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OneDrive will no longer sync automatically on older Windows systems.
OneDrive is Microsoft’s personal cloud storage service, and chances are good that if you’ve used literally any Windows PC in the last 20 years, you’ve heard of it. The service has a habit of booting itself up along with your computer and bugging you to sync your files. If you’re one of the remaining holdouts of the world that still hasn’t updated your PC from Windows 7 or Windows 8, you won’t have to see those push messages much longer. In fact, you won’t be seeing much of anything OneDrive-related much longer.
Microsoft announced today that starting this coming March, they will be ending OneDrive support on all pre-Windows 10 operating systems. Users still using Windows 7 and Windows 8 won’t be able to automatically sync their OneDrive folders with the cloud anymore once this happens, though they will still be able to directly upload files through the OneDrive web application.
Additionally, Microsoft will no longer be providing any updates to the Windows 7 and Windows 8 versions of OneDrive starting in January. According to their announcement blog post, the reason for ending legacy OneDrive service is “to focus resources on new technologies and operating systems, and to provide users with the most up-to-date and secure experience.”
Microsoft OneDrive app will stop syncing with Windows 7 and 8 on March 1st, 2022 https://t.co/SGnqA9m244 pic.twitter.com/98wfhQDvH6
— Engadget (@engadget) November 6, 2021
If you’ve got any files stored on OneDrive and want to ensure they stay that way, Microsoft advises either backing them up on a physical drive or upgrading your operating system to at least Windows 10 (though they would prefer you upgrade to Windows 11).
