You can change the default settings in the OneDrive administration center, but let’s follow Microsoft’s advice to use SharePoint administration instead.
Many businesses prefer to control who can open company documents. There’s no need to copy a file in Teams to OneDrive to share anonymously. In SharePoint, you can share the file with anyone just like in OneDrive. This is called Anonymous Access and is one of the primary reasons users share from OneDrive rather than Teams.Īlso, in OneDrive, if you click on Anyone with the link can edit, you can further refine the Sharing options.Īs a side note, users frustrated by Teams’ lack of sharing controls can easily open a document or folder in SharePoint instead of Teams (as shown below). In OneDrive for Business, however, there is a Share option that allows you to send a URL to anyone. You can copy the link to the file, but you must know if the user you send it to has rights to view the document in the Teams library. Take note! There is no Share option in Teams. What’s being shown is the side-by-side sharing experience in Teams vs. The screenshot below exemplifies my point. It just works, and you won’t hear the dreaded “I can’t open the document” (which is all too common and a huge productivity sink). You can send someone a URL to a document and relax. One main reason OneDrive for Business is well-liked is that it’s so easy to share a document with anyone. OneDrive picks up many features from SharePoint, such as the ability to do File Restores, Restore a previous version of file, and synchronize files to your desktop. In this way, settings related to file sharing on SharePoint are aligned with those for OneDrive for Business (and Teams, which also uses SharePoint as a file store). It lets you manage all the settings and latest features in one place. To manage the OneDrive sharing settings for your organization, use the Sharing page of the new SharePoint admin center, instead of the Sharing page in the OneDrive admin center. Now that you know OneDrive for Business is using SharePoint under the hood, the following guidance makes sense: You can also navigate from here to any SharePoint asset, including SharePoint Document Libraries, files hosted for Teams, or other SharePoint content. The landing page (shown above) for OneDrive for Business shows “My Files” which are your files. The URL for OneDrive for Business is formatted as follows: When a user is assigned an Office 365 or Microsoft 365 license, the services automatically create a personal OneDrive for Business document library. OneDrive for Business uses SharePoint Online as ServiceĪs the service administrator, one of the most important concepts to master is that OneDrive for Business is a special purpose SharePoint document library created automatically for every user in your company. If you need others involved, use a more collaborative service – Teams or SharePoint. The general guidance is if you are working on a file without others involved use OneDrive for Business. Also, in Teams, a conversation about a document is shared in a Teams channel rather than via email. Also, in Teams, any document you upload to Teams is available to the entire Team by default, whereas documents you upload to OneDrive are private by default. For example, with OneDrive, you can’t check-in and check-out a document. Teams and SharePoint are simply better for collaboration. OneDrive for Business makes it very easy to share files with others, but if you find yourself sharing lots of files, it is recommended to use Teams or SharePoint instead. The individual using the service controls their settings. With OneDrive (consumer), there is no management framework. A service administrator can control the deployment of the synchronization app, network performance, and many other settings. OneDrive for Business has company-wide administration in mind. Note: I may refer to OneDrive instead of OneDrive for Business from time to time in this article for the sake of brevity, but I always mean OneDrive for Business unless otherwise stated. To add to the mix, Microsoft often refers to OneDrive for Business as simply “OneDrive” in their documentation and even in the UI. Both look a lot alike but are managed very differently.
The business version is “OneDrive for Business” and requires a subscription to Microsoft 365 or Office 365.
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A free version of OneDrive is available to everyone and is often called the “consumer” version. Microsoft has two different, but similar services called OneDrive, both of which offer cloud file storage for users. We will cover advice and best practices from my extensive experience working with service ideal for system admins and those actively working with it on a daily basis.
This article focuses on administration and management exclusively for OneDrive for Business.