OneDrive finally supports native syncing on ARM devices [Update]

Yes, you read that right. Microsoft has finally added support for OneDrive file sync on the native ARM version of the app, which is available for both Windows-based ARM devices and Apple Silicon Macs. If you have the OneDrive app for Windows or macOS, that means you can now sync files on your PC with the cloud so you can access them from anywhere without manually uploading them. You should also be able to get the latest version of a file automatically downloaded to your PC if you’ve chosen to keep it in sync.

File syncing has been a thing for OneDrive for a very long time, and most PCs already supported it. However, most PCs use Intel or AMD processors, and until recently, ARM PCs were pretty much non-existent. Syncing was technically supported in the x86/x64 versions of the app, but it would be incredibly slow on ARM devices due to not running natively. With today’s update, if you’re running a native build of OneDrive for ARM devices, it will now support sync, too, and it should work much faster than the old versions.

However, considering Microsoft released its first ARM-based device two years ago, you might have expected this capability to come a little sooner, particularly for Windows. Still, it’s finally here, though it’s in preview for now. If you want to try the sync feature on ARM devices, you’ll need to head into the OneDrive app’s settings and enable the option to get pre-release Microsoft builds of OneDrive, and the capability should roll out to you in the next week.

This is another step in making ARM-based devices more legitimate experiences, especially on Windows, where they’re still not on par with Intel or AMD devices on many levels. Windows 11 already made some strides in this regard, adding support for x64 emulation on ARM, with Microsoft also making it possible for developers to adapt parts of their apps piecemeal so they can gradually adopt native ARM technologies.

Windows on ARM devices are also set to get a significant boost in the first half of 2022 thanks to the new Qualcomm Snapdragon 8cx Gen 3, which promises a massive 85% performance improvement over the current generation. You can read about our early experiences with that chip using the Snapdragon 8cx Gen 3 Reference Design.

[UPDATE 12/6/2021 @ 14:00 ET] The original article suggested that OneDrive didn’t support syncing on ARM devices, but this was supported when running emulated versions of the app. Now, sync is available in native ARM versions of the app. The first and second paragraphs have been updated to reflect this.

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