-->
To use the OneDrive API via Microsoft Graph, you need to have an access token that authorizes your app with a particular set of permissions for a user.In this section, you'll learn how to:
- Register your application to get an application ID.
- Sign your user in with the specified scopes using the token flow or code flow.
- Sign the user out (optional).
Dec 14, 2020 How to Use OneDrive for the Mac. Microsoft OneDrive is a cloud-based storage and syncing solution that works on Mac, PC, and mobile devices with access to the internet. When you install OneDrive on your Mac, it appears to be just another folder.
The OneDrive API uses the standard OAuth 2.0 authorization framework to authorize apps and generate access tokens.You must provide an access token for every authenticated API call by using an HTTP header:
- One of the easiest ways to use OneDrive for file sharing is to set up a dedicated folder that you and other people can use to share files. This option works great with for sharing with friends.
- One of the many benefits of Microsoft OneDrive is its ability to share your files with other people-you can do this a few different ways. You can share files directly from your local computer.
Note: The recommended authorization framework is using the Azure AD v2.0 endpoint.However, some enterprise scenarios may require using the original Azure AD endpoint.For more information see App authentication with Microsoft Graph.
Register your app
The first step is to register an app with Microsoft and provide some details about your app.You can register your application and receive a new app ID from the Azure App registrations page.
For detailed steps on how to register your application, see registering your app for OneDrive API.
Sign users in
Your app must initiate the sign-in process by contacting the Azure Active Directory authorization endpoint with a specified scope.The flow follows standard OAuth 2.0 authorization flows and requires calls from a web browser or web-browser control.The result of the authorization flow will return an access token and optionally other tokens which your app can use to access the API.
Authentication scopes
Scopes determine what type of access the app is granted when the user is signed in.All scopes support single sign-on on the web, which means that if a user is already signed in to OneDrive, then the user can skip the authentication flow and go straight to the authorization flow.
| Scope name | Description |
|---|---|
| offline_access | Enables your app to work offline even when the user isn't active. Requires the use of code-flow. |
| files.read | Grants read-only permission to all of a user's OneDrive files. |
| files.read.all | Grants read-only permission to all of a user's OneDrive files, including files shared with the user. |
| files.readwrite | Grants read and write permission to all of a user's OneDrive files. |
| files.readwrite.all | Grants read and write permission to all of a user's OneDrive files, including files shared with the user. |
As an example, a typical application might request the following scopes:
Supported Authentication flows
While Azure Active Directory supports multiple authorization flows, the most common two are outlined here:
Token flow
The most straightforward authorization flow is the token flow.This flow is useful for quickly obtaining an access token to use the OneDrive API in an interactive fashion.This flow does not provide a refresh token, and therefore is not a good fit for longterm access to resources.
To start the sign-in process with the token flow, use a web browser or web-browser control to load a URL request.
Required query string parameters
| Parameter name | Value | Description |
|---|---|---|
| client_id | string | The client ID value created for your application. |
| redirect_uri | string | The redirect URL that the browser is sent to when authentication is complete. |
| response_type | string | The type of response expected from the authorization flow. For this flow, the value must be token. |
| scope | string | A space-separated list of scopes your application requires. |
Response
Upon successful authentication and authorization of your application, the web browser is redirected to the redirect URL provided with additional parameters added to the URL.
Values for access_token, authentication_token, and user_id are truncatedin the previous example. The values for access_token and authentication_tokenare quite long.
You can use the value of access_token to make requests to the Microsoft Graph.
Code flow
The code flow for authentication is a three-step process with separate calls to authenticate and authorize the application and to generate an access token to use the OneDrive API.This also allows your application to receive a refresh token that will enable long-term use of the API in some scenarios, to allow access when the user isn't actively using your application.
Step 1. Get an authorization code
To start the sign-in process with the code flow, use a web browser or web-browser control to load this URL request.
Required query string parameters
| Parameter name | Value | Description |
|---|---|---|
| client_id | string | The client ID created for your app. |
| scope | string | A space-separated list of scopes that your app requires. |
| redirect_uri | string | The redirect URL that the browser is sent to when authentication is complete. |
| response_type | string | The type of response expected from the authorization flow. For this flow, the value must be code. |
Response
Upon successful authentication and authorization of your application, the web browser will be redirected to your redirect URL with additional parameters added to the URL.
Step 2. Redeem the code for access tokens
After you have received the code value, you can redeem this code for a set of tokens that allow you to authenticate with the OneDrive API.To redeem the code, make the following request:
Required request body parameters
The request body is a properly encoded URL string, with some required parameters.
| Parameter name | Value | Description |
|---|---|---|
| client_id | string | The client ID value created for your application. |
| redirect_uri | string | The redirect URL that the browser is sent to when authentication is complete. This should match the redirect_uri in the first request. |
| client_secret | string | The client secret created for your application. |
| code | string | The authorization code you received in the first authentication request. |
Note For web apps, the domain portion of the redirect URI must match the domain portion of the redirect URI that you specified in the Microsoft Developer Center.
Response
If the call is successful, the response for the POST request contains a JSON string that includes several properties, including access_token, token_type, and refresh_token (if you requested the wl.offline_access scope).
You can now store and use the access_token provided to make authenticated requests to Microsoft Graph.
Important: Treat the values of access_token and refresh_token in this response as securely as you would a user's password.
The access token is valid for only the number of seconds that is specified in the expires_in property.You can request a new access token by using the refresh token (if available), or by repeating the authentication request from the beginning.
Step 3. Get a new access token or refresh token
If your app has requested the offline_access scope this step will return a refresh_token that can be used to generate additional access tokens after the initial token has expired.
To redeem the refresh token for a new access token, make the following request:
Required request body parameters
The request body is a properly encoded URL string, with some required parameters.
| Parameter name | Value | Description |
|---|---|---|
| client_id | string | The client ID created for your application. |
| redirect_uri | string | The redirect URL that the browser is sent to when authentication is complete. This should match the redirect_uri value used in the first request. |
| client_secret | string | The client secret created for your application. |
| refresh_token | string | The refresh token you received previously. |
Note For web apps, the domain portion of the redirect URI must match the domain portion of the redirect URI that you specified in the Microsoft Developer Center.
Response
If the call is successful, the response for the POST request contains a JSON string that includes several properties including access_token, authentication_token and refresh_token if you requested the offline_access scope.
You can now store and use the access_token to make authenticated requests to Microsoft Graph.
Important: Treat the values of access_token and refresh_token in this response as securely as you would a user's password.
The access token is valid for only the number of seconds that is specified in the expires_in property.You can request a new access token by using the refresh token (if available) or by repeating the authentication request from the beginning.
Sign the user out
To sign a user out, perform the following steps:
- Delete any cached
access_tokenorrefresh_tokenvalues you've previously received from the OAuth flow. - Perform any sign out actions in your application (for example, cleaning up local state, removing any cached items, etc.).
- Make a call to the authorization web service using this URL:
This call will remove any cookies that enable single sign-on to occur and ensure that next time your app launches the authorization flow, the user will be required to sign in again.Using this logout flow does not revoke any content previously granted to an applicaiton.
Required query string parameters
| Parameter name | Value | Description |
|---|---|---|
| redirect_uri | string | The redirect URL that the browser is sent to when authentication is complete. This must match exactly the redirect_uri value used in the get token request. |
After removing the cookie, the browser will be redirected to the redirect URL you provided.When the browser loads your redirect page, no authentication query string parameters will be set, and you can infer the user has been logged out.
Revoking Access
Microsoft account users can revoke an app's access to their account by visiting the Microsoft account manage consent page.
When consent for an app is revoked, any refresh token previously provided to your application will no longer be valid.You will need to repeat the authentication flow to request a new access and refresh token from scratch.
How To Use Onedrive On Macbook
Related topics
The following topics contain high-level overviews of other concepts that apply to the OneDrive API.
-->Microsoft OneDrive is a robust but simple-to-use cloud storage platform for small businesses, enterprises, and everything in between. Unlike other cloud storage providers, most of the advanced enterprise-focused features in OneDrive are available for every subscription type, enabling organizations to use OneDrive in whatever way benefits them the most. This guide focuses on the deployment and configuration options that make the most sense for small businesses looking to use OneDrive. From there, these organizations can select whatever additional management capabilities they require. For the full deployment guide, which contains other methods of deploying, configuring, and managing OneDrive, see OneDrive guide for enterprises.
Getting started with OneDrive
OneDrive is effective in even the largest enterprises, but it still has a small, easy-to-implement footprint that small businesses can take advantage of. After all, small businesses are often at highest risk for losing files on failed devices because few are concerned with centralized storage and backups. By using OneDrive, however, your small business can keep files safe, and your users can easily access them from all their devices. How to download photos to instagram from mac brown tree skirt.
To get started with OneDrive, follow these steps:
Review basic OneDrive information. Start by reviewing the introductory OneDrive information available at the OneDrive help center. You'll get answers to many of your questions, including the OneDrive experience and how it works.
Set up a Microsoft Office 365 subscription. You must set up a subscription to use OneDrive, but you aren't required to purchase all the applications in the Microsoft 365 suite. To get started, follow the steps in Set up Microsoft 365 Apps for business.
Add OneDrive licenses. Review your plan options in Compare OneDrive plans, and then add the licenses you need.
When you've completed these tasks, you're ready to plan for, deploy, and configure the OneDrive sync app and applications. To do that, complete these three simple steps:
Plan for adoption. For small businesses, planning for user adoption can be as simple as individually showing your users how to use OneDrive. Often, small business customers don't consider this step for new applications, and that can negatively affect the application's success. The section Adopt OneDrive provides helpful resources for OneDrive adoption.
Install and configure. Sync app are available for the Windows and macOS operating systems that provide a seamless experience for users interacting with their files. Most small businesses start by installing the sync app on their users' devices, and then consider the OneDrive mobile apps later. In fact, you may already have the OneDrive client on your devices. Devices running the Windows 10 operating system and devices running Windows or macOS with Microsoft Office 2016 or later will have the OneDrive sync app already. For information about how to install and configure the OneDrive sync app and mobile apps, see the section Install and configure OneDrive.
Manage OneDrive. For many small businesses, managing OneDrive is optional. You could simply install and configure OneDrive and leave it at that. If you want to use advanced features of OneDrive or add device sharing or access restrictions, however, you can easily manage those and other settings in the OneDrive admin center. For more information about managing OneDrive, see the section Manage OneDrive.
Key OneDrive features for small businesses
Unlike most other cloud storage providers, OneDrive not only provides robust features to small businesses out of the box, but it also makes most of its advanced features available to them. This gives small businesses the flexibility to use advanced features based on the needs of their organization.
The features listed in this section address common customer concerns or specific compliance requirements, or provide unique functionality available only in OneDrive. For a full list of features available across OneDrive plans, see Microsoft OneDrive.
Note
The information in this section is for awareness purposes only and is not required to install and use OneDrive.
OneDrive Files On-Demand
OneDrive Files On-Demand enables users to view, search for, and interact with files stored in OneDrive from within File Explorer, without downloading all the files to their device. The feature provides a seamless look and feel for both OneDrive and local files without taking up space on the local hard drive. As shown in the following screenshot, files that have not been downloaded have a cloud icon for their status. For those files that have been downloaded, the status shows a green checkmark.
By default, files are downloaded only when you need to access them. However, if you plan to access a file while disconnected from the internet, simply make the file available offline by right-clicking it, and then selecting Always keep on this device. Alternatively, if you want to free space on your device and remove the downloaded copy of a file, right-click the file, and then select Free up space. The following screenshot shows the right-click menu for OneDrive files on a device running Windows.
For more information about OneDrive Files On-Demand, see Learn about OneDrive Files On-Demand.
Modern attachments
OneDrive integrates with Microsoft Outlook to enable easy sharing of OneDrive files that appear just like email attachments. This feature provides a familiar sharing experience but centralizes storage of attachments in OneDrive. This allows your users to all collaborate on the same file instead of sending different versions back and forth in email. In addition, you can configure sharing permissions on the files directly from within the Outlook client.
To reduce the potential for confusion when users choose to add a copy versus a link to attached OneDrive files, you can set the default behavior of the Outlook client, as demonstrated in How to control default attachment state when you attach a cloud file in Outlook 2016.
Files Restore
The OneDrive Files Restore feature lets users restore files to any point over the past 30 days. To select the desired recovery time, OneDrive presents you with a histogram that shows file activity so that you can determine which recovered time meets your needs. From there, simply select the file history entry to which you want to restore, and all changes after that point will be rolled back.
In addition, because the histogram shows individual activity on a file, you can use this feature to quickly view your files' modification history. For more information about this feature, see Restore your OneDrive.
Recycle bin
OneDrive has a recycle bin similar to the one available on the Windows desktop. Deleted files are moved to the recycle bin and kept for a designated time before being permanently deleted. For work or school accounts, deleted files are purged after 93 days unless configured otherwise. For a demonstration of how the recycle bin works, see Restore deleted files or folders in OneDrive.
Known Folder Move
Known Folder Move enables users to select Windows known folders, such as their desktop, Documents, or Pictures, to automatically synchronize to OneDrive. You can add this feature during the initial setup of OneDrive or after it has been configured. This capability provides a simple migration option for users looking to add known folders to their existing list of synchronized folders. For more information about Known Folder Move, see Protect your files by saving them to OneDrive.
How To Use Onedrive On A Mac
Adopt OneDrive
User adoption is important to the overall success of any new application. Ideally, to feel that you have maximized your investment in Office 365 and OneDrive, you need to maximize user engagement with them. For small businesses, driving user adoption can be as simple as introducing users to OneDrive when you're installing it or showing them any of the videos available at the Office 365 Training Center.
Personally showing your users how to save and share documents in OneDrive tends to be the most effective option for driving adoption, given that you'll likely be performing manual installations. The primary value proposition for small businesses is file availability and redundancy. A document saved on local storage can be lost with a device; a document saved to OneDrive cannot. Simply having this discussion with your users beforehand, coupled with demonstrating the application's ease of use, can drive positive outcomes for this effort.
For information about a more formal Microsoft 365 user adoption strategy, see the Microsoft 365 End User Adoption Guide. For more information about driving user engagement through a similar, more formal process, see Success Factors for Office 365 End User Engagement. You can also contribute to or comment on adoption-related ideas in the Driving Adoption Tech Community.
Install and set up OneDrive apps
You can upload, download, and interact with your OneDrive files from a web browser, but the ideal OneDrive experience comes from the Windows and Mac sync apps and the iOS and Android mobile apps. With these clients and apps, saving files to OneDrive and interacting with them is much easier than visiting a website each time you need something. Through this experience, you can seamlessly integrate OneDrive into your existing file interaction experiences.
You can install OneDrive on any supported device. For small businesses, manual installations typically make the most sense. For some devices, the installation process may be as simple as installing an app from the app store. For others, you may need to delete older versions of OneDrive first. This section walks you through the installation and configuration of OneDrive on iOS and Android mobile devices, Windows devices, and computers running macOS. You may not need to install OneDrive on all these platforms, depending on the devices used in your organization.
The first step is to register an app with Microsoft and provide some details about your app.You can register your application and receive a new app ID from the Azure App registrations page.
For detailed steps on how to register your application, see registering your app for OneDrive API.
Sign users in
Your app must initiate the sign-in process by contacting the Azure Active Directory authorization endpoint with a specified scope.The flow follows standard OAuth 2.0 authorization flows and requires calls from a web browser or web-browser control.The result of the authorization flow will return an access token and optionally other tokens which your app can use to access the API.
Authentication scopes
Scopes determine what type of access the app is granted when the user is signed in.All scopes support single sign-on on the web, which means that if a user is already signed in to OneDrive, then the user can skip the authentication flow and go straight to the authorization flow.
| Scope name | Description |
|---|---|
| offline_access | Enables your app to work offline even when the user isn't active. Requires the use of code-flow. |
| files.read | Grants read-only permission to all of a user's OneDrive files. |
| files.read.all | Grants read-only permission to all of a user's OneDrive files, including files shared with the user. |
| files.readwrite | Grants read and write permission to all of a user's OneDrive files. |
| files.readwrite.all | Grants read and write permission to all of a user's OneDrive files, including files shared with the user. |
As an example, a typical application might request the following scopes:
Supported Authentication flows
While Azure Active Directory supports multiple authorization flows, the most common two are outlined here:
Token flow
The most straightforward authorization flow is the token flow.This flow is useful for quickly obtaining an access token to use the OneDrive API in an interactive fashion.This flow does not provide a refresh token, and therefore is not a good fit for longterm access to resources.
To start the sign-in process with the token flow, use a web browser or web-browser control to load a URL request.
Required query string parameters
| Parameter name | Value | Description |
|---|---|---|
| client_id | string | The client ID value created for your application. |
| redirect_uri | string | The redirect URL that the browser is sent to when authentication is complete. |
| response_type | string | The type of response expected from the authorization flow. For this flow, the value must be token. |
| scope | string | A space-separated list of scopes your application requires. |
Response
Upon successful authentication and authorization of your application, the web browser is redirected to the redirect URL provided with additional parameters added to the URL.
Values for access_token, authentication_token, and user_id are truncatedin the previous example. The values for access_token and authentication_tokenare quite long.
You can use the value of access_token to make requests to the Microsoft Graph.
Code flow
The code flow for authentication is a three-step process with separate calls to authenticate and authorize the application and to generate an access token to use the OneDrive API.This also allows your application to receive a refresh token that will enable long-term use of the API in some scenarios, to allow access when the user isn't actively using your application.
Step 1. Get an authorization code
To start the sign-in process with the code flow, use a web browser or web-browser control to load this URL request.
Required query string parameters
| Parameter name | Value | Description |
|---|---|---|
| client_id | string | The client ID created for your app. |
| scope | string | A space-separated list of scopes that your app requires. |
| redirect_uri | string | The redirect URL that the browser is sent to when authentication is complete. |
| response_type | string | The type of response expected from the authorization flow. For this flow, the value must be code. |
Response
Upon successful authentication and authorization of your application, the web browser will be redirected to your redirect URL with additional parameters added to the URL.
Step 2. Redeem the code for access tokens
After you have received the code value, you can redeem this code for a set of tokens that allow you to authenticate with the OneDrive API.To redeem the code, make the following request:
Required request body parameters
The request body is a properly encoded URL string, with some required parameters.
| Parameter name | Value | Description |
|---|---|---|
| client_id | string | The client ID value created for your application. |
| redirect_uri | string | The redirect URL that the browser is sent to when authentication is complete. This should match the redirect_uri in the first request. |
| client_secret | string | The client secret created for your application. |
| code | string | The authorization code you received in the first authentication request. |
Note For web apps, the domain portion of the redirect URI must match the domain portion of the redirect URI that you specified in the Microsoft Developer Center.
Response
If the call is successful, the response for the POST request contains a JSON string that includes several properties, including access_token, token_type, and refresh_token (if you requested the wl.offline_access scope).
You can now store and use the access_token provided to make authenticated requests to Microsoft Graph.
Important: Treat the values of access_token and refresh_token in this response as securely as you would a user's password.
The access token is valid for only the number of seconds that is specified in the expires_in property.You can request a new access token by using the refresh token (if available), or by repeating the authentication request from the beginning.
Step 3. Get a new access token or refresh token
If your app has requested the offline_access scope this step will return a refresh_token that can be used to generate additional access tokens after the initial token has expired.
To redeem the refresh token for a new access token, make the following request:
Required request body parameters
The request body is a properly encoded URL string, with some required parameters.
| Parameter name | Value | Description |
|---|---|---|
| client_id | string | The client ID created for your application. |
| redirect_uri | string | The redirect URL that the browser is sent to when authentication is complete. This should match the redirect_uri value used in the first request. |
| client_secret | string | The client secret created for your application. |
| refresh_token | string | The refresh token you received previously. |
Note For web apps, the domain portion of the redirect URI must match the domain portion of the redirect URI that you specified in the Microsoft Developer Center.
Response
If the call is successful, the response for the POST request contains a JSON string that includes several properties including access_token, authentication_token and refresh_token if you requested the offline_access scope.
You can now store and use the access_token to make authenticated requests to Microsoft Graph.
Important: Treat the values of access_token and refresh_token in this response as securely as you would a user's password.
The access token is valid for only the number of seconds that is specified in the expires_in property.You can request a new access token by using the refresh token (if available) or by repeating the authentication request from the beginning.
Sign the user out
To sign a user out, perform the following steps:
- Delete any cached
access_tokenorrefresh_tokenvalues you've previously received from the OAuth flow. - Perform any sign out actions in your application (for example, cleaning up local state, removing any cached items, etc.).
- Make a call to the authorization web service using this URL:
This call will remove any cookies that enable single sign-on to occur and ensure that next time your app launches the authorization flow, the user will be required to sign in again.Using this logout flow does not revoke any content previously granted to an applicaiton.
Required query string parameters
| Parameter name | Value | Description |
|---|---|---|
| redirect_uri | string | The redirect URL that the browser is sent to when authentication is complete. This must match exactly the redirect_uri value used in the get token request. |
After removing the cookie, the browser will be redirected to the redirect URL you provided.When the browser loads your redirect page, no authentication query string parameters will be set, and you can infer the user has been logged out.
Revoking Access
Microsoft account users can revoke an app's access to their account by visiting the Microsoft account manage consent page.
When consent for an app is revoked, any refresh token previously provided to your application will no longer be valid.You will need to repeat the authentication flow to request a new access and refresh token from scratch.
How To Use Onedrive On Macbook
Related topics
The following topics contain high-level overviews of other concepts that apply to the OneDrive API.
-->Microsoft OneDrive is a robust but simple-to-use cloud storage platform for small businesses, enterprises, and everything in between. Unlike other cloud storage providers, most of the advanced enterprise-focused features in OneDrive are available for every subscription type, enabling organizations to use OneDrive in whatever way benefits them the most. This guide focuses on the deployment and configuration options that make the most sense for small businesses looking to use OneDrive. From there, these organizations can select whatever additional management capabilities they require. For the full deployment guide, which contains other methods of deploying, configuring, and managing OneDrive, see OneDrive guide for enterprises.
Getting started with OneDrive
OneDrive is effective in even the largest enterprises, but it still has a small, easy-to-implement footprint that small businesses can take advantage of. After all, small businesses are often at highest risk for losing files on failed devices because few are concerned with centralized storage and backups. By using OneDrive, however, your small business can keep files safe, and your users can easily access them from all their devices. How to download photos to instagram from mac brown tree skirt.
To get started with OneDrive, follow these steps:
Review basic OneDrive information. Start by reviewing the introductory OneDrive information available at the OneDrive help center. You'll get answers to many of your questions, including the OneDrive experience and how it works.
Set up a Microsoft Office 365 subscription. You must set up a subscription to use OneDrive, but you aren't required to purchase all the applications in the Microsoft 365 suite. To get started, follow the steps in Set up Microsoft 365 Apps for business.
Add OneDrive licenses. Review your plan options in Compare OneDrive plans, and then add the licenses you need.
When you've completed these tasks, you're ready to plan for, deploy, and configure the OneDrive sync app and applications. To do that, complete these three simple steps:
Plan for adoption. For small businesses, planning for user adoption can be as simple as individually showing your users how to use OneDrive. Often, small business customers don't consider this step for new applications, and that can negatively affect the application's success. The section Adopt OneDrive provides helpful resources for OneDrive adoption.
Install and configure. Sync app are available for the Windows and macOS operating systems that provide a seamless experience for users interacting with their files. Most small businesses start by installing the sync app on their users' devices, and then consider the OneDrive mobile apps later. In fact, you may already have the OneDrive client on your devices. Devices running the Windows 10 operating system and devices running Windows or macOS with Microsoft Office 2016 or later will have the OneDrive sync app already. For information about how to install and configure the OneDrive sync app and mobile apps, see the section Install and configure OneDrive.
Manage OneDrive. For many small businesses, managing OneDrive is optional. You could simply install and configure OneDrive and leave it at that. If you want to use advanced features of OneDrive or add device sharing or access restrictions, however, you can easily manage those and other settings in the OneDrive admin center. For more information about managing OneDrive, see the section Manage OneDrive.
Key OneDrive features for small businesses
Unlike most other cloud storage providers, OneDrive not only provides robust features to small businesses out of the box, but it also makes most of its advanced features available to them. This gives small businesses the flexibility to use advanced features based on the needs of their organization.
The features listed in this section address common customer concerns or specific compliance requirements, or provide unique functionality available only in OneDrive. For a full list of features available across OneDrive plans, see Microsoft OneDrive.
Note
The information in this section is for awareness purposes only and is not required to install and use OneDrive.
OneDrive Files On-Demand
OneDrive Files On-Demand enables users to view, search for, and interact with files stored in OneDrive from within File Explorer, without downloading all the files to their device. The feature provides a seamless look and feel for both OneDrive and local files without taking up space on the local hard drive. As shown in the following screenshot, files that have not been downloaded have a cloud icon for their status. For those files that have been downloaded, the status shows a green checkmark.
By default, files are downloaded only when you need to access them. However, if you plan to access a file while disconnected from the internet, simply make the file available offline by right-clicking it, and then selecting Always keep on this device. Alternatively, if you want to free space on your device and remove the downloaded copy of a file, right-click the file, and then select Free up space. The following screenshot shows the right-click menu for OneDrive files on a device running Windows.
For more information about OneDrive Files On-Demand, see Learn about OneDrive Files On-Demand.
Modern attachments
OneDrive integrates with Microsoft Outlook to enable easy sharing of OneDrive files that appear just like email attachments. This feature provides a familiar sharing experience but centralizes storage of attachments in OneDrive. This allows your users to all collaborate on the same file instead of sending different versions back and forth in email. In addition, you can configure sharing permissions on the files directly from within the Outlook client.
To reduce the potential for confusion when users choose to add a copy versus a link to attached OneDrive files, you can set the default behavior of the Outlook client, as demonstrated in How to control default attachment state when you attach a cloud file in Outlook 2016.
Files Restore
The OneDrive Files Restore feature lets users restore files to any point over the past 30 days. To select the desired recovery time, OneDrive presents you with a histogram that shows file activity so that you can determine which recovered time meets your needs. From there, simply select the file history entry to which you want to restore, and all changes after that point will be rolled back.
In addition, because the histogram shows individual activity on a file, you can use this feature to quickly view your files' modification history. For more information about this feature, see Restore your OneDrive.
Recycle bin
OneDrive has a recycle bin similar to the one available on the Windows desktop. Deleted files are moved to the recycle bin and kept for a designated time before being permanently deleted. For work or school accounts, deleted files are purged after 93 days unless configured otherwise. For a demonstration of how the recycle bin works, see Restore deleted files or folders in OneDrive.
Known Folder Move
Known Folder Move enables users to select Windows known folders, such as their desktop, Documents, or Pictures, to automatically synchronize to OneDrive. You can add this feature during the initial setup of OneDrive or after it has been configured. This capability provides a simple migration option for users looking to add known folders to their existing list of synchronized folders. For more information about Known Folder Move, see Protect your files by saving them to OneDrive.
How To Use Onedrive On A Mac
Adopt OneDrive
User adoption is important to the overall success of any new application. Ideally, to feel that you have maximized your investment in Office 365 and OneDrive, you need to maximize user engagement with them. For small businesses, driving user adoption can be as simple as introducing users to OneDrive when you're installing it or showing them any of the videos available at the Office 365 Training Center.
Personally showing your users how to save and share documents in OneDrive tends to be the most effective option for driving adoption, given that you'll likely be performing manual installations. The primary value proposition for small businesses is file availability and redundancy. A document saved on local storage can be lost with a device; a document saved to OneDrive cannot. Simply having this discussion with your users beforehand, coupled with demonstrating the application's ease of use, can drive positive outcomes for this effort.
For information about a more formal Microsoft 365 user adoption strategy, see the Microsoft 365 End User Adoption Guide. For more information about driving user engagement through a similar, more formal process, see Success Factors for Office 365 End User Engagement. You can also contribute to or comment on adoption-related ideas in the Driving Adoption Tech Community.
Install and set up OneDrive apps
You can upload, download, and interact with your OneDrive files from a web browser, but the ideal OneDrive experience comes from the Windows and Mac sync apps and the iOS and Android mobile apps. With these clients and apps, saving files to OneDrive and interacting with them is much easier than visiting a website each time you need something. Through this experience, you can seamlessly integrate OneDrive into your existing file interaction experiences.
You can install OneDrive on any supported device. For small businesses, manual installations typically make the most sense. For some devices, the installation process may be as simple as installing an app from the app store. For others, you may need to delete older versions of OneDrive first. This section walks you through the installation and configuration of OneDrive on iOS and Android mobile devices, Windows devices, and computers running macOS. You may not need to install OneDrive on all these platforms, depending on the devices used in your organization.
Most small businesses start by installing the OneDrive sync app on users' Windows and macOS devices, and then consider the OneDrive mobile apps afterwards. You don't need to install and configure OneDrive on all your devices before you start using it.
Install and configure the sync app on a Windows device
If your Windows device has either Office 2016 or Windows 10, it already has the OneDrive sync app. Imagej download for mac freewesterntron version.
How To Use Onedrive On Macbook Pro
For devices running older versions of Windows or on which Office 2016 is not installed, you can download the OneDrive sync app for Windows from https://onedrive.live.com/about/download.
Note
If the device has an older version of the sync app, you'll be asked to uninstall it when you install the new one.
Configuring OneDrive for Windows is simple, but if you want to see a demonstration, see Sync files with the OneDrive sync app in Windows
Install and configure OneDrive on a macOS device
To install the OneDrive sync app on a computer running macOS, just follow the steps in Sync files with the OneDrive sync app on Mac OS X. The setup experience is similar to that for Windows. For more information about OneDrive on macOS, see OneDrive for Mac – FAQ.
How To Use Microsoft Onedrive On Mac
Install and configure OneDrive on a mobile device
Installing the OneDrive app on a mobile device is simple: download the app from the app store on any Android, iOS, or Windows mobile device. If you want to simplify the manual installation process even further, go to https://onedrive.live.com/about/download and enter the mobile phone number of the device on which you want to install OneDrive. Microsoft will send a text message to the mobile device with a link to the app in the device's app store. Once installed, start the configuration process by opening the app and responding to the prompts.
To learn how to perform tasks in OneDrive on an iOS device, see Use OneDrive on iOS.
To learn how to perform tasks in OneDrive on an Android device, see Use OneDrive on Android.
Manage OneDrive
Many small businesses use OneDrive without changing any of the options.
If you want to add some basic device and sharing restrictions to OneDrive, you can use the OneDrive admin center. To access the new OneDrive admin center, go to https://admin.onedrive.com. There, you can restrict the people with whom your users can share files, choose the devices your employees can use to access OneDrive, and more.
Settings in the OneDrive admin center are grouped into six categories:
Sharing. On the Sharing page, you can configure the default sharing link users send out to colleagues to share a file. For example, when users share a file, you can specify that the default sharing type is Internal.
You can also change the external sharing settings to prevent users from sharing files with people outside your organization. This is useful if you have a lot of confidential information.
Sync. On the Sync page, you can configure sync restrictions based on file type, require that synced devices be joined to your domain, or restrict synchronization from computers running macOS.
Storage. On the Storage page, you specify the default OneDrive storage limit for users within your Office 365 organization. You can also configure how long to keep data for users whose accounts have been deleted (the maximum value is 10 years).
Device Access. On the Device Access page, you can restrict device access to OneDrive based on network location and apps that don't use modern authentication, among other application management options.
Compliance. The Compliance page provides a centralized list of links to auditing, data loss prevention (DLP), retention, ediscovery, and alerting capabilities within Office 365 that are applicable to OneDrive. (Most small businesses won't use these options.)
Selecting an item's link redirects you to the Office 365 Security & Compliance Center, where you can configure that item. You can create DLP policies from templates that protect certain types of data, such as Social Security numbers, banking information, and other financial and medical content. For a walkthrough of how to create DLP policies in Office 365 and apply them to OneDrive, see Create a DLP policy from a template.
Notifications. On the Notifications page, you define when OneDrive owners should receive notifications about sharing or accessing their data. These settings are helpful for small businesses that likely don't have IT staff who can audit this information. For information about enabling these options, see Turn on external sharing notifications for OneDrive.
Get help with OneDrive
If you need help with OneDrive, you have many ways to find solutions to common issues or request help:
Tech community. Find helpful information from other customers in the community by reviewing the discussions in the OneDrive Tech Community and the Microsoft OneDrive Blog.
Support documentation. For a list of recent issues in OneDrive and how to resolve or work around them, see Fixes or workarounds for recent issues in OneDrive. For getting started info, see Get started with OneDrive, Employee file storage (video training) and Why use OneDrive to store your docs.
Microsoft Support. If you need help from Microsoft to troubleshoot an issue or configure or deploy OneDrive, see Contact Microsoft.
OneDrive UserVoice. You can review and submit feature requests and provide feature feedback at OneDrive UserVoice.
