Hello,


As some of you may be aware, especially those of you who’s staff still have a reliance on Live Desktop for some of your corporate applications and business processes, everyone in Live Desktop, has been missing their H:\ (OneDrive for Business) drive mapping since Monday this week, which I’d firstly like to apologise for.

 

The issue with the missing H:\ unfortunately looks to be a Microsoft issue, and there is presently nothing which we can do to resolve it, we are looking at alternate options, but can’t offer any guarantees, I believe that it would be foolish of me to make any promises which I can’t keep as the resolution is out of our direct control.  Rest assured if we are able to resolve the issue, you’ll hear it from me.


Whilst I appreciate that this issue, is most certainly a pain for some, the H:\ being absent should not present anyone with an unsurmountable problem and there should always be an alternative “workaround”, whilst far from ideal, this is unfortunately all that we can offer currently.


I have already worked with a few teams this week to resolve issues where they had processes which were reliant on the H:\ drive mapping to find solutions and come up with viable workarounds.


The simplest workaround, that I can propose, is for staff to make use of their Live Desktop -> Documents folder and drag files to and from that as that would have done with previously with their H:\ drive mapping.   Files can also be uploaded or downloaded from staff’s OneDrives from an in-network browser using the OneDrive web application separately to this location and vice-versa.


I have provided a more-detailed step-by-by guide to the process,  lower down in this article.


The simplest workaround, that I can propose, is for staff to make use of their Live Desktop -> Documents folder and drag files to and from that as that would have done with previously with their H:\ drive mapping.   Files can also be uploaded or downloaded from staff’s OneDrive’s from an in-network browser using the OneDrive web application separately to this location and vice-versa.


An in-network browser can be most easily accessed from the Connect Build folder within the Cloud Apps portal.



Once in the in-network browser access MS Office, login,  and select OneDrive from the Waffle.

            https://office.com      



Your staff’s Live Desktop -> Documents folder is shared across all of the Live Desktop applications, so will always be consistent and visible, although worth nothing that it isn’t the same Documents folder that you will be able to see on your Connect laptops.  


The Documents folder can be found under This PC or Quick access in file navigation windows within applications, web-browsers or File Explorer, as shown  in the examples below:


                       


 

If anyone needs additional assistance on getting critical processes running or being shown workarounds in the interim, please let me know.

 

Longer term – but this is much longer term, we aim to move most of the corporate applications so that they run securely outside of the network so that they’ll be able to easily access your OneDrive’s on your laptops.  This is already underway with NG Assure, NG Housing and with the new ABS replacement projects.

 

 

Thanks for bearing with us, and apologies again for the inconvenience.

 

Thanks

 



The more detailed step by step guide is laid out below:




  1. Load in-network Chrome browser, which can be accessed from the Connect Build folder within the Cloud Apps portal.

Login to Cloud Apps portal 

 

  1. Navigate to Connect Build folder
  2. Open Chrome

 

This will download an RDP file, like with any Cloud App which you open, open that file to run it.

 

            Authenticate yourself, add username and password as per normal for Cloud Apps and approve the MFA request.

 

Once the Chrome window has opened

 

  1. Type in office.com in the URL bar and hit <return>

 

  1. Click on Sign-In and authenticate when asked with your username and password.

 

  1. Select OneDrive from the Waffle

 

     

 

  1. Navigate to the folder in your OneDrive where the files you wish to access are located

 

 

Now you’ll either have a single file or multiple files which you wish to relocate 

 

  • If it’s only a single file, follow step 8 through to 13.

 

  • If it’s multiple files, skip to step 14 and follow through to the end.

 

 

  1. Select the single file you wish to Download

 

  1. Right Click on it, and select Download 

 

 

 

  1. This will download the file to the bottom of the browser window

 

  1. Press the little arrow Symbol to the right of the file.

 

  1. Pick the Show in folder option

         This will open a Standard File Explorer, the downloaded file will be highlighted

 

 

  1. Move it to Documents 

You can simply drag it, or copy it using Cut and Paste as you normally would on a file

 

 

  1. If you wish to move more than one files at once.

Select all of the files which you wish to move in your OneDrive


  1. Right Click on any one of them, Click File Location and select Download to pick the documents as shown below

 

 

  1. This will download the multiple files all stored within a single ZIP file and will show at the bottom of your browser window when the download has completed.

 

  1. Press the little arrow Symbol to the right of the ZIP file to open and extract the files so that you can access them.

 

  1. Pick the Show in folder option

 

 

This will open a Standard File Explorer, the downloaded ZIP file will be highlighted


  1. Right Click the file and select “Extract All…”

 

 

 

  1. This will pop up a new window, press the Extract button at the bottom 

 

This will create a sub-folder in the same name of the ZIP file, and show you the files in it afterwards

 

 

  1. This will open a Standard File Explorer 

 

  1. You will need to manually select all of the files

 

  1. Now move them to the Documents location

You can simply drag them, or copy them using Cut and Paste as you normally would with files.

 

 

 

The file or files should now be accessible from any application which you previously ran from Cloud Apps (inside the network) which previously had a reliance on your H:\ mapping, now you will simply need to look for the Documents location, instead of the H:\ and you should see them in there.


Using this workaround is likely to mean that you in-network Documents folder become littered with files, possibly ZIP files and sub-folders, I would suggest that once you have processed them you delete them to avoid wasting space and creating unnecessary file detritus which may only serve to confuse you.  


I'd also recommend that you create a new sub-folder within your Documents location strictly for this Workaround purpose, and ideally only work from within that sub-folder, to ensure that the files being transferred aren't mixed with other content which may be in there.


I would not recommend storing files in this area which you need to keep for the long term as this area cannot be easily restored in the event of failure and your OneDrive or SharePoint is ultimately the correct location for files which need to be kept longer term.


 

 Thanks



__________________________________________________________________________­_
 
 Ben Pyett


 Technical Architect | ICT | Colchester Borough Council

www.colchester.gov.uk | 01206 505844 | 07966 235860