MC1041953Microsoft Syntex: Optical Character Recognition (OCR) for OneDrive for Business
Summary
Microsoft Syntex now supports OCR for OneDrive for Business, allowing admins to enable OCR for selected or all users, making files searchable and aiding compliance. The rollout starts mid-April 2025 and incurs costs. Admins can enable it via the Microsoft 365 admin center. More details are available [here](https://learn.microsoft.com/microsoft-365/syntex/ocr).
More information
Updated April 16, 2025: We have updated the rollout timeline below. Thank you for your patience.
We are excited to announce a new capability in the Microsoft 365 admin center that allows administrators to enable Optical Character Recognition (OCR) for OneDrive for Business. Admins can now turn on OCR for selected OneDrive groups and users or enable it for all OneDrive users within their organization. This enhancement ensures that all files become searchable, improving discoverability and supporting compliance initiatives such as eDiscovery.
When this will happen:
General Availability (Worldwide): We will begin rolling out in mid-April 2025 (previously early April) and expect to complete by late April 2025 (previously mid-April).
How this will affect your organization:
OCR is a pay-as-you-go feature. Turning on the OCR feature will incur cost for the organization.
What you need to do to prepare:
Version history
2 versions tracked
Updated 1 time since Mar 26, 2025. Microsoft 365 Message Center only shows the current version; this archive preserves tracked history.
Compare any two versions
- Apr 16, 2025 - 03:05 PMLatest - v2
Changed: Body, Tags
- Mar 26, 2025 - 11:30 PMOriginal - v1
Changed: Initial version