[V8i] OneDrive file errors ?

This would be question to Onedrive developers what is causing this and why Projectwise share doesn't have such issue with file locking.

One drive attempts to sync files to Microsoft's cloud service in the background. My suspicion, without proof, is that OneDrive and MicroStation are both working with the file at the same time and that while OneDrive is writing to the cloud service, MicroStation is changing the file under it and file corruption occurs. This is most likely a sign that OneDrive is ignoring the lock that MicroStation places on the file while it is in use. I have no idea why it would do this.

One possible solution is to slow down the rate that MicroStation auto-saves the file this can be done with the MS_DGNAUTOSAVE variable. This variable sets how long MicroStation must be inactive before it auto-saves the file. It defaults to 2 seconds. This doesn't mean it auto-saves every 2 seconds, it means every time there is no activity in the file for 2 seconds.

While we don't save dgn files to our OneDrive (as far as I know, I'm sure some user is doing it), but we have MS_DGNAUTOSAVE set to 10 seconds and I've yet to see a ticket on OneDrive corruption (I'm not the only support person so it's possible that others are handling it and I'm unaware of it).

Some other things I would try:

Make sure the OneDrive Files On Demand feature is off. This feature keeps stub files on the local machine until a program attempts to access them, then downloads the actual file. This maybe causing problems as well. It's in OneDrive's Advanced Settings. If you need to limit how much space OneDrive is using, you can use selective sync to only sync specific folders. You set this under your Account, there should be a "Choose Folders" listed to set which folders are sync'd to the computer.

Also, while you aren't sharing with others, is it possible you have multiple computers sync'ing your OneDrive for yourself? If you leave MicroStation open with a file on one computer while you work on that same file on another computer, even though you aren't sharing the file with other users you are sharing it with yourself and this can also cause problems.

Also if you use print organizer with another computer while you work on files that's it printing I could see some potential problems arising from that as well.

we have encountered issues with OnDrive as well and have suggested that our users no longer work with it.

one suggestion would be to go to Workspace>Preferences>Operation and uncheck the "automatically save design changes". This will make MicroStation work more like other programs (IE:Acad). This will not save changes you are making directly to the file until you do a File>Save or exit the file (when you will be promted to save your changes).

again - it is a suggestion - not sure if it will work. We have decided not to use OneDrive.

Seems Onedrive is using some locking mechanism meant for backups so it creates file snapshot and then sync it. Regarding Microstation save mechanism it seems the incremental save fools it as doesn't save all file at once.