SkyDrive doesn't sync in Windows 8.1

Question

After upgrading from Windows 8 Pro to 8.1, I moved many files to the integrated SkyDrive directory. Everything worked just fine, until recently, where SkyDrive has simply refused to sync. The only exceptions are Office documents, which are synced via another mechanism.

When I add files to the SkyDrive redirectory, they show up as Pending in the metro app indefinitely. Sometimes they'll even show up as Complete, which is just deceptive. When I try to make them online only I get the following error:

Sorry, the action couldn't be completed because the file hasn't finished 
uploading. Try again later.

Of course, the files do not show up online or on another computer. When I go the other way, and try to upload files online, they are may or may not be not synced to my local SkyDrive directory. It's all rather unpredictable.

Edit: the answers were deleted so here's a quick fix for those happening on this question: disconnect and reconnect your Microsoft account in the sign in options.

Answer 1

I don't think that you will get a reasonable answer from the Microsoft support forums. I've tried there myself any number of times and you only get generic answers unless they have a fix.

In the case of both SkyDrive and SkyDrive Pro (part of the Office 365 SharePoint Online service), sync failures are no uncommon.

There are a number of things that might fix the issue. The most common is for the authentication to have a fit. Re-authenticating can be troublesome and may require you to mess around in the various places authentication can happen. In your case, this might include the browser (IE), MS Office and Windows 8 itself.

You might also have hit a file type that SkyDrive will not sync. SkyDrive is NOT DropBox even though the features seem similar initially. Try removing the offending files to a non-sync'd folder, ensure that sync is working OK then put them back one at a time. SkyDrive cannot sync certain file extensions and has a file name limit - 256 I think - that INCLUDES the whole URL.

I've not had this problem myself with SkyDrive, but we do get similar problems regularly with SkyDrive Pro. In that case, often the only way to get things working again is to remove all of the sync'd folders and start again. So the final approach for you would be to disconnect W8 from your SkyDrive, reboot then reconnect it again.

Sorry this is not a definitive answer but I'm afraid that MS have never been that good at writing sync systems. You will find vast arrays of information regarding problems with previous attempts such as ActiveSync, Offline folder sync, Briefcase, etc.

Answer 2

I found 4 solutions (workaround):

Solution 1 (manually): Right click in the skydrive(ondrive) icon in the taskbar and click sync.

Solution 2 (automatically): This is the best one because you can use it in batch to automatically sync. Donwload this oneDriveSync.bat from github

open a CMD and put:

"path to this file\oneDriveSync.bat" "skydrive path"

for exemple:

"C:\Users\Admin\Downloads\oneDriveSync.bat" "C:\Users\Admin\SkyDrive\"

Solution 3: Using the command line too.

N.B: this solution will reset your onedrive config and you will have to reconfigure it again manually.

open a CMD and send this commands 1 by 1:

SkyDrive /shutdown
SkyDrive /reset
SkyDrive

Solution 4: A solution found here: skydrive-sync-fix

1. Open Explorer and right-click your SkyDrive folder and select Properties.
2. Click Security, then Advanced, and you should see something similar to the dialog below. Make sure SYSTEM, Administrators, and your own user name all have Full control.
3. Check the box Replace all child object permission entries with inheritable permissions from this object and click Apply.
4. Make note of any files on which you receive errors so you can find them and move them out of the SkyDrive folder to somewhere else. This appears to be what was tripping things up for SkyDrive on my end.