Skip to main content

Create, share, and manage OneDrive files and folders

Mike Blodgett
  • Updated

If you'd like to share some folders in your OneDrive with someone else, there's just a few administrative items to cover that might save you some headaches later on.

Contents

What is OneDrive?

OneDrive offers you the ability to save a file online so you can share or work on it with others at the same time. Also, OneDrive installed directly on your computer can quickly fill up all your computer’s storage space and severely slow down your office’s internet speed.

Access your OneDrive

There are a few different ways to access OneDrive, but here's the simplest method:

  1. To sign into OneDrive, navigate to office.com and choose the OneDrive icon:
    1.png
  2. If you select a OneDrive file, a context menu opens up: 
    2.png

Alternative method:

  1. In a web browser window, navigate to https://onedrive.live.com/about/en-us/signin
  2. Sign in with your full work email address and password, authenticating if applicable.
  3. Once signed in, you can view all your folders and files, similarly to how you would within a File Explorer window.

If you're having trouble signing in, try an Incognito window or a different browser that isn't associated with any account (such as a gmail account). 

Create a new OneDrive file

  1. Choose New and then select the type of file you want. In this example, we will choose an Excel workbook: 
    3.png
  2. Your work will be automatically saved as you type. To change the name of the file, click on the ‘Book’ text highlighted below in the top center and type the name you prefer: 
    4.png

Granting access to your OneDrive to another user

Similarly to Dropbox or Google Drive, you can give other people permission to view or edit specific files and/or folders within your personal OneDrive file storage solution.

There are three methods for sharing OneDrive files/folders:

  1. Share a file from the web interface
  2. Link sharing
  3. Direct access

To share a OneDrive file from the web interface:

  1. If you're editing a document within a web browser, choose Share at the top tight, then type the name or email of people you want to share with. The decision to share files with people outside your organization is made by your organization’s management team. If you are not able to share files outside the org, please let the Help Desk know your business need for doing that. 
    5.png

To grant access via Link Sharing:

Depending on your organization's data privacy and security policies, you may not have the option to share links with "anyone" - instead, you will be able to share links with specific people (including third parties) or with people within your organization. This allows you to better manage and control exactly who has access to your files. 

  1. Navigate to the file or folder you want to share.
  2. Right-click on the desired item, then select Manage access.
    mceclip0.png
  3. Next to "Links givng access" click Share.
    mceclip1.png

  4. First select the type of access you want to grant with this static link/URL.
    1. Click "People you specify can edit".
      mceclip3.png
    2. Select who you want to share the link with. If you select "People in Internal with the link" or "Specific people," then you will have the option to grant Edit or Read-Only access. To grant Edit access, check the box for Allow editing. To grant Read-Only access, simply uncheck the box for Allow editing. Click Apply when finished.
      mceclip4.png
  5. You will be returned to the window where you can then either copy the sharing link to send on your own or send the sharing link via email. If you click Copy link, it will copy the link to your clipboard and you can send it via email, chat, etc. If you click Outlook, it will open a new email in webmail with the link in the body of the email. 
    mceclip6.png
    1. NOTE: After clicking Outlook, it may default to sharing via email, but simply click back to your OneDrive window, then returning to the Manage access window will give you the option to adjust the link sharing options, and it will also list anyone you've specifically identified to share access with via email. In the below screenshot, we can see the static link along with what kind of access it grants, and who that access it specifically granted to.
    2. In the example below, we can see that I have two links: one that grants Edit access, and another that grants View (Read-Only) access. The distinction is small, but extremely important to managing your data privacy.
      mceclip8.png

To grant access via Direct Access:

When you grant direct access to specific files or folders, other users (if they have access to a OneDrive account associated with the email you used to grant access to them) will be able to navigate to a Shared section of their OneDrive and see a list of any files or folders that were shared with them. This makes it easy for that other user to navigate and keep track of any files or folders shared directly with them.

  1. Perform steps 1-2 above.
  2. Click the + icon next to Direct access. 
  3. A pop-up window will display. Here you can enter the email address of the person or people you want to grant direct access to. Once you've entered in their emails and added a message (optional), you can click Grant access. If you don't want to send a message and you don't want a generic Microsoft email notification sent to the recipients, simply uncheck the box for Notify people prior to clicking Grant access.
    mceclip10.png

Other user can't move files to a different folder

If you want other users to be able to move files between folders located within your OneDrive, you'll need to grant them access to a root folder that contains those sub-folders. 

Let's take this folder structure for example:

  • Root folder 1
  • Root folder 2
  • Root folder 3
    • Sub Folder A
      • Sub Folder X
      • Sub Folder Y
      • Sub Folder Z
    • Sub Folder B

Let's say you want to grant Nathan access to move files between Sub Folder X and Sub Folder Y. You will need to grant Nathan access to the most root folder containing those sub folders. So it won't work if you simply grant him access to Sub Folder A. Instead, you'll need to grant Nathan access to Root folder 3.

It's important to note that this will give Nathan access to the entirety of Root folder 3 and it's sub-folders and files. A good practice would be to create a root folder called something like "Shared" so you can easily distinguish that it and anything within it will be shared. 

Related:

Related articles

Comments

0 comments

Article is closed for comments.

Powered by Zendesk