Hello everyone,

I recently started my Linux journey with Linux Mint 22.3 “Zena” (Cinnamon edition), and I’m really enjoying it so far. Coming from Windows, I’ve been heavily dependent on Microsoft’s ecosystem for a long time, so adapting to Linux-native workflows has been a learning curve.

One area I’m currently struggling with is Microsoft Office and OneDrive integration.

LibreOffice works well in general, and I don’t have issues with its functionality. However, as an Office 365 user, the UI and workflow feel quite different, so I’m still adjusting.

The main issue I’m facing right now is OneDrive sync on Linux.

I’m using the “OneDrive client for Linux” (abraunegg/onedrive) installed via terminal. I was able to complete Microsoft authentication successfully, and the initial sync starts without problems.

However, I ran into a serious concern:

• The client begins syncing everything locally to my SSD
• I have a large amount of data in OneDrive
• I want selective sync (not full download), otherwise my system storage will be filled quickly

To handle this, I tried configuring a sync filter file to include/exclude specific folders. After restarting the client, it still downloaded everything again.

After checking logs, I believe the issue was my configuration syntax being incorrect, so the client ignored it and performed a full sync.

Now I’m stuck because I rely heavily on OneDrive for daily work, and I need a reliable way to control syncing properly on Linux.

❓ My questions:

1. What is the correct way to configure selective sync in the abraunegg/onedrive client?
2. Is there a recommended .config / sync_list setup example that works reliably?
3. Or is there a better workflow (or tool) for using OneDrive on Linux without downloading everything locally?

Any guidance or examples would be really appreciated.