How to access Sharpoint Files outside of Sharepoint

[luvsql]

We have another cloud application that we use for our Project Management as well as another application that's on-premise. We need to access files that are stored in SharePoint by browsing FROM these other applications.  When we do so, it opens the standard Windows Explorer.  We do use the OneDrive Client, but it only shows OneDrive and not SharePoint sites.

1.  We use the Files on Demand setting for OneDrive as we cannot allow the sync locally to our PCs because the drives are too small to store that much space.  

2.  We cannot setup local sync of SharePoint sites due to the very large size of them and cannot be stored locally.

Is this even possible or are we still going to have to manually download the files from SharePoint to their laptop then browse to that file from the other application?  

[#2]

If you have files on-demand turned on for OneDrive you can also sync the SharePoint libraries and it will only use the space for the metadata or when accessing the files etc. So in this case you would sync your Library you need just like OneDrive.

[#3]

That would be amazing.  Is it a per document library sync or a per SharePoint Site sync?  Is this done inside of OneDrive to add these libraries to sync to the OD client?

[#4]

You can sync down to the folder level, but it's per library. When you sync a SharePoint Online site it adds a new explorer location / folder on your machine called Sites - Orgname, where it adds the folders/libraries you sync.

You go to the library you want to sync in SharePoint, and there should be a sync button on the library. Currently there isn't a way to auto map SharePoint locations via policy but they are working on that.

[#5]

This is fantastic.  I wish we could prevent it from downloading the file locally when accessing it from another application (ie when I browsed to a file from this which is set to On Demand, then uploaded to another website, it actually downloaded the file and stored it locally).  Would be very cool if they only did this temporarily using the temp folder and once it's uploaded it gets removed.  

This will defo work thought!

[#6 · Accepted solution]

You can turn on Storage Sense (In Storage Settings) in Windows 10, and configure it to release these files daily as OnDemand uses this technology for it's cleanup. It can be set on schedule or as your space gets low etc. Take a look.

https://www.tenforums.com/tutorials/112382-automatically-make-onedrive-files-demand-online-only-wind...

[#7]

This should remove our need for mapped drives completely.  Amazing.