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Learn how to connect, open, and work with OneDrive files in File Explorer.

Quick reference

OneDrive in File Explorer

Understand how to view and work with files stored in OneDrive from within File Explorer. 

When to use

We can synchronize our OneDrive Files with File Explorer to make it easier and quicker to work with files saved to the cloud. 

Instructions

What is OneDrive?

OneDrive is cloud storage available through Microsoft. If we have a Microsoft 365 subscription we will have access to OneDrive cloud storage. The amount of storage you get depends on the Microsoft 365 subscription selected but most accounts allow up to 1Tb of storage. If we choose a free Microsoft 365 account we still receive 5Gb of free cloud storage. 

OneDrive storage can also be purchased independently from a Microsoft 365 subscription. 

OneDrive is similar to other popular cloud storage systems like Google Drive and Dropbox. We can save files and folders to OneDrive and they synchronize with the cloud so we can access our documents on the go from anywhere that has an internet connection. We can even access them through the OneDrive mobile app on our phone. 

Set Up OneDrive

OneDrive is completely integrated with Windows 11. When we install Windows 11 on our PC, part of the setup process is to log in to OneDrive. We log in using our Microsoft 365 account credentials. Once we log in to Windows, we can see that OneDrive is connected and ready for use by the small cloud icon in the taskbar. This shows that OneDrive is running and always syncing files and folders. 

OneDrive in File Explorer

If we use OneDrive, this affects the folder structure in File Explorer. 

  • Double-click on the C Drive. 
  • Double-click on the Users folder. 
  • Double-click on your Home folder (the one with your name). 

We will see a folder in here called OneDrive. 

  • Double-click on the OneDrive folder.  

Here we can view and open any folders and files we have stored in OneDrive. Notice the status column in File Explorer. This tells us if the file or folder is currently synchronizing, synchronized, available on this device only, or hasn't synchronized. 

A fully synchronized file or folder means that all of the latest changes are available in the cloud and this PC. 

OneDrive Backup

We can manage our OneDrive settings by clicking on the cloud icon in the taskbar. Here we can see if our files have synchronized with no errors. We can also backup our files to OneDrive cloud storage. 

  • Click the cog icon. 
  • Click on Settings. 
  • Click on the Backup tab. 
  • Click on Manage Backup. 

From here, we can see the folders that will be backed up to OneDrive. We recommend backing up all of these folders so in the event of a major failure of our PC, we still have our files in the cloud. We can choose to stop backing up any of these folders by clicking Stop Backup. We might do this if we don't want a particular folder stored on Microsoft servers. 

  • Click the Account tab. 

Here we can see how much storage we have and how much storage we have used.

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  • 00:04 OneDrive is Microsoft's offering when it comes to cloud storage.
  • 00:08 And it works in a pretty similar way to other cloud storage systems that are out
  • 00:12 there on the market.
  • 00:13 So if you've used something like Google Drive previously, or maybe Dropbox,
  • 00:19 then OneDrive is pretty much the same as that, It's simply Microsoft's version.
  • 00:24 And the cool thing is that if you have a Microsoft 365 subscription,
  • 00:28 then you automatically get a certain amount of OneDrive storage.
  • 00:32 And the amount that you get is really dependent on the type of subscription
  • 00:35 that you have.
  • 00:36 Now, I don't want to get too much into different types of Microsoft
  • 00:39 365 subscriptions in this particular lesson or this particular course, in fact.
  • 00:44 But if you jump on to the Microsoft 365 website,
  • 00:46 you're going to see all of these different plans that you can choose from.
  • 00:49 And the one you choose is really dependent on your needs.
  • 00:52 Some people require all of the Microsoft applications and large amounts of storage.
  • 00:57 Other people might just require the online versions of the applications and
  • 01:01 just a little bit of OneDrive storage.
  • 01:03 And the good news is that there is a free option when it comes to Microsoft 365
  • 01:08 accounts.
  • 01:09 So if you don't particularly want to sign up for
  • 01:12 a full monthly subscription, you could choose to use the free offering,
  • 01:18 which automatically gives you five gig of free OneDrive cloud storage.
  • 01:23 Now, I'm not using the free version because I save a lot of very,
  • 01:28 very large files, so I require a large amount of file storage.
  • 01:33 And I personally love to save all of my files in the cloud.
  • 01:36 It makes it so much easier, because it means I can access my files from anywhere
  • 01:41 that I have an Internet connection.
  • 01:43 But if you're a little bit confused by cloud storage, let me try and
  • 01:46 make it as simple as possible.
  • 01:47 In the past, and I'm talking sort of 20 years ago here,
  • 01:51 the only option we really had when it came to saving files was to save them into
  • 01:55 a folder somewhere on our PC.
  • 01:57 So that might be the Documents folder on our C drive or maybe on the desktop.
  • 02:01 And that was all well and good if you were sitting at your PC for
  • 02:05 the entire day, but what if I had a file saved onto my PC, and
  • 02:09 then I needed to access it when I was at home?
  • 02:12 Or maybe I wanted to look at a document that I created in the office on the train
  • 02:16 on the way home using my laptop.
  • 02:18 There was no way for us to access them unless we'd email them to ourselves or
  • 02:23 maybe save them off on something like a USB stick.
  • 02:26 So it's all very manual and not very joined up.
  • 02:29 The advent of the cloud made all of these problems disappear.
  • 02:33 What we now essentially do is save our files up into the cloud, in this case,
  • 02:38 OneDrive, which is like a virtual drive floating in the air.
  • 02:42 And then we can access those files from wherever we have an Internet connection.
  • 02:47 How do we access them?
  • 02:48 Well, through our Microsoft 365 portal.
  • 02:51 Now, when you buy a Microsoft 365 subscription,
  • 02:54 you need to provide an email address.
  • 02:57 It will also ask you to create a password, and
  • 02:59 that becomes your Microsoft 365 account.
  • 03:02 And what you can do is open up an Internet browser and
  • 03:05 simply sign into your Microsoft 365 account, and then you can access all of
  • 03:10 the online versions of your applications, as well as all of your OneDrive files.
  • 03:15 So if I was to open up a new tab,
  • 03:21 Microsoft 365, you can see I can jump to the Login page from here.
  • 03:27 It's always worth setting this up as a shortcut link if you're going in
  • 03:30 here often.
  • 03:30 Now, let me just accept that message at the top,
  • 03:33 because what I can do is I can simply sign in.
  • 03:36 Now, because I've already logged in, it takes me straight in.
  • 03:39 If this is the first time that you're using it,
  • 03:41 you're just going to simply need to type in your email address and
  • 03:44 the password that you provided when you set up your Microsoft 365 account.
  • 03:48 And this is your online portal.
  • 03:51 So this is where you can come to see all of the files that you last accessed, and
  • 03:55 take a look down the left hand side,
  • 03:56 we can access the online versions of all of the Office applications.
  • 04:00 Notice that one of them here is OneDrive.
  • 04:03 So when I click on this,
  • 04:04 it's going to show me all of the folders that I have stored in the cloud.
  • 04:09 So as long as I have an internet browser and a working internet connection,
  • 04:13 I can basically access any file that I've saved into OneDrive.
  • 04:17 So this is a lot better than storing them on your hard drive.
  • 04:21 It also means that if anything goes wrong with your PC, your files are absolutely
  • 04:25 safe, because they're stored in the cloud on the Microsoft servers.
  • 04:29 Now, with all this said, one thing that's not particularly convenient is,
  • 04:34 if you want to access your OneDrive files,
  • 04:36 you have to kind of log into this browser in order to open them.
  • 04:39 Now, this is fine in certain situations, maybe you're on the train or
  • 04:42 something along those lines.
  • 04:44 But a lot of the time, it's a lot easier to be able to access
  • 04:47 your OneDrive files through File Explorer as well.
  • 04:49 Now, when you first set up Windows 11, because OneDrive is completely integrated,
  • 04:55 if you have a Microsoft 365 account, it will ask you to enter in your credentials
  • 04:59 and it will automatically synchronize your OneDrive for you.
  • 05:03 So anything you see in the portal just here will also be reflected in
  • 05:07 File Explorer, which makes managing your OneDrive files a lot quicker and easier.
  • 05:12 So let's take a look at that, let's minimize this down and
  • 05:15 open up File Explorer.
  • 05:16 I'm going to use Windows Key+E.
  • 05:20 Notice here, I have a folder called OneDrive Personal.
  • 05:24 So when I logged into Windows 11, it automatically created this folder for me,
  • 05:28 and if I expand it out, I can see all of the folders that I have in my OneDrive.
  • 05:33 And I can then simply go through and I can access my different files.
  • 05:37 For example, if I click on the attachments folder, there is team1 and team2.
  • 05:42 If I go back to the portal, go back to My files, and go into the Attachments folder,
  • 05:47 I have exactly the same thing in here, so everything synchronizes.
  • 05:52 And OneDrive will automatically synchronize your files as you work
  • 05:56 on them.
  • 05:57 So if I open a file from the portal and I make changes to it,
  • 06:00 it's going to synchronize back.
  • 06:02 So that if I was to then open the same file through File Explorer,
  • 06:05 all of my changes are going to be there.
  • 06:07 Now, if I click on something like Documents, and let's go into Outlook 2021,
  • 06:12 notice in File Explorer, we have a status column.
  • 06:15 And this directly relates to if this file is synchronized in OneDrive or not.
  • 06:21 And when we say synchronized, we just mean the changes that we've made
  • 06:24 in File Explorer have been uploaded to the cloud.
  • 06:27 And we can see here a green tick if all changes have been synchronized, or
  • 06:31 we can see this kind of icon if changes are pending or currently updating.
  • 06:36 Also notice in the bottom right-hand corner where we have all of our icons,
  • 06:40 if you do have OneDrive set up on your PC,
  • 06:42 you're going to see this little cloud icon just here.
  • 06:45 If we click this, it's going to show us a little bit more information.
  • 06:49 So it's telling me that all of my files are synchronized,
  • 06:52 I'm just going to close this down for the time being, and
  • 06:56 it's going to show the last files that are uploaded to the cloud.
  • 07:00 I can do things like open the folder,
  • 07:01 I can directly jump to the online version of OneDrive,
  • 07:04 I can move things to the recycle bin, or I can choose a premium subscription.
  • 07:08 I also have my settings at the top here.
  • 07:11 Now, let's just quickly jump into here and open up Settings.
  • 07:15 Now, in here, we have a few different tabs,
  • 07:17 we can see some information about our accounts.
  • 07:19 So I can see that I have 100 gig of cloud storage, and I'm currently using 8.8 gig.
  • 07:24 If I decide at any point that I only want to have my files stored in the cloud,
  • 07:29 and I don't want them to be here in File Explorer,
  • 07:32 I can simply click Unlink this PC.
  • 07:35 If I click on the Settings tab, there's some other settings that
  • 07:39 I can adjust in here with regards to notifications, and
  • 07:42 if I want OneDrive to start automatically when I log into Windows.
  • 07:46 And another folder here is Backup.
  • 07:49 So we can use the cloud effectively as a backup for our files and folders.
  • 07:53 When we synchronize to the cloud, those files are safe,
  • 07:56 stored on Microsoft servers.
  • 07:58 So if anything happens to our PC, we can still get our files back.
  • 08:01 So that's a very quick overview of how Microsoft OneDrive works,
  • 08:05 how you can use it from within File Explorer in Windows 11, and
  • 08:09 the reasons why it's such a good idea to store your files and folders in the cloud.

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