Make SkyDrive Sync Faster by Increasing Upload Speed

Some users say, SkyDrive doesn’t sync files as fast as Dropbox does. While I can’t verify the truth or falsity of the statement, Microsoft feels there is definitely room for improvement.

The Redmond company recently added a manual configuration option to SkyDrive desktop client that allows users to improve the upload speed of files to SkyDrive cloud servers. The change makes it possible to overrides the number of files that are processed at a time while they are being uploaded. Previously the number of files that were processed at a time was set to the default value of 1. This value can now be increased to either 2 or 3.

According to Microsoft, users can now experience increased speed when uploading a large number of files.

On a Windows computer, do the following:

1. If you are running the SkyDrive program, shut it down first.
2. Open the Run dialog (press the Windows key on your keyboard + R)
3. Type %localappdata%\Microsoft\SkyDrive\settings\global.ini and press enter
4. After global.ini is opened in the editor of your choice, add the line numberOfConcurrentUploads = 2 as the first line in the document (make sure that line isn’t already present anywhere in the file, and do not make changes to other lines in the file, as they could prevent SkyDrive from working). You can set the value of numberOfConcurrentUploads to either 1, 2, or 3
5. Once you’re done with that, save your changes to global.ini and start SkyDrive

On a Mac, do the following:

1. Shut down SkyDrive
2. Open Terminal
3. Type open ~/Library/Containers/com.microsoft.skydrive-mac/Data/Library/Application\ Support/SkyDrive/settings/global.ini
4. After global.ini is opened in the editor of your choice, add the line numberOfConcurrentUploads = 2 as the first line in the document (make sure that line isn’t already present anywhere in the file, and do not make changes to other lines in the file, as they could prevent SkyDrive from working). You can set the value of numberOfConcurrentUploads to either 1, 2, or 3
5. Once you’re done with that, save your changes to global.ini and start SkyDrive

Increasing this value from its default of 1 will result in increased usage of upload bandwidth on your computer. If making this change negatively impacts use of your computer or other devices on your local network, you can change the value back to 1 (the default), save your changes, and restart SkyDrive.

via Microsoft Answer and The Windows Club