Use your OneDrive photos with Aubora, or move them

Aubora doesn't connect to OneDrive directly, but there are two ways to bring a OneDrive photo library into it:

Keep OneDrive: index the OneDrive folder that the OneDrive app syncs to your computer, as a local folder.
Leave OneDrive: download your photos and move them to kDrive, pCloud, or Dropbox.

Neither way deletes anything from OneDrive.

What you need

Aubora installed (download).
For the first way: the OneDrive app on your computer, signed in, and free disk space for your photos.
For the second: a computer with free space and an account with kDrive, pCloud, or Dropbox.

Where your photos are in OneDrive

Photos uploaded by the OneDrive phone app land in Pictures → Camera Roll by default (the names follow your account's language, for example Images → Pellicule in French). Photos you added yourself are wherever you put them. Note which folders hold photos before you start.

Way 1: keep OneDrive and index the synced folder

1. Make the photos available on your computer

The OneDrive app shows every file, but only downloads a file when it's opened (Microsoft calls this Files On-Demand). Aubora would then download each photo during its first scan, which is slow and fills your disk anyway. Download them in one go instead:

Open OneDrive in the sidebar of the Finder (Mac) or File Explorer (Windows).
Right-click the folder that holds your photos (for example Pictures) and choose Always keep on this device.
Wait until the files show a green circle with a white check mark: they're stored on your computer.

This needs as much free disk space as the folder's size.

2. Point Aubora at the folder

In Aubora, open the library's Source & connection, choose Local folder, click Choose folders, select the photo folder inside OneDrive with Browse…, and click Continue to indexing.

New photos that OneDrive syncs later are picked up by the next scan. Keep Always keep on this device on, so that new photos are downloaded too.

Way 2: move your photos to kDrive, pCloud, or Dropbox

1. Download the photos

With the OneDrive app (recommended for a big library): follow step 1 of way 1. Once the files are on your computer, copy the photo folder to a new location.
From the website: at onedrive.live.com, select a folder and click Download. OneDrive makes a zip file, limited to 20 GB and 10,000 files per download, so download a big library folder by folder (one year at a time, for example) and unzip each archive.

2. Upload and index

Upload the folder with the desktop app or website of kDrive, pCloud, or Dropbox. Then, in Aubora, open Source & connection, connect that storage, click Choose folders, pick the folder with Browse…, and click Continue to indexing. The quick start guide covers each provider.

The photos keep the location and date stored inside them; Aubora reads both.

Troubleshooting

"Always keep on this device" doesn't appear.

Check that the OneDrive app is running and signed in. On a Mac, also relaunch the Finder: hold Control and Option, click the Finder in the Dock, and choose Relaunch. Then try again.

The first scan is slow and the disk fills up.

Some photos were still online-only, so Aubora's scan downloaded them one by one. Use Always keep on this device on the whole photo folder and let OneDrive finish before scanning.

I use OneDrive for work or school.

The same steps apply. Your organization may restrict downloads or syncing; ask your IT team if an option is missing.

Videos don't appear in Aubora.

Aubora doesn't index videos yet. They stay in OneDrive or your storage, untouched.

Sources: Microsoft: Save disk space with OneDrive Files On-Demand for Mac, Microsoft: Download files and folders from OneDrive.

Still stuck? What to do if you're stuck

Try Aubora on your own library

Free public beta for Mac and Windows. Indexing and search run on your computer.

Download Aubora