OneDrive for Business Windows Client Setup

Overview

UA OneDrive for Business is the University of Alaska's branding of the Microsoft Office 365 OneDrive for Business, an online service that provides resources for file storage, collaboration, and communication with other UA individuals. The OneDrive for Business service, aimed at enterprise users, is not the same as the OneDrive service offered by Microsoft to individuals. For information on the differences, visit Microsoft's What Is OneDrive for Business page and read the section titled How is OneDrive for Business different from OneDrive.

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 using the integrated Office Online applications, Word, Excel, and PowerPoint. For those times you need the complete set of Office features, you can open your files in the full version of the applications and save them to your hard drive or back to the cloud.

Because OneDrive for Business is associated with your relationship to the University of Alaska, everything stored in it will be inaccessible should you leave the university. For this reason, it's best to use it to store materials that are your own personal university related (e.g. homework, business) use, like OneNote notebooks. For storing materials that are important for departments, schools, colleges, or other groups at the university indefinitely, you should be aware that there are several options available more suitable for collaboration such as network file shares, Google Shared Drives,  Microsoft Teams, and a SharePoint Online site. All of them offer various features and benefits.

For additional information read about UA OneDrive for Business.

What materials do I need?

• Windows compatible device
• Active University of Alaska account

How do I use this technology?

1. If your Windows device has either Windows 10, Office 2016, Office 2019, or Microsoft 365 apps for Enterprise (aka Office 365 ProPlus), it already has the OneDrive sync app installed.
   • For devices running older version of Windows, or on which Office 2016, or newer, is not installed, you can  download the OneDrive sync app for Windows from https://onedrive.live.com/about/download.
2. In the task bar click in the Type here to search field, and enter OneDrive.
   
   
    
3. Click on the found app to open it.
4. When the Set up OneDrive​​​​​​​ dialog appears, enter your UA Email address (e.g. UaUsername@alaska.edu), then click Sign in.
   
   
    
5. When prompted enter your UA password, then click Sign in.
   
   
    
6. On the Your OneDrive folder screen, accept the default folder location (e.g. C:\Users\<your username>\OneDrive - University of Alaska) for your OneDrive files, and click Next.
    
   Note

   If you were already syncing your OneDrive @ UA to your computer (using the previous sync app) and you've just installed the sync app, you won't see the Your OneDrive folder or the Sync files from your OneDrive​​​​​​​ screen during the OneDrive setup. The sync app automatically takes over syncing in the same folder you were using before.

    

   
    
7. On the Get to know your OneDrive​​​​​​​ screen click Next.
   
   
    
8. On the Share files and folder screen click Next.
   
   
    
9. On the All your files, ready and on-demand screen click Next.
   
   
    
10. On the Get the mobile app screen click Later.
    
    
     
11. On the Your OneDrive is ready for you screen click Open my OneDrive folder.
    
    
     
12. A Windows Explorer window will open displaying your OneDrive folder.
    
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