Forum Discussion
Sync the whole SharePoint online using OneDrive
We have a SharePoint online site named "DemoSite2023" that contains multiple libraries, such as:
now the only option i found to sync those libraries using OneDrive, is to go to each library and click on the "Sync" icon:-
and here what i get inside my windows 11 laptop:-
where i got the tenant name on top, and 3 folders for the 3 libraries i synced inside the "DemoSite2023" site.. so my question, if we can organize this in a better way. to have a main folder named "DemoSite203" , then inside this main folder, to have 3 sub-folders representing the 3 libraries; Documents, Site Assets & tg ? is there a way to do this automatically or manually?
Second question, instead of doing the sync for each library, can i define to sync the whole site at once?
Thanks
6 Replies
Using the SYNC to OneDrive can be incredibly dangerous. A better option is to use the SHORTCUT to OneDrive and make sure you enable Files On Demand.
- Syncing files will ALWAYS consume space on your hard drive, while Shortcut allows local access but can leave files in the cloud. You can select offline access for a specific file or folder by choosing "Always keep on this device" through the context menu.
- Sync can result in lost content
- Someone offline makes changes and the next time they connect, the file syncs and overwrites changes made online.
- Synced folders can be hard to distinguish from "your" folders, while a Shortcut has a little link icon to clearly mark it as a shortcut rather than a native folder.
- More importantly, users frequently forget that a folder is synced, and even when they remember, they RARELY know how to unsync the folder. I can't tell you how many times a user has deleted files from "their OneDrive" and then the files are lost from SharePoint. And they are NOT in the SharePoint recycle bin because they weren't actually "deleted" on SharePoint. We've lost 10's of 1,000s of documents. I've seen whole libraries get lost this way.
- Lastly, Shortcuts to OneDrive can be rearranged the way you are asking in the original question. Synced folders cannot.
I strongly discourage my followers from using Sync and stress using Shortcut instead. It is FAR safer.
also my original question was if i can sycn the whole site, instead of doing this one by one for each library.
By definition, both sync and shortcut work on each library. So no. But you also asked about organizing the links in your OneDrive. You can to that with Shortcut but not with Sync. So Shortcut will get you where you need to go AND be safer for your content.
Ok thanks for the reply.. but i never really distinguish between Sync and Create Shortcuts. also for example i click on "Create short cut">> then from onedrive site >> i click "sync" >> the files ended up at my Pc.. then i can simply select all files and remove them.. which also remove them from sharepoint.. so i agree that sync can be dangerous ,, but seems create shortcut will have the same risk, but maybe with more work to do from the user side .. also i do not think we can prevent users form Syncing... so at the end the user will click on Sync and do what ever they want inside their PC...
To sync your entire SharePoint Online with OneDrive, follow these steps:
Go to your SharePoint site: Open the SharePoint site you want to sync.
Click on "Sync": On the top right, you’ll see a button that says "Sync." Click it.
Sign in to OneDrive: If you’re not already signed in, OneDrive will ask you to sign in with your Microsoft account.
Start syncing: After signing in, OneDrive will start syncing the files from SharePoint to your computer. These files will appear in your OneDrive folder on your PC, and any changes made will sync automatically.
That's it! Now, your SharePoint files are synced with OneDrivehttps://royzs.com/
ItsBhattican you provide a screen shot where this "sync" icon is ? as i can not find it.. here how the top right section looks like for all the sites i have:-
