Is anyone else experiencing issues with MS One Drive and Voice Over?

By Jim Weiss, 14 October, 2023

Forum
macOS and Mac Apps

When Sonoma dropped I performed a clean install of MacOS and finally got around to installing MS One Drive. I am running a MacBook Air M2 with 16 GB of RAM. The installation completes successfully and files seem to sync just fine. The issue is when I access the system tray "VO+MM) and I typically land on Time Machine but when I arrow left and hit One Drive the menu opens automatically and I am stuck in there. I can move about the One Drive menu but I can't get it to close. So if I hit VO+D and drop to the dock life is fine but if I hit VO+MM and go back to my system tray I am back in the One Drive menu.
I bit the bullett and re-installed MacOS 14.0 and the very first thing I installed (no changes to any system settings) was One Drive and the same issue. I should mention that I downloaded the free standing version of One Drive from Microsoft and this is not part of the M-365 package.
I again reinstalled MacOS and this time I installed from the App Store and same issue! I installed MacOS yet again and now I just don't have One Drive installed, but I would really like access to those files.
I suppose I can install the software and just not launch it on startup which is the only way I know how to keep it out of the system tray, but then my files won't sync and that is going to end up leading to a disaster.
I am just wondering if anyone else has experienced this on Sonoma and if you have come across a fix. I do own a subscription to M-365 but I just don't have the desire to start all over again if I hit the same problem. The only reason I didn't install M-365 in the first place is I don't use the rest of the suite on my Mac. I do know I can do a custom install and jut select One Drive but if I decide that I may want to use Outlook the installer does not give you the option to just run the installer and add a component at a later date and time. So if I do install it I install everything and you never know if a developer references a component in another app that may lead to grief down the road with a partial install.
Thank you in advance,
Jim

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Comments

By Brian on Thursday, October 26, 2023 - 18:49

It has been awhile since I messed with OneDrive, but if I recall correctly, there is a way to access your files through your "Home" directory. From your desktop, press:
• Command + Shift+ "H".

This opens your Home directory, and I "believe" there will be a OneDrive folder in there.

HTH. 😁

By Brian on Thursday, October 26, 2023 - 18:49

I experienced this with Ventura. When ever I would have the clock set to show the date in the menu extras bar, it would make VO act flaky.
For example, sometimes the battery status would not display, sometimes bluetooth would disappear.
I will admit it took some considerable troubleshooting to figure out it was the "allow date" option for the clock, that was the culprit.
So that is my suggestion. Try disabling the date for your clock in the menu, and if need be restart macOS. This may or may not allow you to navigate the context menu of the one drive menulet.

One final note, have you tried opening the app from the Applications directory? Might be worth a try. 😅

By Jim Weiss on Thursday, October 26, 2023 - 18:49

Brian,
I have no issue getting to the files, the issue is as Oliver states the system tray gets hijacked. I have had no issues with any version of MacOS and One Drive going back to at least 2018. Also, the system tray can get over full and taking items out can help, but this is a brand new install and I have the date, Time Machine, Notification Center and One Drive up there. In the past I have had multiple One Drive instances plus a few more applications and have never experienced this issue.
I can only assume that by not launching it at startup is a partial fix. Once I launch the app from the dock it is going to land in the system tray and require a reboot to remove it again. I am sure I can use terminal and figure out what daemon to kill, but it should just work. There is also the potential that I forget to launch the app and I grab a local copy of a file from my local drive and in reality there is a newer/updated version on the server. That could be a disaster when I do remember to sync again.
Oliver, I am glad to know that I am not the only one. Google Drive is not an issue for two reasons. I need One Drive to access my work SharePoint server and my work One Drive folders. A second issue is I refuse to install anything Google (or use anything Google) on my devices.
I guess I wait for an update, unfortunately the updates to M-365 are about 6-8 weeks apart while Microsoft updates M-365 every week on Windows.
Thank,
Jim

By Dave Nason on Thursday, October 26, 2023 - 18:49

Member of the AppleVis Editorial Team

Hi. That's odd, it's working fine for me. Just to make sure we're on the same page.
I press Ctrl_Option+M twice to go to the "Status menus" bar, formerly known as the "Menu Extras bar".
I arrow across to One Drive and press Ctrl+Option+Space to open it.
It opens a kind of dialog or pop up menu, which I can navigate with standard VoiceOver commands.
If I want to exit it, I simply press Escape, and I land back on my desktop.
I am though still on Mac OS Ventura, as I haven't updated to the new one yet, so I wonder could that be a factor?
Dave

By Jim Weiss on Thursday, October 26, 2023 - 18:49

Dave,
This behavior only exists with Sonoma, I had no issues while I was on Ventura. Based on my various searches there seem to be several issues with One Drive on Sonoma, most concerning are sync issues.
AppleVis so far has been the only place that I have found anyone reporting the same issue as me with the One Drive menu hijacking the system menu.
Thanks,
Jim

By Dave Nason on Thursday, October 26, 2023 - 18:49

Member of the AppleVis Editorial Team

That's good to know. I may stay on Ventura a while longer.
Sorry to hear of the issues you're experiencing though, hopefully Microsoft will sort it quickly. May be worth an email to the Microsoft Disability Answer Desk, or a call to them in Be My Eyes.
Dave

By Adrian Wyka on Thursday, October 26, 2023 - 18:49

This is a Sonoma system bug.

I reported a bug to Apple and they were able to reproduce it. So there is a chance they will fix it.

By Brian on Thursday, October 26, 2023 - 18:49

While this particular thread is focused on VoiceOver functionality with OneDrive, we're not alone. Apparently OneDrive and Sonoma just do not play well together.
At all.

https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/msoffice/forum/all/one-drive-not-working-with-mac-os-14-sonoma/0bdafe83-7e9d-4a5d-a797-699b278eb9ef
https://discussions.apple.com/thread/255195891
https://forum.affinity.serif.com/index.php?/topic/192405-onedrive-affinity-files-v22-on-mac-sonoma-not-working/
https://www.reddit.com/r/MacOS/comments/1751jcx/onedrive_not_working_with_sonoma/

Regarding my original reply, I had assumed the OP could not access their files at all, hence my suggestion. 🤷🏻‍♂️

By Jim Weiss on Thursday, October 26, 2023 - 18:49

Adrian,
Well on one hand if it is an Apple bug there is a good chance it will be addressed, I can only assume that the bug will affect other apps. Did Support did any suggestions for a work around? I am wondering if an old trick would work that I used to deploy a few years back when a right click on a dock item would not bring up the context menu. Basically you had to launch Voice Over help by using Control + Option + H then followed by Control + Option + H again to launch command help. Once the list of commands were presented you could pick the one you wanted and it was executed and this worked. At first it was a total pain but after using it a few times it only took a couple of seconds and the task was accomplished. I am not sure why performing the right-click directly on the icon using VO+MM didn't work but I was glad there was a work around.
Right now my work around is to lug a 2nd laptop around adding 8 lbs. to my bag.

By Jim Weiss on Thursday, October 26, 2023 - 18:49

So this isn't great, but it is useable.
If you are in the system menu and find yourself inside the One Drive menu cycle Voice Over by pressing CMD+F5 and then again. If you try to move around you should hear "One Drive has no windows". Press CMD+Tab and cycle to either an open app or to the Finder. If you press VO+MM to access the system menu again you should land on the far left element (hopefully you have other things in your system menu besides just One Drive). Now press FN+Control+Option and right arrow (I believe this is the same as the "End" key on a full keyboard) and you should land on the date and time. Now you can move to the left. I have 6 items in my system menu and One Drive occupy positions 2 and 3 going from left to right. I am not sure what to do if One Drive is in position 1 (the far left) as I would assume the menu will just re-open.
As I stated this is not ideal, but I do have access to my files and luckily I typically only go into the system menu to access Time Machine and Control Center.
I am still playing to see if I can find a command that will work by executing it through the command help menu, if I find one I will post an update.
Jim

By Jessica Scarlet on Friday, January 5, 2024 - 18:49

I'm still experiencing this same issue on my new MBP m3

By KE8UPE on Friday, January 5, 2024 - 18:49

Hi,
I’m glad to know that I’m not alone in this.
I have an M2 MacBook Air, running the latest version of Sonoma & have experienced this bug numerous times.

By Jim Weiss on Friday, January 19, 2024 - 18:49

There was an update to OneDrive on 1/20/2024 (I am running the Preview Channel) and with the update to MacOS 14.3 today the OneDrive bug that hijacked the menu bar is now resolved. Let's hope it stays that way.

By Steve Sawczyn on Friday, January 19, 2024 - 18:49

I just came across this thread and was formulating my own reply as this issue has been driving me nuts for a while and then I saw the latest reply from Jim that it's been fixed and yep, it's fixed for me too. I'm not sure if it's the latest OneDrive update or the Sonoma update that fixed it, but it's wonderful to not get stuck in that menu any more. Sadly for me, my work laptop hasn't been allowed to get the latest updates for OneDrive or Sonoma yet, so I don't get to totally say good-bye to this particular bug, but it's definitely gone on my personal machine and that's making me probably way happier than it should. :)