Is it possible to keep Virtual Files and on-demand downloads, but centrally hide or disable the option “Make always available locally” for all users?
Not to my knowledge.
At least not without doing a custom client build.
In my understanding the Client uses built-in Windows API for VFS aka cloud files. Please try settings/GPOs related to “Storage Sense” - you’ll find docs in OneDrive context but given both use the same API it could apply for Nextcloud VFS files as well. It doesn’t prevent “available locally” but helps “dehydrating” the files from time to time:
- Configure Storage Sense in Windows | Microsoft Learn
- Manage drive space with Storage Sense | Microsoft Support
I’m wondering what is your motivation to prevent “available online” - the option is great for users to keep working on files while connectivity is bad/offline e.g. during a flight. If the user has access to the file and only a placeholder exists locally there is a delay when the user access it (or completely fails if connectivity is broken/bad). at the end the goal of the client is to make the files from the server available locally client and not other way round…