OneDrive as default repository for clueless users

[timeshifter]

Business has about 6 users. All have Office 365 Business Premium which includes 1TB of storage for OneDrive. Users keep stuff on their Desktop and in their Documents folders, mostly because they're clueless about folder navigation. Their stuff consists of a few Excel docs and Word docs, etc. There is no backup system in place for them.

I want to take advantage of OneDrive in a transparent way.

When I sign in to OneDrive using their Office 365 credentials I wind up with the following folders, a partial list:

C:\Users\Bill\Documents
C:\Users\Bill\Desktop
C:\Users\Bill\OneDrive
C:\Users\Bill\OneDrive - Acme Explosives Company

So I want to make it transparent, when they go to Documents their stuff will be save using OneDrive.
I right-click on the Documents icon in Windows Explorer and choose Properties, Location and select "C:\Users\Bill\OneDrive - Acme Explosives Company". Then I create a folder called Documents and select that. Windows moves the files there for me. I can do the same for Desktop and Pictures.

Now my folders look like this:
C:\Users\Bill\OneDrive - Acme Explosives Company\Documents
C:\Users\Bill\OneDrive - Acme Explosives Company\Desktop
C:\Users\Bill\OneDrive
C:\Users\Bill\OneDrive - Acme Explosives Company

This seems to work but seems overly complicated.

When setting up a consumer Microsoft Account on a PC it just seems to naturally do this for you and all your relevant folders are now OneDrive synced.

They have a Windows Server 2016 Essentials server.

Is this the best way to accomplish this task?

 

[Markverhyden]

How exactly is Acme created?

 

[timeshifter]

OneDrive is installed on the machine, but no linked account. I sign in to OneDrive using bill@acmeexplosives.com. That is the suggested default location. If I tell it to use a different location, like C:\Users\Bill\OneDrive the resulting path will be C:\Users\Bill\OneDrive\OneDrive - Acme Explosives Company\

 

[seedubya]

This is the OneDrive version of redirected folders

 

[Sky-Knight]

Seedubya has it nailed, enable the backup and all the profile folders are redirected into OneDrive. The user can get at the files in the OneDrive folder too, but the documents folder and what not ARE those folders too. So the UI is nice and easy.

 

[fencepost]

With Business Premium would it make sense to set them up for Sharepoint instead for the bulk of their documents?

I'm not using it myself right now, but Amy Babinchak's video (

) was quite the eye-opener on its integration with Teams and having stuff in Sharepoint set up to sync.

 

[Sky-Knight]

If you've got any sort of departmental shares going on? Yeah... Teams that junk. Let it deal with Sharepoint, it's brain dead easy.

But that's for TEAM files, not individual files. The former is Teams backed with Sharepoint, the latter is OneDrive Backup.

 

[YeOldeStonecat]

Yeah about...I think 2 years ago, OneDrive added that 5th tab called "Backup". Where you can select the standard Docs/Desktop/Pics user folders. This way you don't have to monkey with relocating folders....it handles it all for you properly. If a user has multiple computers...this makes it wonderful to basically have "folder redirection" on all a users computers to keep them consistent. Do this setting (it's not turned on by default) on all a users computers.

So you have 6 people to "share" files? Basically the Office 365 version of a File Server? This is one with Sharepoint. But wanna know how to make it crazy easy? Use Teams! Teams...makes it easy peasy to create those document libraries in Sharepoint...you don't have to administer Sharepoint, just create it in Teams and the Teams app reaches into the background settings of Sharepoint and does all that work for you, permissions, etc.

OneDrive...for OneUser...to "sync" their stuff across devices, and sort of a backup. My laptop can catch fire right now and burn to a crisp...I go get another laptop, sign into Office 365, setup Outlook, sync Teams and OneDrive...and BOOM..all_of_my_files_and_data_are_back! Heck I can have all 3 of my computers burn to a crisp...same thing!

But when you setup an office network for a half dozen users the old fashioned way...you didn't setup workgroups/peer to peer networks with each user sharing their Documents folders to all others, right? (hopefully not!). You didn't do a big mix match of criss cross shares all over the place, no...you got a central file server...put all the files in one spot and each user probably mapped a drive to that big share. Well...Sharepoint is the "cloud" version of a file server. Meant for everyone to reach into. Not individual OneDrive (documents). But make it easy...use Teams to get it setup. And there is soooo much more to Teams...it's more than just a chat, it's more than just a bulletin board, it's more than just a way to setup document libraries in Sharepoint, it's more than just a way to share a calendar, it's more than a version of Zoom for video conference calls and desktop sharing, it's more than just a way to load apps and share them (like Planner and ToDo lists)...learn about it...start using it! Oh..and the Teams app on your phone....so much like the desktop version, so...usable!

 

[timeshifter]

The client I'm referring to in the OP has a server but it's just for a single, simple, LOB application. No file share is really happening. The Backup tab in OneDrive is perfect.

 

[YeOldeStonecat]

OK so if not file sharing across any of the 6 users....OneDrive is perfect to sort of "backup the workstation"...or sync across end users multiple devices.

Note..here's where it's even more important to get the client setup on MFA...since files are also up in there now.

 

[marley1]

MFA
Backup
Bitlocker
All still apply

Use RMM to monitor the OneDrive status.

Join machine to AzureAD for cleaner

 

[frase]

If for an organisation I prefer Sharepoint than Onedrive as in collaboration of users working on same file. OneDrive for personal data.

 

[Sky-Knight]

Onedrive is the delivery engine for Sharepoint... so I'm confused.

 

[Mainstay]

Onedrive is the delivery engine for Sharepoint... so I'm confused.

This is true but there are essentially two components:

Personal: 1TB of storage that is private to each Business Premium user

Business: SharePoint's 1 TB that is shared among the users in the company. Each user can sync (or not) those SharePoint folders that they are given permission to access to their local machines.

Microsoft has collapsed all of the versions into just OneDrive for Business which, once signed in, unlocks both the personal and business components.

All of the old naming schemes have been jettisoned (thank goodness) and it is much more streamlined and functional now.