OneDrive Articles

Article / Updated 09-14-2021

OneDrive is an internet-based storage platform with a significant chunk of space offered for free by Microsoft to anyone with a Microsoft account. Think of it as a hard drive in the cloud, which you can share, with a few extra benefits thrown in. One of the primary benefits: OneDrive hooks into Windows 10, at least in fits and starts. Microsoft, of course, wants you to buy more storage, but you're under no obligation to do so. How much storage can you get? As of this writing, OneDrive gives everyone with a Microsoft account 5GB of free storage, with 50GB for $2/month. Many Office 365 subscription levels provide 1TB (1,024GB) of OneDrive storage, free, for as long as you're an Office 365 subscriber. Microsoft's offers change from time to time, but the general trend is down — prices are going down, fast, and it won't be too long before most online storage approaches free. The free storage is there, regardless of whether you use your Microsoft account to log in to Windows, and even if you never use OneDrive. In fact, if you have a Microsoft account, you're all signed up for OneDrive. OneDrive can be confusing Many people find OneDrive — at least the Windows 7, 8, and 10 versions of OneDrive — very confusing because, in essence, OneDrive keeps two sets of books. (Windows 8.1 OneDrive, by contrast is quite upfront about the whole process.) In Windows 10's OneDrive, there's the whole OneDrive enchilada stored on the web. But there's a second, shadow, subset of OneDrive folders that are stored on your computer. Some OneDrive users have all their web-based files and folders stored on their computers, and OneDrive syncs the folders quite quickly — what you see in File Explorer is what's stored in the cloud, and vice versa. But other OneDrive users have only some of their OneDrive folders on their computers. File Explorer shows them only this subset of folders and hides all the others that are sitting in the cloud. If you aren't confused, you obviously don't understand. What OneDrive does for you OneDrive does what all the other cloud storage services do — it gives you a place to put your files on the internet. You need to log in to OneDrive with your Microsoft account (or, equivalently, log in to Windows with your Microsoft account) to access your data. If you log in to a different Windows 10 computer using the same Microsoft account, you have access to all your OneDrive data through the web but, surprisingly, not necessarily through File Explorer. In fact, if you look only at Windows File Explorer, you might not even know what data is sitting in your OneDrive storage. This is one of the most confusing and dangerous parts of Windows 10. Realize that Windows File Explorer, when looking at OneDrive, is lying to you. File Explorer offers a very simple process for copying files from your computer into OneDrive, as long as you want to put the file in a folder that's visible to File Explorer. File Explorer lets you move files in the other direction, from OneDrive storage on to your local hard drive, but again you must be able to see the file or folder in File Explorer before you can move it. You can share files or folders that are stored in OneDrive by sending or posting a link to the file or folder to whomever you want. So, for example, if you want Aunt Martha to be able to see the folder full of pictures of Little Billy, OneDrive creates a link for you that you can email to Aunt Martha. You can also specify that a file or folder is Public, so anyone can see it. To work with the OneDrive platform on a mobile device, you can download and install one of the OneDrive programs — OneDrive for Mac, OneDrive for iPhone, iPad, or Android. The mobile apps have many of the same problems that you find in File Explorer in Windows 10. In Windows 10, you don't need to download or install a special program for OneDrive — it's already baked into Windows. If you have the program installed, OneDrive syncs data among computers, phones, and/or tablets that are set up using the same Microsoft account, as soon as you connect to a network. If you change a OneDrive file on your iPad, for example, when you save it, the modified file is put in your OneDrive storage area on the Internet. From there, the new version of the file is available to all other computers with access to the file. Ditto for Android devices.

Article / Updated 10-01-2016

OneDrive for Business with its 1 TB of storage is your personal online storage for the workplace. It is different from OneDrive, which is 5 gigabytes (GB) of online storage from Microsoft that anyone can use for free with an Outlook.com, Hotmail, or live.com account. While a document library in SharePoint is great if you're working with a lot of people, OneDrive for Business is ideal when you don't plan to share your files with a broad group of people in your organization. Especially when you need to keep your file longer than you would for project files, OneDrive for Business is the best storage location. Files you create or save in OneDrive are private by default and available to you only. You can, however, share them with others just like in SharePoint and in Office applications like Word, Excel, and PowerPoint. The figure illustrates how a private file is designated by a lock icon, while shared files have the people icon next to them. You can sync OneDrive for Business to your computer using a sync app available for both Windows and Mac. This allows you to work on your files offline when you're not connected to the internet. To sync OneDrive for Business to your computer, click the app launcher (looks like a waffle) from the Office 365 navigation bar then click Sync from the top menu and follow the prompts. Once the sync is complete, you will see your OneDrive for Business folder from the Quick Access panel in File Explorer. This figure shows two synced OneDrive folders: OneDrive – Cloud611, which is a workplace account (OneDrive for Business), and OneDrive – Personal, which is a free OneDrive live.com account.

Article / Updated 10-01-2016

OneDrive for Business is your personal Office 365 storage location in the cloud. If you're already familiar with Office 365 and SharePoint Online, OneDrive for Business is what used to be called SkyDrive Pro; before that, it was called SharePoint My Sites. Along the way, OneDrive for Business integrated a file sync technology called Groove. This winding path has taken you to the current OneDrive for Business. OneDrive for Business is still powered by SharePoint. If you're familiar with other cloud storage services, such as Dropbox, Google Drive, or Box, then you're already familiar with the concept behind OneDrive for Business. The OneDrive for Business client is shown here. OneDrive for Business is the aptly named business version of OneDrive. The consumer version is just called OneDrive. To use OneDrive for Business, you simply configure the sync client. When the client is configured, your files will be synced between your local computer and your cloud-based storage in Office 365. If you've never used OneDrive for Business on your Windows 10 computer, it will walk you through configuration when you open OneDrive for Business. You find OneDrive for Business under your Office 2016 folder on the Start menu. If you have Windows 10, you already have the latest version of the OneDrive sync client. If you don't have Windows 10, you need to download and install the latest OneDrive sync client. You download Office 365 software by logging into your account at online portal.