OneDrive For Business Local App

Besides accessing OneDrive via OWA, you can also download and install a local application to sync your files to your local PC. We've found that most people prefer this method because it allows you the ability to access your OneDrive data directly from a folder on your computer, much like the way you already work with files and folders on your hard drive.

Here are the instructions to configure OneDrive on your local PC or MAC.

However, I find the easiest way to configure OneDrive is to log into OWA, click OneDrive, and then click SYNC and it will start the process of setting up this automatic synchronization for you.

Once you have it set up, it will create a folder on your computer where any changes to files or folders on OneDrive will be immediately reflected. Likewise, any files or folders you edit in that location will be automatically uploaded to the cloud and will be reflected there as well. If you have the local OneDrive application set up on other PCs you own, the changes should be pushed down to those devices as well, keeping all data in sync.

By default, only YOUR OneDrive storage is synchronized, but with a few extra clicks, you can choose to synchronize any files that are SHARED WITH YOU BY OTHERS, and any documents that are part of a unified group that you may be part of.  So you can access ALL OneDrive data in one place.

Thanks to Brian Cotter for putting this helpful video together.  This should help illustrate the steps to configure your local OneDrive application if you choose to do so:

The video shows the steps to set up OneDrive on a Windows PC running Windows 10.  The steps are identical on other Windows systems, and very similar on Macintosh systems.  The Files-On-Demand feature (which is mentioned in the video at the 4:40 mark) is only available with Windows 10.  This is the feature that lets you store only placeholders of OneDrive files on your local hard drive.  If you click on this placeholder, the file is downloaded from the cloud storage and you can work on it locally just like any other file, but it does not take up storage on you hard drive.  If you have Windows 8 or earlier, or a Mac, this feature is not available.

Any questions, contact your local IT support.