OneDrive for Business — Setup, Sync, and Best Practices

OneDrive for Business gives each Microsoft 365 user cloud storage with sync to PC and Mac. It is not the same as personal OneDrive — business data should stay in the work tenant under your organisation's policies.

Initial setup and Known Folder Move

• Sign in with your work account in the OneDrive sync client — not a personal Microsoft account.
• Enable Known Folder Move to redirect Desktop, Documents, and Pictures to OneDrive — protects files if a laptop is lost.
• Choose which libraries to sync — syncing everything causes performance issues on small SSDs.

Sharing files externally

Use 'Specific people' links for client deliverables instead of organisation-wide links. Set expiration dates on external shares. Recipients may need MFA depending on your tenant policy — communicate this to South African clients on mobile networks.

Sync troubleshooting

• OneDrive icon colours indicate status — grey cloud means online-only, solid green means synced.
• Path length limits (260 characters on Windows) still cause obscure sync failures — shorten folder names.
• Exclude large video archives or developer node_modules folders with sync exclusions.
• Reset OneDrive sync as a last resort after backing up unsynced files.

Storage and retention

Default storage is 1 TB per user on most business plans. Monitor usage in the admin centre. Deleted files live in the recycle bin for 93 days — after that, admin recovery windows apply. Pair OneDrive with tenant-wide backup for ransomware protection.

Need help with rollout?

FKS Computers deploys OneDrive and Known Folder Move as part of Microsoft 365 migrations, ensuring staff keep working while data moves safely to the cloud.