Getting started with OneDrive


OneDrive is your file storage in the cloud for all information related to your work or studies at the University. It’s available to all members of the University for the duration of your studies or employment.

The great thing about OneDrive is you can access your files and Office documents from anywhere on any device. However, once you leave the University, your OneDrive will be closed down.

OneDrive is good for files only you need to access or where you need to collaborate with a few people. If you need to collaborate with a larger group, consider using Teams or SharePoint instead.

You must not store personal files which are not related to your work or studies on your University OneDrive.  There are several free cloud-based services you can use instead for personal files, such as Microsoft personal OneDrive, Google drive, etc.

Why use OneDrive

You have a huge 5TB of storage in OneDrive which is enough to store:

So you should never worry about running out of space.

There’s no need to send anymore large files over email. With OneDrive you can easily share documents, photos and more.

Your files are safe

Files are encrypted so nobody can read them as they go across the internet

Deleted items are moved into the recycle bin, and these items can be restored within 93 days, after which they are moved to the second stage recycle bin where they will stay for a further 30 days. within 93 days

You can return to the previous 500 versions of a file if you decide to undo a change – no need to keep renaming your document to create your own versions

University OneDrive vs OneDrive

The University provided OneDrive (which may also be known as OneDrive for Business) is different from the personal Microsoft OneDrive you may also have. You log on to the University OneDrive using your normal University username and password.  A personal OneDrive account will be linked to your personal email address (eg personal Microsoft email).

Remember - don't use the same password on multiple accounts, and don't use your University email address to sign up to non-University systems.

Accessing OneDrive

NOTE: When using OneDrive University staff must follow the linked Terms and Conditions for OneDrive, and the Information Protection Policy.

Find more information on how to access OneDrive from a web browser, in Teams, through File Explorer or download the mobile app from your local app store.

Sharing individual files or folders

OneDrive makes it easy to share files, but remember to regularly review your shared settings. Why not try sharing with:

There is an expiration time on documents/folders shared anonymously through OneDrive to minimise the security risk. As confidential information can be stored on OneDrive there is a risk that sharing files anonymously may allow this information to be shared inappropriately. To help to mitigate this risk, the maximum you can anonymously (publicly) share a document is set to 30 days.

Saving files

The amount of files you can save to your computer will be limited by the amount of space you have available; many laptops only come with 256GB storage (about 5% of the size of your OneDrive quota).

We would encourage you to use the files on demand feature in the OneDrive Application

Microsoft give more information on how to upload and save files and folders to OneDrive. It is very important that you save your files and documents in OneDrive to ensure that they are available on other devices you might use or on new devices you might receive.

Unfortunately, you can’t sync OneDrive to a cluster desktop.