OneDrive set to roll out mobile capture, note sharing improvements in November

By Dan Thorp-Lancaster
last updated

Christmas is coming a little early for OneDrive for Business users.

OneDrive on Android
OneDrive on Android (Image credit: Windows Central)

OneDrive is set to pick up a few new features in November, mostly with a focus on its Android and iOS apps. In a post on the OneDrive for Business blog (opens in new tab) today, Microsoft revealed additions and improvements coming to mobile capture, sharing, and even tweaks to the web interface this month.

First up is mobile capture, which will now let you add custom metadata to anything you scan. Once you've scanned in an image of a document, whiteboard, or anything else you want to capture, you can populate metadata fields that will then be added to your library.

November will also see OneDrive embracing the Microsoft Graph for a little AI magic. Now, when you take a scan of meeting notes, OneDrive on Android and iOS will ask you if you want to share the scan with other invitees at the meeting. That's in addition to further improvements to sharing in Word, Excel, and PowerPoint, each of which will now use a common sharing experience across Android and iOS.

Outside of the mobile apps, OneDrive on the web is getting some tweaks to its "Recent" view. The goal, Microsoft says, is to make the experience "simpler, faster, and more satisfying to use." That includes changes to make Recent work better with Office files.

A new "Manage Access" experience is coming to OneDrive users, allowing them to access more granular controls for who can access files and folders they've shared. "The new Manage Access makes it easier for users to add and remove individual users on links that work for Specific People as well as making it more clear what users are using what links," Microsoft says.

Finally, OneDrive will be dropping support for Mac OS X Yosemite 10.10 and Mac OS El Capitan 10.11 as of February 1, 2019. The sync clients will continue to run on the unsupported versions, but they'll no longer update. Additionally, new installations on Yosemite and El Capitan will be blocked after the February 1 deadline.

Each of these new features will be rolling out across OneDrive throughout November.

Dan Thorp-Lancaster
Dan Thorp-Lancaster

Dan Thorp-Lancaster is the former Editor-in-Chief of Windows Central. He began working with Windows Central, Android Central, and iMore as a news writer in 2014 and is obsessed with tech of all sorts. You can follow Dan on Twitter @DthorpL and Instagram @heyitsdtl. 

24 Comments
  • Why can't we get better photo integration in the Onedrive app? Even if it were just a pinned shortcut, or widget, it would be better. Also, One drive should be able. To tell me if files have been uploaded, and all me if I want to delete local files.
  • IF you have one device to which you sync, it's trivial, but the functionality raises many questions.
  • Question... With Android, can we set OneDrive as the default app for automatic camera uploads?... I am trying to completely duplicate my WP experience on a Note9
  • yes you can
  • Yes just set it to upload and turn everything off, lol. But it's hard to use this over Google Photos, esp. since the latter has better editing search and sharing. You won't be able to duplicate that much, honestly, due to Microsoft being a 3rd party on Android. Samsung has their own Gallery Sync on the Note that arguably works better, with a UWP app available on windows 10.
  • Damn! Windows Phone was perfect! Everything in one place on OneDrive. This sucks. I just need every pic I snap on my N9 to automatically upload to my OneDrive camera roll. I don't want to switch to any Google services..... If I don't absolutely have to.
  • Seriously, that's no problem at all. my wife has the OneDrive app on her Samsung s8 and it syncs everything perfectly to OneDrive camera roll
    edit: https://support.office.com/en-us/article/use-onedrive-on-android-eee1d31...
  • What elrodeo said. I have it set up on my Note 8. I don't Use Google photos for much.
  • What are you planning on using for music. The Groove android and iOS apps will stop work december 1st. So no first party support anymore for playing music on mobile.. That is my issues. The photo solution, the music solution etc are the reasons I have a 1 TB subscription. With that gone I will probably go iCloud Drive/Photos/Notes/Music or Google Drive/Photos/Keep/Music
  • Precisely why I still enjoy my Lumia 950 as my daily driver. The OneDrive integration with camera and Groove streaming is priceless.
  • Yes, works great on my HP Elite X3 Windows Mobile Phone.
  • It's pretty seamless actually. Just turn off Google photos syncing and turn on onedrive photos syncing. You can even have both on if you want to.
  • I do it all the time. Just turn on auto camera upload within the app. Its default to wifi only, but i think you can change that. Not many photo gallery apps implement one drive photos very well. Piktures allows one drive integration. It's just slow. There will never be anything that works as well as photos on windows phone did. RIP!
  • Try using Microsoft Launcher
  • I am wondering if the web interface for OneDrive will get a Settings revamp any soon. Wandering around the Settings pages of OneDrive web interface is a mess. The menu optnios available are changing after selecting one, and you end up in a dead end after all where you cannot return to OneDrive from the Settings other than selecting it again to open from the Application selector in the top-left corner. A terrible, terrible thing.
  • Also I was wondering if the UWP OneDrive app will get any updates so that it finally will show the contents of a folder not only on the 3rd or 4th nevigation to the folder, but the first one. And maybe the functions that are presented by the menu options could actually work.
  • Sigggghh... There's little hope. How could Andromeda be successful if MS doesn't focus on first party apps for it?
  • Oh that thing. It's still in version 0.1 status. I think it is dead when you see how much new features they crammed into the real desktop client. Makes sens though. I don't think UWP support such advanced functions as network throttling, automatic backup and startup, deep integration with explorer for files on demand and multiple accounts for consumer and business use. It's a bit the like UWP Office I think, it's there but the focus is clearly on the real programs.
  • UWP will catch up, it just won't happen overnight
  • UWP OneDrive is a horrible mess. A complete joke. Also, redundant. The browser works better.
  • Webversion has a terrible leak in Edge. It's a joke as well. Including its continuous jumping to lastly selected item after an operation made with selection, leaving you having to reload page to do some other work.
  • Instead of fiddling about with OneDrive one cannot they get something really simple right : Sharing. Specifically either a setting to choose whether a share can be edited or read only or the choice at the time of incepting the share. I am utterly fed up with the Microsoft view that the default everyone wants is can edit. The default should be view only with the option to change.
  • This is exactly right. A totally stupid default. I have this problem every single time I share a document. In fact when I have a document to share that I want the other party to edit, I have to mentally stop myself from unchecking the box, it's so automatic now.
  • In OneDrive for Business at least, you can go to the classic SharePoint Admin Center and set the default sharing link to view only by default. Does exactly what you are describing!