OneDrive & ArcPro

[JeffreySchmidt3000]

I am trying to find the best directory on my computer to retain ArcPro Projects and am considering my local OneDrive folder.  I want the speed of doing things from my C drive, but the assurance of having things backed up in case my c drive fails.

Since the folder that OneDrive syncs FROM is on my C drive and I presume is always pushing out to the cloud... is this an ideal solution, or is this a bad idea?  If it is bad, is it bad because OneDrive is not set up to do this, ESRI isn't set up to work like that... (thinking about potential locks on open files), etc...

Any suggestions would be helpful, thanks!

Jeff  

[DanPatterson_Retired]

Seen too many students lose stuff when trying to go all cloudy.

• Work on a local (internal hard drives are cheap).  If the data can be copied from a network drive... do so, work local and copy/move back when you are done.
• Don't try to work on a USB/portable drive in an attempt to save time between home/school/work transfers.  It works... usually... sometimes... less likely the more important the work.
• At the end of the day... zip your work folder (btw... maintain a good folder structure so that everything is relative to the project and not sideways in other folders), then copy to portable drives, email the zip to yourself, store on One Drive or Whatever Cloudy Drive.
• The more copies the better, and keep yourself versioned on a daily at least basis.

You only lose one important project when things 'go wrong', 

[BrianE]

I haven't tried working on the cloud. But we have found that python scripts in Pro 2.x run 3-5x slower when working on our network drive. We have had Esri and our IT look into this and no one knows why. Also strange because 1.4 works fine.

[KyleOberg]

I've done some testing storing both ArcGIS Pro project files and ArcMap map files as well as File Geodatabases and results have been successful. Now thinking of making this a standard practice. OneDrive will sync after you close map and/or project files. Anyone else with experience managing data and or map/project files this way?

[JayJohnsonWashoeCounty]

The problem I've had is that of course #OneDrive wants to sync files down to your C: drive as soon as you try to open an MXD stored on the cloud, so if you have a LOT of data in a directory you may be waiting a while for the sync to finish before you can start working or you may even fill up your local drive.  I've been thinking that I need an external hard drive to store EVERYTHING and to actually work from, and this is synced to the OneDrive for sharing purposes.

[KyleOberg]

Good point about impacts to time and disk space. My approach would be to reserve this maintenance model for only select projects, but these could still be legitimate concerns.

[RicLawson]

We just recently moved from local server storage to onedrive‌ and sharepoint‌ storage. We are trying to determine if we will need to develop a local file management system for GIS, or if we can work from cloud storage. Helpful to realize that the project may not sync until it is closed. We have not yet tested concurrent editing of shp or gdb files, but I suspect that Arcgis may not read the locks since it is operating on a local copy. Anyone know how arcgis writes changes to gdb pieces? Are changes only written when a project or map is saved or closed?

I do plan to test concurrent editing so we can see what happens. I'll update if anyone is interested.

[RandyKreuziger]

Ric,

  Yes, please update this thread after you've had time to test the concurrent editing.  Our management things that OneDrive and SharePoint solve all file storage issues without having done any testing with GIS users and data. 

[CarlisleHaworth1]

Hi Ric,

I wanted to follow up and see how things turned out with your OneDrive / SharePoint trials. I have recently setup a fairly large project on OneDrive, collaborating with one other person (so far). My IT department thinks that the syncing of OneDrive is causing the office's network to tank, so I'm looking for any helpful tips on best practices or alternative solutions and workarounds. We do not have any local servers in our office, but there are servers in other offices, and sometimes machines we can RDC into for access to those, but we're trying to avoid that.

[TimWroblewski1]

Hi Ric - the company I work for are going through the same process as you describe - we've been testing the use of SharePoint and the OneDrive sync client and all seems to be working well so far - are you able to provide any feedback on your concurrent editing tests?  Thanks.