Audience: Franklin University faculty, staff, and students with Office 365 accounts.
Disclaimer: The results and functionality of the following article only apply to the audience listed above.
OneDrive Topics
- What is OneDrive
- How to Locate OneDrive
- Sharing Files in OneDrive
- Setting up the OneDrive Client (for Faculty and Staff)
- Shared Folders in the OneDrive Client (for Faculty and Staff)
- OneDrive Space Management (for Faculty and Staff)
- OneDrive for Mobile Devices
What is OneDrive
What is it? OneDrive is a cloud storage space you can use for files you work with.
For student, you will have access to OneDrive storage space while your actively working toward your degree. However, your access to OneDrive is removed after graduating or after you stop taking classes, at which time files will be deleted. For more information about your student account life span, please click here.
OneDrive space for current students and staff/faculty: You have 1 TB of storage space available. Individual files may not exceed 10 GB.
What should it be used for:
- Students: The Help Desk recommends that OneDrive be an alternate storage source homework and classwork. Since files and folders can be shared from OneDrive to other members of the University, students can use OneDrive for project collaboration. Instructions for sharing are listed later in this article.
- Faculty and Staff: OneDrive is intended only for files you alone are working on. Files access by your team or documents you are collaborating on, should be placed in Teams/SharePoint by comparison. OneDrive, like Teams/SharePoint, can be accessed with from any computer with internet connection.
How to Locate OneDrive
1. You can locate OneDrive as part of the Office 365 suite of tools. Log in using your University credentials:
Franklin: mail.franklin.edu
2. Once you are signed in, click on the app launcher in the top left corner and select OneDrive
3. Here you can create folders, documents, and even drag and drop documents from your computer for uploading.
Sharing Files in OneDrive
1. Locate your OneDrive online storage: Instructions above
2. Hover over a file or folder you would like to share. An empty circle will appear on the left. Click the circle to select that file or folder.
3. Click Share in the top bar.
This will open the sharing dialog box. You can enter the email address (orange arrow) of a classmate, teacher, or other Franklin University email address if you wish to share directly with them. To share with a wider audience, click the People you specify can view (purple rectangle) to alter the audience to anyone at Franklin with the link. If you change the audience to anyone in Franklin with a link, then you can copy the link (red oval) to a location in your course for classmates to see.
4. By clicking on People you specify can view (purple rectangle shown above) you can also grant those you share the document to have editing or viewing-only permission.
How to View Which OneDrive Files are Shared By You or With You
To see all files, shared with you, click the "Shared with me" link in the left navbar.
Setting up the OneDrive Client
The OneDrive Client can be used to setup a local folder (on your computer hard drive) that syncs with your online OneDrive storage. In short, this allows you to quickly open and work with your files directly from your computer after initial setup. This can be used to save time.
Disclaimer: While this product may work on a personal computer, the Help Desk cannot guarantee it will work on all personal devices.
University staff-issued and faculty issued machines have this turned on by default. To setup access on a non-Franklin University issued device:
1. Locate your OneDrive online storage: Instructions above or using this link: https://franklinu-my.sharepoint.com/
2. Click the Setting icon in the upper left corner. Then choose the option to Sync this OneDrive.
3. Once OneDrive is installed and you have signed in with your university email account and password, it may be helpful to verify what folders are syncing from your computer. Right click on the cloud icon in the system tray to expose the Settings icon.
4. Under the Sync and Backup tab, click on Manage Backup. From here you can turn on the setting to automatically backup all files from your documents and desktop as well as your pictures folder if you would like. Often, these settings are turned on by default.
5. OneDrive is ready to start syncing your files!
Shared Folders in the OneDrive Client
You can setup your OneDrive Client to show folders that others shared from their OneDrive account, or folders from SharePoint/Teams to which you belong. This process can take up space on your computer hard drive. Please see the section below for tips on space management.
These steps are assuming that you have already setup your OneDrive client: Instructions above
Folders shared with you from someone's OneDrive
1. Locate your OneDrive online storage: Instructions above
2. Click the "Shared with me" link in the left navbar.
3. Open the folder you wish to sync to your OneDrive (you have to go into that folder to sync it).
4. Once the folder is open, use the Sync button on the top ribbon to start the syncing process.
Folders from SharePoint or Teams
1. Open the folder location in SharePoint. If you are working from Teams, use the ellipsis (3 dots) next to the folder to open it's corresponding SharePoint location.
2. Open the folder you wish to sync to your OneDrive (you have to go into that folder to sync it).
3. Once the folder is open, use the Sync button on the top ribbon to start the syncing process.
OneDrive Space Management
Once you have setup the OneDrive client (instructions above), you free up space so that your computer hard drive does not fill up and runs faster. This process can help maximize computer performance.
First lets look at the icons you may see next to files to indicate what the storage status:
Available when online – File doesn’t take up space on your computer.
Available on this device - File is downloaded onto your computer hard drive and is locally available.
Always available on this device - File is downloaded onto your computer hard drive, even when you are offline (no internet connection).
When files or folders are no longer being actively used, you can Free up space when right-clicking on a file or folder. This means that the file or folder will continue to be stored online. However, there will no longer be an identical copy saved on your hard drive. To be clear, the file name and folder structure will still be seen when looking through the OneDrive client. The next time you open that file, it will be downloaded to your computer.
If you wish to always keep an identical copy on your hard drive (which can be used to make and store changes, even when you are not online), you also have the option to Always keep on this device.
The best practice for preserving hard drive space is to Free up space for files and folders that you are not using often.
OneDrive for Mobile Devices
There is a mobile version of the OneDrive application that can allow you to access your OneDrive files on your mobile device. The application is available through the App Store for iOS devices, and through The Google Play Store for Android devices.
You can log into the application using your full University Office365 email address and password.
You can use the application to upload files from your mobile device to your OneDrive account. However, editing existing files can be tricky, as your mobile device may not have the correct applications installed to edit Microsoft Word files or other Microsoft Office files.
Microsoft does offer mobile versions of many of their Office applications such as Word as well. However, please be warned that opening Microsoft Office files on a mobile device may change the formatting and/or layout of those files.
Because the Help Desk does not have the ability to screen share with you on your mobile device, we are only able to offer limited support when using the OneDrive application for your mobile device.