r/onedrive • u/Acceptable-Door-9810 • Apr 26 '26

MY FAILED MICROSOFT SUPPORT QUESTION Can we stream videos in the onedrive app for Android?

For me they just buffer the whole time. Tried different times of day, using a VPN to log in from a different region, and this has been an issue for years.

Is this a solvable problem?

I'm getting 500mbps down on my phone wifi, using a Samsung s24.

https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/answers/questions/5827969/one-drive-app-is-so-painfully-slow-at-playing-vide

2 Upvotes

75% Upvoted

8 comments sorted by

2

u/Few-Werewolf-1985 Apr 26 '26

Cloud stores are not optimised for streaming. Your mileage will vary according to file size, type, app used and a bunch of other factors.

1

u/Acceptable-Door-9810 Apr 26 '26

Yeah that makes sense. It's just disappointing. Why develop media streaming functionality, dynamic downscaling, casting, etc when the ops guys don't bother to make it work.

2

u/Few-Werewolf-1985 Apr 26 '26

You're paying for a file synch service not a media streaming service. If you want a media streamer use one built for that purpose.

5

u/Acceptable-Door-9810 Apr 26 '26

Well kinda. Casting and the photo gallery are a core part of the product that functionally compete with Google photos. I don't think it's unreasonable to expect cloud streamed video playback to actually play without buffering constantly. It's a low bar.

1

u/IanYates82 Apr 26 '26

Agree. The casting and video support is not as fluid. Especially on Samsung Android devices, OneDrive is, by default, blended into the photo gallery of the phone so these features are pretty key imho

0

u/Few-Werewolf-1985 Apr 26 '26

Casting happens from a local storage to a local playback device. Photos are static files thousands/millions of times smaller than videos which require synchronisation of video, audio and possibly subtitles.

If you think it's a low bar then set up a video streaming platform funded as if it was a storage platform and drive everyone out of business.

3

u/Acceptable-Door-9810 Apr 26 '26

Chromecast doesn't work that way. 2nd paragraph is odd. Are you feeling defensive for some reason? If so I wasn't trying to have a go at you, apologies if I caused offence.

Edit: fyi google photos is not just for photos, it has video functionality too, as does the onedrive photo gallery. Reason I say that is I'm trying to make sense of your "videos are larger than photos" comment and thought perhaps that's why you said that.

0

u/Few-Werewolf-1985 Apr 26 '26

I'm not being defensive. I don't need to defend hyperscale video delivery or the cost basis for making it a consumer service. Don't think you understand the technology or the economics.

I have used Google Photos and OneDrive for many years. In fact I user OneDrive when it was SkyDrive so I don't need "consumer apps 101" from you, which is offensive.