Microsoft: OneDrive not supporting non-NTFS storage locations isn't related to Files On-Demand

OneDrive recently started showing a warning message to Windows users trying to set up OneDrive on non-NTFS storage locations. As it turns out, OneDrive apparently wasn’t supposed to work on non-NTFS storage locations to start with. A Microsoft spokesperson said in a statement that the warning message was missing in earlier versions of OneDrive, and users weren’t notified when they were trying to set up OneDrive on non-NTFS storage locations.

The company claims that “nothing has changed” in terms of official support. Here’s the statement, via OnMSFT:

Microsoft OneDrive wants to ensure users have the best possible sync experience on Windows, which is why OneDrive maintains the industry standard of support for NTFS. Microsoft discovered a warning message that should have existed was missing when a user attempted to store their OneDrive folder on a non-NTFS filesystem – which was immediately remedied. Nothing has changed in terms of official support and all OneDrive folders will continue to need to be located on a drive with the NTFS filesystem

Following reports of OneDrive dropping support for non-NTFS storage locations, many speculated that Microsoft could be showing the warning message in preparation for the upcoming Files On-Demand feature (aka Placeholders). However, Microsoft confirmed to us that the issue is unrelated to Files On-Demand — which is coming with the Windows 10 Fall Creators Update later this year.

Shrug.