A Discussion - OneDrive networking is slow, unreliable and unstable

slicendice · 01 Feb 2017

I wanted to start this thread as I have experience a lot of issues with one drive, and I'd like for others to share their experience and possible solutions to certain problems here too.

Here's what issues I have:

1. If I go to the Web-interface to download a single file, sometimes it starts immediately, and sometimes it never starts to download, sometimes it just takes a very long time for it to start downloading.

2. When the download finally starts, the speed jumps up and down, as if the network would be extremely unstable.

3. I get a lot of sync errors and conflicts when using the desktop app/service, saying the file already exists and that the file can not be uploaded. Yeah right, that is the same freaking file I am editing and updating, DOH!!!

For all other Cloud storage solutions I have no problems what so ever. These services being GoogleDrive, DropBox, Mega and many many more. Only OneDrive is behaving totally crazy.

Kari · 01 Feb 2017

I am syncing content from five OneDrive accounts on this PC, three personal and two business accounts. Normally OneDrive only allows one personal account and multiple business accounts at the time being synced, I use this method to get around the one personal account rule to get content from two additional personal OneDrive accounts to be synced: OneDrive - Sync Multiple Accounts in Windows

I have no issues with syncing, uploading and downloading apart of this strange upload speed issue: I have a 100 Mbps down / 20 Mbps up line but OneDrive uploads to one specific personal account used solely to store Windows 10 ISO images use an almost constant 10 Mbps, half of the max upload speed. The speed remains same if uploaded through web interface or simply by copying / saving files.

All other OneDrive accounts can utilize full upload speed, all accounts use (almost) max download speed when downloading using web interface, near that when syncing (adding new synced folder in local OneDrive settings).

I am an extremely happy and satisfied OneDrive user!

Kari

slicendice · 01 Feb 2017

Great that it works good for you Kari.

I have not always had this issue with OneDrive, but lately as a service, it does not work as good as it used to do. When MS announced that Office365 subscribers get unlimited storage for free, I did a full backup of everything I had on my HDDs, then I formatted everything, reinstalled and finally moved everything from OneDrive back to my local disks. It worked really well then. Not even a single glitch, even though we are talking about terabytes of data and over 7 days of uploading, downloading and deleting already organized content.

Barman58 · 01 Feb 2017

One thing I would always suggest with any Internet access issue is to Check your full contract with your ISP as to the amount, time limits, and nature of any traffic shaping that is enforced - this is not often something to worry about and indeed something that cannot easily solved but can give the impression of a variable connection with a link to a range of or even individual site or service.

Edit - Reading your last post i can see that you may have been "placed on Naughty Step" with your ISP after an intensive re-organisation that you have performed recently - I doubt they will actually admit this but instead blame all sorts or technical issues , normally caused be others , but it's not unknown

Often a much more likely issue that can cause intermittent issues and variations is the DNS servers recommended, and set as default by the ISP. these can be (usually), set to one of the many free access servers which may be kept more up-to-date and thus smooth out the issues

I've for many years used the Gibson Research software to check and choose DNS servers and other network related sources and safety options see what you have in your geographic area and try a few to see if you get any improvement

slicendice · 01 Feb 2017

I have 3 different ISPs at home, all behave the same on OneDrive on multiple devices. So that is not the issue, because OneDrive is the only thing not working properly, I am certain of it.

Here's a list of what I have:

#1 Telia Sonera 100/10Mbit VDSL2+ over FiberOptics
#2 DNA 350/25Mbit FTTH
#3 2 x Elisa 100/50Mbit LTE

All behave the same.

Plankton · 01 Feb 2017

I have 3 different ISPs at home

Why? So you have 3 different internet service providers and pay 3 different bills?

slicendice · 01 Feb 2017

Plankton said:

Why? So you have 3 different internet service providers and pay 3 different bills?

We should not worry about my reasons for having a lot of ISPs, it has nothing to do with the topic of this thread except for that I can prove that each and every connection behaves the same against OneDrive.

Samuria · 01 Feb 2017

You say your going to web interface to download why when it should be on your drive it syncs so it try to do it when your idle not straight away

Kari · 01 Feb 2017

Samuria said:

You say your going to web interface to download why when it should be on your drive...

Many users, including me do not sync full content of OneDrive. I am using selective sync (tutorial). For instance I see no rational reason why I should keep all my Windows 10 Insider Build ISO images stored and synced on my local PC. When I need one I download, not sync it.

This is just one of the reasons why I and many other users occasionally need to download something from our partially, selectively synced OneDrives. I have somewhere around 5 to 6 terabytes stored on various OneDrive accounts, it would be plain stupid and waste of local storage space to sync it all.

Kari

jimbo45 · 01 Feb 2017

Hi there

Apart from the issue of 3 ISP's --OK that's your privilege - but it does seem a bit bonkers to me -- is the fact that there are all sorts of cloud services out there --- if one doesn't work for you then simply switch and use something else.

My experience with Nordic ISP's is that generally they have the fastest and most reliable Internet on the planet so why you'd need 3 is outside any possible reasoning I can come up with --again though it's your choice how you spend your money of course. - But a point raises its head here - if you can afford the bill for 3 ISP's why on earth are you looking for a FREE Cloud service - there's plenty of super fast commercial ones.

I don't think those people who bother with One Drive have any issues with it --I don't like the Cloud at all but that's just me. I just keep a decent amount of OFF LINE backups if I need to recover something - but indivduals choices.

Cheers
jimbo