How to Audit KFM Failures Across Windows Devices in OneDrive for Business

OneDrive for Business Known Folder Move lets you redirect the Desktop, Documents, and Pictures folders to OneDrive. When KFM fails, users see a red X in their system tray and their folders stay local. These failures can be caused by Group Policy conflicts, storage limits, or file path length restrictions. This article explains how to audit KFM failures across all Windows devices in your tenant using the Microsoft 365 admin center, the OneDrive sync admin reports, and PowerShell. You will learn to identify the root cause of each failure and take corrective action.

Why KFM Failures Occur and How They Are Logged

Known Folder Move failures happen when the OneDrive sync app cannot redirect a local folder to the cloud. The sync app logs every attempt and failure in the Windows Event Log under “Applications and Services Logs > Microsoft > Windows > OneDrive-Sync”. Each failure event contains a numeric error code such as 0x80040CA2 or 0x80070002. These codes map to specific problems: insufficient storage, blocked file types, or folder redirection conflicts from Group Policy. The admin center aggregates these logs into per-device reports. You must have the Reports Reader or Global Administrator role to access these reports.

Step-by-Step: Audit KFM Failures Using the Admin Center

1. Sign in to the Microsoft 365 admin center
   Go to admin.microsoft.com and sign in with an account that has the Reports Reader or Global Administrator role.
2. Open the OneDrive sync reports
   Navigate to Reports > Usage > OneDrive. Under the “Sync” tab, select View reports.
3. Filter by KFM status
   Click Add filter and choose Known Folder Move status. Select Failed or Not redirected.
4. Review failure details for each device
   In the report table, locate the column “KFM status” and “Failure reason”. Click a device row to see the error code and the timestamp of the last attempt.
5. Export the audit data
   Click Export and choose CSV. This file contains all devices with KFM failures, including user principal name, device name, and error code.

Step-by-Step: Audit KFM Failures Using PowerShell

PowerShell gives you more control to query KFM status across all users at once. Install the SharePoint Online Management Shell before you begin.

1. Connect to SharePoint Online
   Run Connect-SPOService -Url https://yourtenant-admin.sharepoint.com and sign in with your admin credentials.
2. Query KFM status for a single user
   Run Get-SPOSyncKnownFolderMoveStatus -UserPrincipalName user@domain.com. The output shows the state of each folder: Redirected, NotRedirected, or Failed.
3. Query KFM status for all users
   Run Get-SPOSyncKnownFolderMoveStatus -AllUsers. This returns a list of all users and their KFM status.
4. Filter for failed states
   Pipe the output: Get-SPOSyncKnownFolderMoveStatus -AllUsers | Where-Object { $_.Status -eq "Failed" }.
5. Export to CSV
   Run Get-SPOSyncKnownFolderMoveStatus -AllUsers | Export-Csv -Path C:\KFM_Audit.csv -NoTypeInformation. Open the CSV in Excel to sort and analyze failures.

Common KFM Failure Reasons and Their Fixes

KFM fails with error 0x80040CA2 — insufficient storage

The user’s OneDrive storage is full. Free up space or increase the storage quota in the admin center under Users > Active users > select user > OneDrive > Manage storage.

KFM fails with error 0x80070002 — file path too long

The combined path of a file in the Desktop or Documents folder exceeds 260 characters. Ask the user to shorten file names or move files into shorter path structures before retrying KFM.

KFM fails with error 0x80070005 — permission denied

The user does not have write permission to the target OneDrive folder. Verify that the user’s OneDrive site is provisioned and that the user is a site collection administrator. In the admin center, go to Users > Active users, select the user, and check under OneDrive that the site URL is present.

KFM fails silently — Group Policy blocks redirection

A Group Policy object enforces local folder redirection that conflicts with KFM. Check the policy settings under Computer Configuration > Administrative Templates > Windows Components > OneDrive > Prevent users from moving Windows known folders to OneDrive. Set this policy to Disabled or Not configured.

Known Folder Move Status: Device-Level vs User-Level Audit

Item	Device-Level Audit (Admin Center)	User-Level Audit (PowerShell)
Scope	Per device with OneDrive sync app	Per user across all devices
Data source	Sync app telemetry	SharePoint Online
Failure reason detail	Error code and description	Status code only
Export format	CSV from admin center	CSV from PowerShell
Best use case	Identifying hardware-specific failures	Bulk remediation planning

You can now audit KFM failures across all Windows devices in your tenant using the admin center reports and PowerShell cmdlets. Start by exporting the CSV from the admin center to identify the most common error codes. Then use the PowerShell script to get a complete list of users with failed states. For each failure, apply the matching fix from the common issues section. As an advanced tip, create a recurring scheduled task in Azure Automation that runs the PowerShell script weekly and emails the CSV to your IT team.