office 2016 and the new OneDrive client true, that it does not have the OfficeFileCache problem because it does not keep a copy of the entire Onedrive contents?

I have moved most staff to Office 365 subscription so I could upgrade them to 2016 and use the new OneDrive Client. Can you please confirm it does not cache the entire contents or that there is a way to move the cache?

Hi NigelPatterson4291,

Thanks for your updates.

As you understand in https://community.office365.com/en-us/f/172/t/423831, the answer is yes.

If you only sync the OneDrive for Business library, you can use the OneDrive for Business Next Generation Sync Client to solve the issue because it doesn’t cache the entire contents.

You can download and configure it by following the steps in https://support.office.com/en-us/article/Get-started-with-the-OneDrive-for-Business-Next-Generation-Sync-Client-in-Windows-615391c4-2bd3-4aae-a42a-858262e42a49.

Since you are using Windows 10, the new client is preinstalled and you can configure to add a business account directly.

Thanks,
Cliff

Problem has now been resolved.

The only solution in the end was to use a Symbolic link for the OfficeFileCache folder.

Works for all Office 2013 onward versions of Onedrive for Business.

Steps:

1. Right Click OneDrive for Business App in system tray and stop syncing all.

2, Open Task Manager and in my case stop Groove.exe and MSOSYNC.exe. Yours might be others such as Onedrive.exe, MSOUC.exe depending on how you got the client as it comes with Office 365, Windows 10 and can also be downloaded so there are different versions that have different .exe files just to make life interesting.

3. Delete the OfficeFileCahe folder\s in C:\Users\USER\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Office\16.0 . If you cannot delete then a service or task is still running.

3. Open a CMD prompt as Administrator

4. run command mklink /d "path of new OfficeFileCache folder" "C:\Users\USER\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Office\16.0\OfficeFileCache"
Obviously replace USER in the command above with the name of the users folder.

Restart computer, Fire up Onedrive for Business, re-sync and you should be good to go with your expensive SSD free of the OneDrive for Business cahe data.

As for you Microsoft, this has been a problem for over 2 years now for everyone with OneDrive for Business and SSD hard drive, and as per usual you have done nothing..you obviously don't want people with your surface product to use or enjoy OneDrive for Business!!