How-to: Disable syncing of document library for individual users or groups

Question

Currently, as far as I know, disabling syncing for a document library is all or nothing - everyone with access can sync, or nobody can sync.
Ideally, there would be an independent list permission, "disable syncing," which appears when assigning permissions to a permission level.  (Syncing is allowed by default if access to document library is granted, opposed to an alternative
approach of having "enable syncing" which would set the default the other way).
Given that this level of granularity is not provided out of the box (yet?),
is there any way (SPD?) to disable syncing for individuals?  (Or to disable syncing for the entire library, then enable syncing to individual users?  Depends on who there is more of, 'syncers' or 'nonsyncers'.)
* I know that syncing can be disabled across the board.  This is not an option.
(2) "Open with Explorer" seems to be tied in with syncing, disabling syncing disables "Open with Explorer".  Is there a way to keep "Open with Explorer" functionality while disabling syncing?

Answer 1

Hi,
According to your post, my understanding is that you want to disable sync option in library.
To disable sync option, and keen the open with explore option, we can use the JavaScript to achieve it.
I have made a code demo below to disable sync option for a particular user, it works like a charm, you can modify it to fit your scenario.
<script src="../jquery-1.11.0.min.js" type="text/javascript"></script>
<script src="../jquery.SPServices-2014.01.min.js" type="text/javascript"></script>
<script type="text/javascript">
var userid= _spPageContextInfo.userId;
var requestUri = _spPageContextInfo.webAbsoluteUrl + "/_api/web/getuserbyid(" + userid + ")";
var requestHeaders = { "accept" : "application/json;odata=verbose" };
$.ajax({
url : requestUri,
contentType : "application/json;odata=verbose",
headers : requestHeaders,
success : onSuccess,
error : onError
function onSuccess(data, request){
var loginName = data.d.Title;
//alert(loginName);
if(loginName=="Administrator"){
$("a[id='ctl00_SyncPromotedAction']").hide();
function onError(error) {
alert("error");
</script>
Thanks & Regards,
Jason
Jason Guo
TechNet Community Support