What OneDrive is

OneDrive is Microsoft cloud file storage, included with your College of Wooster Microsoft 365 account. Files you save there are stored online, sync to your computer and mobile devices, and can be opened from anywhere you sign in with your Wooster account.

You have generous storage for your College files. It is intended for your own working documents.

OneDrive is personal storage. Files in it belong to your account, and access to them ends when your account does. If you are storing files that a department, committee, or course needs to keep reaching, a SharePoint site or a Teams channel is the better home. See Sharing files with others below.

Your Wooster OneDrive is separate from any personal Microsoft account you may already use.

Signing in on the web

1. Go to onedrive.cloud.microsoft
2. Sign in with your Wooster email address and password.
3. Complete multifactor authentication if you are prompted.

You can also reach OneDrive from Microsoft 365. Go to m365.cloud.microsoft, sign in, select the app launcher in the upper left corner, and choose OneDrive from the list.

Getting OneDrive on your device

College-managed computers

OneDrive is already installed on College-managed Windows and Mac computers. You do not need to download anything.

Technology Services sits down with you during device setup and configures OneDrive to match how you work, including which folders sync to the computer. If that step was missed, or if the way you work has changed since setup, contact the Help Desk and we will go through it with you.

Personal Windows and Mac computers

1. Go to onedrive.cloud.microsoft and sign in with your Wooster account.
2. Select the settings gear in the upper right corner, then choose the option to get the OneDrive apps.
3. Download the installer for your operating system.
4. Open the installer from your Downloads folder if it does not start on its own, and follow the prompts.
5. When OneDrive opens, sign in with your Wooster email address and password, and complete multifactor authentication.

OneDrive also installs as part of the full Microsoft 365 desktop suite. If you want Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and Outlook on a personal computer as well, see the Installing M365 Apps article.

Phones and tablets

Install OneDrive from the App Store on iPhone and iPad, or from Google Play on Android, then sign in with your Wooster account.

The OneDrive app lets you browse, open, and share your files. To edit Word, Excel, or PowerPoint files on a phone or tablet, install those apps separately.

Checking that you are signed in to the right account

If you set up a personal computer with a personal Microsoft account, OneDrive may be syncing to that account instead of your Wooster one. You can add your Wooster account alongside it.

Windows

1. Select the OneDrive cloud icon in the notification area at the lower right of the screen.
2. Select the gear icon, then Settings.
3. Go to Account and select Add an account.
4. Sign in with your Wooster email address and password.

Mac

1. Select the OneDrive cloud icon in the menu bar at the upper right of the screen.
2. Select the gear icon, then Settings.
3. Go to Account and select Add an account.
4. Sign in with your Wooster email address and password.

Once the account is added, your College files appear in a folder named OneDrive – The College of Wooster, separate from any personal OneDrive folder.

How your files appear on your computer

After you sign in, a folder named OneDrive – The College of Wooster is added to your computer. On Windows it appears in the left sidebar of File Explorer. On Mac it appears in the Finder sidebar.

Anything you put in that folder syncs to the cloud, and anything you add through the OneDrive website or another device appears there.

Keeping files online only or available offline

Files listed in your OneDrive folder are not always stored on your computer. Many are online only, which means they appear in the folder but download when you open them. This saves space on your computer, but it also means those files will not open without an internet connection.

The small icon next to each file tells you which state it is in.

• A cloud outline means the file is stored online only. It downloads when you open it.
• A white circle with a green check mark means a copy is on your computer right now. It may be removed later to free up space.
• A solid green circle with a white check mark means the file is always kept on your computer and will open without an internet connection.

To make a file or folder available offline, right click it on Windows or Control click it on Mac, then choose Always keep on this device.

To recover space, choose Free up space on a file or folder you no longer need stored locally. The file stays in OneDrive and can be downloaded again.

Set anything you will need offline to Always keep on this device before you travel, present, or work somewhere without reliable internet.

Sharing files with others

Before you share, consider whether OneDrive is the right place for the file in the first place. Files in OneDrive are tied to your account, so when you leave the College, they go away and anyone you shared them with loses access. For files a department, committee, or course needs to keep reaching over time, use a SharePoint site or a Teams channel instead. Contact the Help Desk if you are not sure which fits your situation.

To share a file or folder from OneDrive:

1. Select the file or folder.
2. Choose Share.
3. Choose who the link should work for. You can name specific people, or allow anyone at the College who has the link.
4. Choose whether they can edit the file or only view it.
5. Send the link, or copy it and send it yourself.

A caution about sharing folders

If you share a folder with anyone at the College who has the link, every file you put in that folder afterward is reachable by anyone with a wooster.edu account who has that link. It is easy to forget a folder was shared that way and drop something sensitive into it months later.

Before sharing a folder, look at what is in it. Student records, advising notes, grades, evaluations, and anything else protected under FERPA should be shared only with the specific people who need it, named individually. Again, it might be a good idea to check if there is a better method of sharing these particular files and folders.

Syncing SharePoint and Teams files, for faculty and staff

This is one of the most useful things OneDrive does for faculty and staff. You can sync a SharePoint document library or a Teams files area to your computer and work in it directly from File Explorer or Finder, including when you are offline. Changes sync automatically the next time you are connected.

1. Sign in to Microsoft 365 in a browser.
2. Select the app launcher, choose SharePoint or Teams, and open the site you want.
3. Open the Documents library, or the specific subfolder you want on your computer.
4. Select Sync.
5. If your browser asks for permission to open Microsoft OneDrive, allow it.
6. Open File Explorer or Finder. The library appears in the sidebar under OneDrive – Shared Libraries – The College of Wooster.

You only need to do this once per computer for each library. After that it stays synced.

Downloading a copy of your files before you leave

Access to your Wooster OneDrive ends when your College account is deactivated. After that, your files are held for 30 days and then permanently deleted from our systems. Nothing can be recovered after the 30 days pass.

If there are files you want to keep, download them while your account is still active. Depending on how much you have, an external hard drive or a personal cloud storage account may be worth setting up first.

1. Sign in at onedrive.cloud.microsoft.
2. To select a single file or folder, move your cursor over it and click the small circle that appears. In list view the circle is on the left. In tile view it is at the upper right of the tile.
3. To select everything in the current view, press Ctrl and A together on Windows, or Command and A together on Mac.
4. Select Download in the toolbar at the top of the page.
5. Choose where to save the download. Anything more than a single file arrives as one zip file that you will need to extract.

Large downloads can take a long time and may fail on an unstable connection. If a download does not finish, work through your files a folder at a time instead of taking everything at once.

Getting Help

If you run into any issue during setup, contact the IT Help Desk.

• Email: helpdesk@wooster.edu
• Phone: 330-287-4357 (330-287-HELP)
• Walk-in: Burton D. Morgan Hall – Help Desk, 4th floor
• Hours: Monday through Friday, 8:30 am to 5:30 pm