OneDrive Tips for Beginners & Pros

[Paul_Diamond]

Microsoft OneDrive lets you save files and photos securely online and access them from any device, virtually anywhere. From backing up files to sharing and collaborating, OneDrive has a lot of features for home, school and work that you may not have discovered yet. Let’s take a look at OneDrive tips for beginner and advanced users—and uncover how to use it to its maximum potential.

OneDrive tips for beginners
Here are some of the key things you can do with OneDrive, including how to get a free account if you haven't already.

• Microsoft 365 subscriptions include 1TB of OneDrive storage--that’s enough to store 500,000 photos and thousands of docs¹. Not a Microsoft 365 subscriber? Get 5GB of storage with a free OneDrive account.
• Turn on PC folder backup to automatically sync your Windows Desktop, Documents, and Pictures folders to OneDrive. Now, these folders are backed up, protected and available across all your devices.
• Access your files and view your photos online by signing into your OneDrive account on the web. Also, if you lose your device or it crashes, you can always find your OneDrive files here.
• When you're on the go, you can use the OneDrive mobile app to access or share files and photos right from your mobile device. Give yourself freedom to roam with OneDrive app for Android or iOS.
• Use the OneDrive app on your phone to scan and save multiple pages of printed documents. Now everything from whiteboard notes and business cards, to receipts and to-go menus are there when you need them.
• Automatically backup your phone’s camera roll to OneDrive to keep your favorite moments backed up, protected and all in one place. Once backed you’ll also have easy access to your photos across all your laptop, tablet or other devices. Note: Automatic camera roll backup can only be used on one account at a time. So if you have both a personal and work OneDrive account on your phone, you’ll need to pick one.
• Easily share and collaborate on files, folders, and photos with colleagues, friends and family.
• Use Personal Vault to add extra protection to sensitive photos and files, like social security cards, drivers licenses, passports and more.2 The free and 100 GB OneDrive plans allow you store 3 files in Personal Vault. Microsoft 365 Personal and Family subscribers can store as many files as they want in Personal Vault, up to their storage limit.
• Graduating from school and want to keep using your OneDrive? Use Mover (which is built into OneDrive for work and school) to transfer the files from your school account to your OneDrive personal account in just a few clicks.
• Accidentally throw away a file? Track down deleted files quickly in the recycle bin which is available only on OneDrive for web.
• Turn on AutoSave on your Word, Excel and PPT files. Now you have up-to-the-second versions saved, in case of a crash or battery running out.

OneDrive tips for pros
If you've been using OneDrive for a while, it might be time to take it to the next level. Here are a few advanced features that may help make life easier, while keeping your files and photos safer.

• Add another layer of security to your OneDrive account by using two-step verification across your entire Microsoft account.
• Need some extra space? Easily manage your storage by seeing how much you have left and what’s using up the most space.
• Mark selected files for offline access on your phone or PC. That way, if you lose your internet connection you can still work on your files on your phone or PC.
• Scan, sign and send a document with the OneDrive mobile app. From school permission slips to invoices and beyond, now you have a way to quickly scan, sign and send important documents on-the-go.
• Get a quick summary of activity on shared files using the file details pane, including who the file is shared with, recent activity, file size/type and more.
• Free up extra storage space on your Windows 10 PC. Storage Sense automatically frees up space by making local files that you haven’t used recently online-only again. Online-only files stay safe in OneDrive and are accessible from your PC, browser or mobile app as long as you have an internet connection.
• Use version history to restore any OneDrive file to a previous point in time, up to 30 days after being modified. If one of your collaborators made changes that just won’t work, simply revert them.

No matter how you use OneDrive—to back up your camera roll, scan and sign documents, or to share files—these tips will help you get the most out of OneDrive. If you need 1 TB of storage, ransomware protection and other robust features for home, school or work—check out the premium features available with a Microsoft 365 subscription.

¹ Assumes photos are 2MB each and docs are .08MB each.
² This feature is not available on OneDrive for school or work.

[Kam]

Also this blog shows your post was created on 8:00 AM. But here it was already 11:00 AM! I live on the East Coast (USA)

[Derek White]

Thanks for this, but when you refer to Backup in relation to OneDrive, surely you mean Synchronise? 

Backup - a copy of a file or other item of data made in case the original is lost or damaged.

Synchronise - cause (a set of data or files) to remain identical in more than one location.

[Paul_Diamond]

Derek White Yes and no.

Camera Roll Backup is a true back-up.

With Camera Roll Backup if you were to delete images from your phone's local memory those images will not be deleted from your OneDrive.

PC Folder Backup is a sync between PC folders and OneDrive. 

With PC Folder Backup all local file modifications are uploaded to the cloud and, likewise, all modifications to the file in the cloud are download back to all your devices. With this two way sync your devices and cloud storage contain the exact same set of files. 

[Mirshel]

Thank you for all of the great tips. I have been trying to find someone who can answer a OneDrive question that I have had for a while now. I think you can help me if you don't mind.

My question, "Is it possible to backup my entire Lenovo IdeaPad 5 series laptop to OneDrive and if so, how?"

I want to backup settings, program files, drivers, programs, everything. I have had to reinstall Windows 10 twice and Reset my pc twice. Having everything right there in OneDrive would make these times less timely and frustrating. 

Is this even possible?

Thanks a lot!

[HotCakeX]

Thanks for the great tips!

[AzizQuazi]

My requirement is simple - I need all Camera Roll files will automatically move to OneDrive end of each week to save camera space except only few pre-marked files stay. How to do that? Thanks  

[HotCakeX]

@Mirshel 

Sync:

You can automatically sync your files in Documents, Pictures and Desktop folders on Windows 10 to OneDrive.

Backup:

for the rest of your files that reside outside of those 3 folders, you can copy them and paste them in OneDrive folder on your computer.

you can track the upload status from taskbar and once it's all done, you can begin formatting your hard disk.

OneDrive is only capable of syncing 3 folders on Windows, and backing up (manually) everything else you put in OneDrive.

[EDU_ictGeek]

@Mirshel  its been some time, but i thought it worth posting still in case others are wondering what options are there., as not sure if OneDrive is capable of backing up your computer in case of computer failure, even now. 

Just about any disaster recovery option takes some time to setup, so this is something to factor in so that it can "save your (pc's) bacon" later on.

You can create System Restore points and can look into how to set the Recovery options on the pc, This can work well if windows gets itself in a pickle. Not sure how it works if the problem is a HDD failure but do also have a look into the "Recovery Drive" windows app:

Create a recovery drive (microsoft.com)

I will admit i have not tried this latest offering as past experience taught me not to rely on these built-in tools and i opted for disaster recovery software.

If you can spend a few more bob, opt for a dedicated disaster recovery tool.

Acronis isn't really that expensive but depending on your internet connection upload speed (and i'd recommend wired not wireless)  you do spend a few hours (likely a weekend) uploading "an image" of your computer,  and you have to create a recovery USB to download the image from the cloud as preparation but once its done, you don't have to worry about it.  It then periodically backs up incrementally.

The last time i had to use it was to upgrade from HDD to SSD and it did the job just fine.

Businesses do opt for more robust tools, some use MEMC, but reading your post made me think you were talking about your private pc.

Again, i know i'm a bit late to the post, but just in case others get here looking for the same kind of help, just know all these work retrospectively; if you haven't laid in the groundwork earlier and you need need to recover your pc from a major crash your options are limited; you may be able to take the drive out and plug into another computer and try recover software but that may just get some of the files back not the entire system.. HOWEVER, it is very much worth checking out that option before fully giving up.

[Sherry Malik]

Thank you for the Tips. I needed this information to know more about One Drive!

[Sara75]

I shared a spreadsheet that is coded with a password to someone who does not have the password as we do not want them editing anything. This person was able to DELETE the spreadsheet from all of our folders in One Drive. How do I stop that?

[Paul_Diamond]

@Sara75 Sorry to hear about your experience. If you share a file with someone and give them edit permission, they will be able to delete the file. However, deleted files can be recovered from the recycle bin. To avoid a shared file being deleted in the future you can share the file with view permission only, so the recipient can't delete it.

Question on the password…Did you add a password to the sharing link? Or did you encrypt the file with a password, so that it so that it could not be opened within the Excel app without the password?

[EastCoastTraveler]

This entry discusses scanning directly from OneDrive.  However, it does not discuss taking photos.  I cannot find anywhere that discusses this topic, particularly how to adjust the camera settings in OneDrive for Business when taking photos directly in OneDrive.  My device always reverts back to Document Mode from Photo Mode and appears to have no way to change any settings.  The images on my iPhone do not seem to represent the good quality that the device's 12MP camera provides.  Can you provide any information on how to change the settings within OneDrive for the Camera function?

[Stan_Haavik]

This article is pure BS and does NOT MENTION the interminable delay that I experience whenever I store a file on OneDrive. I file something because I want to access it and send it to someone ... instead what I do is WAIT until some long long time later the file is "implemented". This product OneDrive is CRAP. IF there is a workaround please let me know. Thank You.

[Batidibana415]

Dit is geweldig! Precies wat ik nog heb vooral omdat het veilig is voor iedereen.

[Eli Waalkes]

Hi @EastCoastTraveler, thank you for the feedback. I am sorry to say that we don't have the ability to change the default from "documents" in the scenario you mentioned. However, you can press the "+" button in the top right corner of the Home and Files tabs, and select "Take a Photo or Video" which will bring you to your device's camera experience. That should fix any issues with the quality of the photos. Hope that helps! 

[HectorAMesa]

Good Morning. I was hoping to get some feedback on users not reporting to OneDrive. I have uninstalled/reinstalled the OneDrive app, added the KFM registry keys, added the EnableSyncAdminReport reg key, and while some were able to report this way, some have not. What exactly has to be done to ensure a device signed in to OneDrive is reporting to our tenant's OneDrive page?

@Paul_Diamond Any advice?

[gacarini]

@HectorAMesa Here are a few things to consider if you aren't seeing the data in the reports:

- It can take up to three days for reports to be available after enabling the policy.
- Devices need to be turned on for a minimum of 2 hours to be eligible for the report. Devices that are turned off frequently and not on for that amount of time might be missing from the dashboard.
- Devices need to be signed in.
- Reg key is "EnableSyncAdminReports" with an "s" at the end (likely a typo in your comment but just making sure)

[HectorAMesa]

@gacarini Thanks for replying.

This is how I entered my keys for all users

DWORD Value = 1

SZ = Our Tenant ID

Regarding 2 hours, does this mean 2 hours total to update the status, or 2 hours total in general?

[Batidibana415]

Ok, thanks for the message and explanation

[HectorAMesa]

Following up. Still got users not syncing/communicating with the server.

Do I need to run updates on their physical PCs? What would prevent a client from reporting to OneDrive, given all the necessary keys and sign ins are active?

@gacarini @Paul_Diamond