SkyDrive Pro desktop sync is part of Office 2013 Pro Plus

*** 22 May 2013 Update ***

SkyDrive Pro Windows client app is now available for free. See post:

https://blog.ciaops.com/2013/05/skydrive-pro-client-now-available-for.html

For details

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As more people start to use the new features of SharePoint Online from Office 365 I am seeing greater confusion around how to synchronize files from SkyDrive Pro to the desktop. If you haven’t already I suggest you have a look at my previous posts about SkyDrive Pro:

SkyDrive Pro Primer

A bit more on SkyDrive Pro

Even more on SkyDrive Pro

There is also a SkyDrive Pro video I did:

SkyDrive Pro Webinar – Preview

and of course there is a eBook I recent released:

Getting started with SkyDrive Pro

The synchronization of files from SharePoint Online 2013 to a Windows desktop can be achieved by what I call a SkyDrive Pro App. This is a small program that once installed, monitors for changes between the local Windows machine and SharePoint 2013. When it finds changes it does a sync.

What seems to be confusing many people is where you get this SkyDrive Pro app. At the moment this app is only part of Office 2013 Professional Plus as you can see from below:

So if you don’t have Office 2013 Professional Plus you won’t get the SkyDrive Pro app and you won’t be able to perform synchronization to your local desktop.

As you can appreciate this is a major limitation for people using the new SharePoint Online. Much like the consumer version of SkyDrive they should have made this SkyDrive Pro app available for free so that you didn’t need Office 2013 Professional Plus to get it. There are however rumours that the SkyDrive Pro app will soon be available for free and I certainly hope this is the case for otherwise it is going to stymie the uptake of SharePoint Online, especially for those not currently having Office 2013 Professional Plus.