Sometimes a feature doesn’t have to be a big one. Sometimes you don’t use it very often – perhaps just once or a few times. But without it’s existence you would might not even consider it. Yes, I am talking about a Sync button that appeared in Team’s OneDrive. It gives you an easy way to starting syncing your OneDrive for Business content to you local disk. Just navigate to Files – Cloud Storage / OneDrive and hit Sync to start downloading! /insert Johnny Mnemonic gif here/
Well, it is not as impressive as 90s Cyberpunk movie scene but this one actually works. It is the same documents sync as you would get if you configure your OneDrive application – in fact you are using the same application here. But if you are already using Teams then why not starting to sync your files the easy way? Plus – this is a good practice for upcoming new Files Experience that includes the Sync button in every channel Files tab.
Once you hit Sync you get the following
You are instructed to login to your Office 365
You can choose to change the location of your OneDrive folder.
And while doing a short wait you can learn about OneDrive folder.
Remember to check Files on Demand settings. I recommend you mark some files to be always available to your (offline use!) and then save some space on others you don’t need that often.
You do have OneDrive app installed on mobile as well? If not – now is a good spot to remedy that.
And finally – you are ready! Open the OneDrive folder to see what’s in there.
Why use OneDrive syncing? Why I want those files on my local drive? I can list a few benefits that make this useful for me
- Offline use for content I selected. I use this a lot to ensure I have my files with me when I travel (train, plane, going to customer ..). Most of my files are in different teamspaces (as they should!) but same syncing can be configured to them as well ( and this will be even easier in the future when Sync button appears on files tabs!)
- It is quick to get access to files I need – especially when I want to use them in presentations, attach to different teams/email or or…
- It is easy to download files, attachments etc and place them to correct location at the same time.
- Everything is synced up to the cloud (OneDrive for Business/ teamspaces).with the sync client (OneDrive app) .. and files are available to you from any device.
- My files are protected – there is a recycle button and ability to revert my OneDrive back to near history if something happens for any reason. Of course this applies to all files in OneDrive with or without syncing – but with syncing you don’t have to upload them to your OneDrive separately. Instead you just place the files to correct folder in your drive and sync happens automatically.
Vesa Nopanen - My Metaverse Day 