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Microsoft Edge Insider
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Improving security and productivity: Securely save files from Microsoft Edge on mobile devices

Eric_VanAelstyn's avatar
Eric_VanAelstyn
Icon for Microsoft rankMicrosoft
Mar 08, 2023

Thousands of enterprise customers globally entrust the Microsoft Edge mobile app to keep their data secure and protected while browsing on mobile devices. Today, we're announcing a new way for users to download and access files securely on mobile devices, beginning with version 111 of the Edge mobile app. Instead of downloading and saving files locally on mobile devices - which can put enterprise data at risk - users can now securely download and save files from the Edge mobile app to OneDrive so they can access them later.

 

Previously, customers with high bars for security fought potential data leakage on mobile devices by blocking users from saving files to local device storage. While secure, this was not ideal for users. We heard time and again from customers that their users needed a way to save files without compromising security. Saving files to OneDrive (instead of locally) offers a simple solution that allows users to easily save, access, and share files from the Edge mobile app while respecting security parameters set their enterprise.

 

 
 

 

 

This new method of saving files joins other Edge data security measures such as the Edge mobile app's coverage under Intune’s App Protection Policy (APP) and its limited sharing of browser data only to other protected Microsoft 365 apps, such as Outlook and One Drive.

 

We encourage you to try this in your enterprise with your users today. Let us know what you think in the comments section below.

 

Pre-requisites to use this feature.

  1. Users need to log on to the Edge mobile app with their Azure AD accounts
  2. Intune admins need to assign Intune App Protection Policy (APP) to users
  3. If you have set “Save copies of org data” as Block, you need to allow OneDrive

     

Refer to links below for more information about protection policy.

 

Updated Mar 09, 2023
Version 3.0
Microsoft Edge
  • Reza_Ameri's avatar
    Reza_Ameri
    Silver Contributor
    Mar 08, 2023

    This is a great improvement.

    Another requirements is ability to view and watch contents directly in the Microsoft Edge. 

    For example, consider a user visiting SharePoint or OneDrive for Business and in many cases they don't want to download anything but rather just view it , in format of PDF, Word, PowerPoint, Excel or OneNote. There should be better integrity for these viewers to eliminate need to downloading files.

  • Charlie_Lin's avatar
    Charlie_Lin
    Icon for Microsoft rankMicrosoft
    Mar 09, 2023

    Glad that you like this improvement. Also thanks for your feedback. It's also part of our plan. When the download popup is trigger, we will have a "View" option. Users are given the choice to download or view directly.

     

    Actually, the download popup only shows up when the file link triggers a download behavior.  If you are trying to view files from SharePoint, the file will be opened directly. But we do have websites where the file links trigger download. Users have to download them first before viewing.

     

    Thanks again for your feedback. Will keep you update once the "View" option is available. 

  • Remote44's avatar
    Remote44
    Copper Contributor
    Mar 19, 2023

    Is this available for OneDrive personal? I see the OneDrive option but tapping it does nothing and I see no option in the browser.... 

  • Charlie_Lin's avatar
    Charlie_Lin
    Icon for Microsoft rankMicrosoft
    Mar 20, 2023

    Hi Remote44 , This option is only available for OneDrive for Business. You said you see the OneDrive option. Would it be possible to provide a screenshot of what you saw?  It looks like it's a different option.

  • Charlie_Lin's avatar
    Charlie_Lin
    Icon for Microsoft rankMicrosoft
    Mar 21, 2023

    Hi Remote44 , this pop-up is just what we delivered. Did you see this popup in the personal account.

     

    If it's a work account, the reason that you see OneDrive is grayed out is because your  protection policy does not allow OneDrive. If you checked OneDrive for Business, it should work.

     

  • Remote44's avatar
    Remote44
    Copper Contributor
    Mar 21, 2023

    Hi Charlie_Lin did more testing, edge mobile has duplicated my Microsoft account and the "dupe" is a work profile with the same msa but the save to OneDrive seems to work not sure where it saved to but I switched profiles in the edge app and save to OneDrive was lit

     

    This is all happening on a personal account, it is a DF account though. 

    Same email address. It's a Microsoft personal account no odb configured on this phone ever 

     

    I found the uploads in a Microsoft edge downloads folder on OneDrive personal. So somehow and I suspect this is part of the road map for odc as the feature works with whatever bug I hit

     

     

    the bug meaning the fact that edge has 2 profiles for the same msa and one "appears" as a work profile

  • Charlie_Lin's avatar
    Charlie_Lin
    Icon for Microsoft rankMicrosoft
    Mar 22, 2023

    Hi Remote44  Thanks for bringing this to us. We will be adding some additional logics to handle the situation where the personal account of the email address is the same with work account.