Do’s & Dont’s on OneDrive

Dont’s

DON’T sync PST files to OneDrive: PST (Personal Storage Table) files, If you try to sync it, it will never finish, as the file will be locked by Outlook. And it will create infinite versions of itself in the cloud. So, just don’t sync it. You can upload them to a non-synced folder for backup purposes, but make sure to copy to a local and non-synced folder before you open those in Outlook.

DON’T try to sync your entire hard drive: If you want to make a hard drive backup, there are other great tools for that. OneDrive has numerous limitations, like 300,000 items for the sync client, or 400 character limit for files and folders, and these limits could potentially be reached if you try to drag and drop a whole drive or system folder into OneDrive. So don’t do that, keep OneDrive for your real documents.

DON’T sync your OneNote files: OneNote has its own sync process, so make sure to use the OneNote option to move your notes to the cloud.

DON’T create sub-sites in OneDrive: you should ask your IT Admin to create a SharePoint Online site for you.

DON’T send email attachments: The “Attach File” command in new Outlook versions will show you the last modified files in your OneDrive folder. And it will use the Modern Attachments method – instead of sending a copy of the file by email, a link will be sent and the file will be shared with the email recipients.

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Do’s

DO use the Known Folders Move feature to move your stuff to the cloud: In some organizations, the Known Folders Move feature might be automatically redirecting your Documents, Pictures, and Desktop folders to OneDrive by default. If that’s not the case, make sure you turn that on, to save all your work to OneDrive automatically.

DO use Team Sites for team documents: OneDrive will not replace your team site in SharePoint. Although it has similar features, you should still save your team work-related documents to a centralized location.

DO keep your files safe: All files and folders are private by default, but once you shared them, you are in control. If you share a folder, everything within that folder will be shared by default.

Happy Exploring OneDrive 🙂