One Mac user, multiple MS 365 accounts

[gary-schiltz]

My apologies in advance if this is too basic a question, or not how OneDrive for Business is meant to operate in the first place. I'm a volunteer with a small nonprofit group that has decided to move from an unorganized mess of tech resources to Microsoft 365 (Yeah!). We can't afford to hire anyone to help, so since I'm a retired software engineer with a (very little) bit of network management experience, I've offered to be the "Accidental IT" guy.

We have several Business Premium licenses (generously donated by MS, thanks!). I will set up accounts for several users, myself included. In my case, I have a separate account for me in my role as a board member of the group (gary at our .org address) and another for my role as IT administrator (admin at our .org address), the idea being that the former role will always stay with me, while I may eventually turn the other "IT administrator" role over to someone else.

I normally work from my MacBook Pro laptop;, and would like to keep files from both these MS 365 user accounts synchronized on the laptop. I've tried multiple times to add both accounts to the OneDrive installation on my Mac, but it has never worked. In order to give much more details, I'd have to try again and take good notes, but before doing so, I just want to know if this is something OneDrive is meant to be able to do, or if I shouldn't even bother trying. Thanks in advance for any ideas.

Gary Schiltz

Mindo Cloudforest Foundation

[#2]

I've not had to set up multiple accounts on a Mac, but it's pretty easy on Windows, with the common scenario of simultaneously running a personal OneDrive and also OfB.

If you just google "multiple onedrive accounts on Mac" you'll find plenty of how-to articles.

[#3]

@MikeWWW Thanks, but I'm afraid I've tried many of links that in the search results from that query, and they are mostly outdated, or other people expressing their frustration with OneDrive (especially for Mac, but also for Windows).

Here is what I tried. I removed all Microsoft desktop apps from my Mac, looked for folders and other data files in my Library folder and removed what I could find, rebooted, and then tried again reinstalling all the apps (including OneDrive). Say I have users A and B as MS 365 users. I can add user A to OneDrive, but if I try to then add user B, I get two error dialogs in sequence (see attached). I then repeated the process of removing all the MS desktop apps and system files that I can find, rebooted and reinstalled everything. I then added user B first, successfully, but if I then tried to add user A, I get the same error dialogs. All this on a Mac as a user with Administrator privileges.

I tried the same procedure on Windows 11 (in a virtual machine on my Mac) and it could successfully add both accounts. I'm convinced that the implementation of multiple users on OneDrive for Mac is simply broken, and will stick with just using OneDrive, Sharepoint, and office apps via a web browser.

 First error dialog

Second error dialog

[#4]

It's better to start with what you've done so responders aren't wasting their time making redundant suggestions. It will also greatly help to know which version of MacOS etc you are using.

I know this works because I've worked in organisations where all Mac users have multiple accounts. You can also request assistance from Microsoft directly.