OneDrive is getting a long-overdue upgrade on Mac
OneDrive for Mac has always been functional, but it’s far from Microsoft’s best app on the platform. Luckily, Microsoft is finally giving it a long-awaited overhaul with Liquid Glass and other native improvements.
Microsoft said it has worked “over the past several years” to give OneDrive a proper upgrade on macOS. The biggest change here is the OneDrive menu in the macOS menu bar, which is now a native menu panel with translucent elements.
When you open the menu, you now get a quick overview of the current sync status, as well as shortcuts to the OneDrive folder and Trash. The list of recently synced files is now under a submenu, which might annoy some people. This is a native macOS menu, so it features a Liquid Glass design on macOS 26 and beyond, as well as full support for VoiceOver and keyboard navigation.
Microsoft explained in a blog post: “The list of changes you’ve made to your OneDrive is just a click away and shows you the same information as before, but in a more compact and easier to understand way. Additionally, images and videos that appear here display a helpful thumbnail of the content when available, making it easier to identify modified files.
The rest of the OneDrive interface elements have also been overhauled. For example, alerts about file deletion now appear as native dialog boxes on Mac. They still work the same way and contain the same information, but they will integrate better with the rest of your applications.
Microsoft didn’t mention any changes to actual file syncing in this update, or other OneDrive feature updates. The Mac client migrated to Apple’s modern file sync APIs a few years ago, and a native version of Apple Silicon finally rolled out to everyone in early 2022. The system requirements don’t change either: You only need an Intel Mac or Apple Silicon with macOS 13 or higher, with the OneDrive folder on an APFS drive.
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I haven’t had any issues syncing with OneDrive on my Mac computers over the past few years, so the somewhat ugly interface has been my only issue. Once this issue is resolved, OneDrive could be one of the best cloud storage options for Mac.
The new interface is being rolled out to Insider testers, starting with OneDrive build 26.017. It should be available to everyone once the bugs are resolved.
Source: Microsoft
