Microsoft OneDrive

Microsoft OneDrive is Office 365’s personal storage and storage synchronization service.

On top of providing a personal block of storage for you, it enables you to synchronize storage within other Office 365 services, such as Teams. For example, you could use OneDrive to synchronize the storage for a Teams channel, allowing you to access its storage as though it were a folder on your computer.

Downloadable (PDF) Quick Start guide & reference

Quick start
Upload and manage files and folders, and collaborate with others.
Get started with OneDrive
Get familiar with the basics and setting it up on your phone or tablet.
Manage your files
Upload and create files and folders, and how to delete and restore files.
Share and sync
Share files and folders with others.

FAQ

Below are some quick answers for the most commonly asked questions.

All users receive 1TB (1000GB) of storage.

OneDrive is part of your Office 365 subscription and has both a web app and desktop app.

Web app

This version is accessible from your internet browser and can be found within the Office 365 portal. There is no installation.

To get started, log into the Office 365 portal, which can be found at https://portal.office.com or the link below. Click the OneDrive tile to continue.

Office 365 Portal

Desktop app

The desktop app is pre-installed on all Windows 10 machines and can be installed on any other device that Office 365 can run such as Macs, tablets, and phones.

Once installed, OneDrive creates a special folder on your computer where all files contained are automatically synchronized, removing the need to manually upload new files like the web app.

Right click on a file or document within OneDrive and select Share, then select the users to share with.

When you’re working collaboratively on a document, there is only ever one document. Make sure that you’re accessing it via the provided share link.

If you save the file to your computer, you effectively create a copy of said file. At that point, you’ll be working on your own version rather than contributing to the source.

If you need to work on a document together, a couple good rules are:

Use your personal OneDrive for your files and documents
Use a Microsoft Teams site instead for group work and projects

When you share a file from OneDrive, it will generate a link that you can send to other collaborators. You’re giving others a link or permission to that small piece of your workspace.

Conversely, a Microsoft Teams site is a workspace that everyone in the team or department is a part of.

It will be moved to OneDrive’s recycle bin. After 30 days, it will be permanently deleted and cannot be recovered.