Overview
UA OneDrive for Business is the University of Alaska's name for Microsoft 365 OneDrive for work or school. It is an online service for storing files, sharing them, and collaborating with other UA individuals. OneDrive for work or school, which is designed for organizations, is not the same as the personal OneDrive service Microsoft offers to individuals. For more about the differences, see Microsoft's What is OneDrive for work or school? page.
OneDrive for Business is a personal document and file storage hub. It's easy to upload, download, and share files. You can also create, view, and edit documents online with Microsoft 365 for the web, which includes Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and OneNote. When you need the full set of Office features, you can open your files in the desktop apps and save them back to OneDrive.
Because OneDrive for Business is tied to your relationship with the University of Alaska, everything stored in it becomes inaccessible if you leave the university. For this reason, it's best used for your own university-related work, such as coursework, your own work files, and OneNote notebooks. Materials that departments, schools, colleges, or other groups need to keep long-term belong in a place built for collaboration, such as a network file share, a Google shared drive, Microsoft Teams, or a SharePoint Online site. Each offers different features and benefits.
For more information, read Get Started with OneDrive for Business.
What materials do I need?
How do I use this technology?
- Open a web browser, go to https://onedrive.com, and sign in with your University of Alaska email address (e.g. UaUsername@alaska.edu).
- On the University of Alaska sign-in page, enter your UA password and select Sign in. Complete multi-factor authentication if prompted. [Screenshot: UA sign-in page]
- Your OneDrive opens in the browser. Select My files in the left-hand menu to see all of your files and folders. [Screenshot: OneDrive on the web, My files]
If you are already signed in to Microsoft 365 (for example at https://m365.cloud.microsoft), select OneDrive from the app bar on the left to open your OneDrive. [Screenshot: Microsoft 365 Copilot app with OneDrive in the left app bar]
From here you can manage the files and folders in your OneDrive. Select More options ( … ) next to a file or folder, or right-click it, to see what you can do with it. You can open it, share it, copy a link, manage access, download, rename, move, or copy it, see its version history, or select Details to see its properties. [Screenshot: More options menu for a file]
Your OneDrive storage limit depends on your role: 20 GB for employees, 15 GB for emeritus, and 5 GB for students. The limit covers everything you store in Microsoft 365, including OneDrive, Teams, and SharePoint. You'll get a warning when you reach 90% of your limit. If you go over it, your files become read-only and you can't upload new files until you free up space.
To create a new document or folder, select + Add new in the upper left, then choose the file type. Documents you create are saved to your OneDrive automatically. To add files from your computer, select + Add new > Files upload, or drag the files into your OneDrive in the browser. [Screenshot: + Add new menu]
To share a document:
- Select the document (select the circle next to its name), and then select Share on the toolbar. You can also open the document and select Share in the upper right.
- In the Share window, enter the names or email addresses of the UA people you want to share with.
- Choose whether they Can edit or Can view the document, add a message if you want, and then select Send. [Screenshot: Share window]
To share a document with everyone at UA, select the link settings in the Share window, choose People in University of Alaska, and then select Copy link and send the link to the people who need it.
Need additional help or have issues
For additional assistance contact the IT Services Technical Support Center via phone at (907) 786-4646, email us at uaa.techsupport@alaska.edu, or visit the Services section to open a support ticket.