Microsoft confirms OneDrive will work without internet, something which Windows 11 too needs

OneDrive roadmap update

Earlier this month, thanks to a leak, we got the first hints of the potential announcements Microsoft could be making at its upcoming OneDrive event. It was a short clip with a message saying: "See What's Next for OneDrive on Oct. 3".

The tech giant confirmed later that it would indeed be holding such an event next month, on the third, and also shared a very brief glimpse of what people could expect at the event. These include "new enhancements to OneDrive, benefits of faster file access, better organization, simpler collaboration, and improved file security across Microsoft 365". And of course, there will be announcements regarding AI-based features as well.

While it is possible that Microsoft will reiterate features already available, it does seem like there will be a healthy dose of new stuff too. One of those might be about a new Offline mode for the web that the company is working on at the moment. This option will be a welcome addition since Microsoft 365 services including OneDrive often experience outages, with the most recent one being earlier this month.

The Microsoft 365 roadmap has some details on this upcoming feature. The description of it reads:

OneDrive: Offline mode

This feature will allow you to launch OneDrive in your browser and view, sort, rename, move, copy, delete and files even without internet access. Additionally, for locally stored OneDrive files (those that are marked as “always available offline”) you will be able to open and work on these in your browser even if you are offline. All of the changes you make offline will be automatically synced back when Internet connection is restored.

According to the M365 roadmap, the preview version of the OneDrive offline mode will be out in November 2023, with the general availability planned for a month later in December 2023. The feature ID of this is 168618 and it was added earlier today.

On a somewhat related note, we do hope Microsoft has plans for something similar for Windows 11 setup too as users require a working internet. However, chances of that might be slim seeing how the company is moving more on more towards a cloud PC future.