OneDrive users may experience issues while opening a file in the ‘Available when online’ status. At such times, you may see an error message box – Can’t open online-only file, Make sure you’re connected to the Internet, then try again, We can download the file the next time you’re online. Try these troubleshooting steps if you see this error when opening a file in OneDrive.

Can’t open online-only file – OneDrive error

The error message box offers you two options:

Download Later.
Cancel.

Selecting the first option i.e., ‘Download later’, lets you open the file without any problem but seeing this message every now and then becomes a major annoyance after some time. Also, the problem occurs even if you are connected to the Internet. To fix the problem follow the instructions given below.

Make sure you are running Windows 10 version 1809 or newer is installed.

Open the Windows Registry Editor.
Navigate to the following key – \Configuration
Right-click & select New > DWORD value.
Name the value ApplyExplorerCompatFix.
Assign the entry with a value of 1.
Close Registry Editor.

Please note that serious problems might occur if you modify the registry incorrectly. Follow the steps in this section carefully. Back up the registry for restoration before you modify it.

Press Win+R in combination to open the Run dialog box.

Type Regedit in the empty field of the box and hit Enter.

When the Registry Editor opens, navigate to the following path address –

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\UEV\Agent\Configuration

Next, right-click the empty space on the right and select New > DWORD value.

Name the value ApplyExplorerCompatFix.

Double-click the entry to edit its value.

When the Edit String box appears, set its value to 1.

When done, close the Registry Editor and exit.

Restart your PC t allow the change to take effect.

The error should no longer appear when opening a file in OneDrive.