Sync Files From a Microsoft Team to My Desktop

Overview

You can sync files from a Microsoft Teams to a folder on your computer where you can work directly in the Mac Finder, or Windows File Explorer to access the files even when you're offline. Whenever you're online, any changes that you or others make will sync automatically.

In this article

• Initial Setup
  • macOS Sync Setup
  • Windows Sync Setup

How do I use this technology

Initial Setup

Note: You will only need to do the following steps once per device, per Team to setup syncing on that device. After you setup syncing, the files sync automatically.

macOS Sync Setup

1. Open Microsoft Teams.
2. Select the desired Team.
3. Select the desired Channel. We typically recommend selecting the General channel to begin with as this makes it easier to add, or remove other channels later as desired.
4. Click the Files tab.
   
   
    
5. Pick any file and click the Show actions button.
   
   
    
6. Click Open in SharePoint.
   
   
    
7. Your default web browser will open and the Team's SharePoint site will appear. You may be prompted to sign in to Office 365.
   
   
    
8. On the left side click Documents which will take you to the root documents folder for the team.
   
   
    
9. Click the Sync button.
   
   
    
10. If your browser requests permission to use "Microsoft OneDrive," confirm that this is okay by clicking Allow.
    
    
     
11. The files will sync to a folder on your Mac computer named University of Alaska in your home directory (e.g. Macintosh HD/Users/Username/University of Alaska)
    
    

To sync the files on another computer, go to that computer and follow these steps again.

Windows Sync Setup

1. Open Microsoft Teams.
2. Select the desired Team.
3. Select the desired Channel. We typically recommend selecting the General channel to begin with as this makes it easier to add, or remove other channels later as desired.
4. Click the Files tab.
   
   
    
5. Pick any file and click the Show actions button.
   
   
    
6. Click Open in SharePoint.
   
   
    
7. Your default web browser will open and the Team's SharePoint site will appear. You may be prompted to sign in to Office 365.
   
   Note: If your default browser is something other than Microsoft Edge, and you encounter difficulties completing the following steps we recommend copying the URL from the address bar of the browser, open Microsoft Edge, paste the URL, and then proceed with the following steps.
    
8. Click the Sync button.
   
   
    
9. If your browser requests permission to use Microsoft OneDrive, confirm that this is okay by clicking Yes.
   
   
    
10. The files will sync to a folder on your Windows computer named University of Alaska in your profile (e.g. C:\Users\Username\University of Alaska). This folder is automatically added to the left pane in the File Explorer.
    
    

To sync the files on another computer, go to that computer and follow these steps again.

Is there any additional information I should know about?

For additional assistance contact the IT Services Technical Support Center via phone at (907) 786-4646, toll-free at (877) 633-3888, email us at uaa.techsupport@alaska.edu.