Microsoft has released the promised preview of OneDrive for Business for OS X, the first way to sidestep the browser when accessing company documents and the only way so far to sync files for offline use on a Mac. The app requires an Office 365 business-grade subscription, and can replace in most instances the browser UI (user interface) that was previously the only available to OS X users. [ -- InfoWorld tells you how to meet the challenge of the onslaught of petabytes before it overwhelms your company. Stay up on best practices and news with InfoWorld's. ] A week ago, Microsoft pledged to ship a preview of OneDrive for Business and an updated OneDrive iOS app. The Redmond, Wash. Company released both on Wednesday.

Microsoft has overhauled OneDrive for Business on the web with better UI and enhanced sharing ability, and has made updated sync clients available for Windows and Mac users. Rich Preview for.

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The OneDrive for Business preview on OS X integrates with the Finder, ala Dropbox and iCloud Drive -- the latter, part of Apple's own iCloud storage and sync service. Unlike those alternatives -- or OneDrive, the consumer-grade service Microsoft also offers -- OneDrive for Business is exactly that, focused entirely on documents shared by employees at a company with each other and invited outsiders. It corresponds to the OneDrive for Business client for Windows 7, Windows 8 and Windows 8.1. Once added to the Finder, OneDrive for Business operates as any other local folder -- or for that matter the cloud-based doppelgangers like Dropbox -- allowing drag-and-drop and one-click file launching as usual in OS X. Computerworld briefly tested OneDrive for Business on a Mac, and was easily able to locally synchronize an Office 365 library to a MacBook Pro, upload documents to the cloud, open those stored there using the Finder, and deposit documents into a folder that was previously shared with a manager. [ ] Neither the OS X or Windows OneDrive for Business client lets users share folders; that must still be done from a browser. Office 365 enterprise subscribers now have a 1TB storage allowance, although Microsoft is rolling out to those customers this year.

Microsoft also released a revamped OneDrive iOS app whose major enhancement was to combine both OneDrive (consumer) and OneDrive for Business (commercial), but keep the content segregated. For the Mac requires OS X 10.9.5 and later (Mavericks and Yosemite) and can be downloaded from Microsoft's website. The free is available for Apple's App Store. This story, 'Microsoft previews OneDrive for Business for the Mac' was originally published.

I downloadad the new OneDriveDF Mac Preview sync client and installed it on an El Capitan environment. I followed the instructions included in the documentation in order to activate it. The consumer client activates fine, but when I activate the business client from within the preferences section of the consumer client, and the new OneDrive for Business destination folder is created, the new business sync client behaves in one of the following ways (I have attempted to install and remove several times): 1. If I select a new empty destination folder, it indicates that the client is up to date, and right-clicking on the cloud icon in order to reach preferences doesn't work, as the drop down menu doesn't appear. It only says that it's up to date and is greyed out. The destination folder, however, is not syncing, as it is not downloading the folders already created in Office 365 Onedrive Business (online).