OneDrive, SharePoint or Teams? Where did my coworker's upload go?
Put OneDrive, SharePoint and Teams on one map and choose how to bring your team's library onto your computer.
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In a lot of offices, "I put it in the cloud" can mean three different things. All three are Microsoft 365 and they sync through the same OneDrive app, so it's normal to mix them up. Here's the difference that matters:
- OneDrive is your space: your files, the ones you save. That's what the previous pages covered.
- SharePoint stores a team's or a department's files in document libraries. A library doesn't belong to one person; it belongs to the team's site.
- Teams is where your team talks, and its files don't live in Teams. Microsoft explains that what you upload to a channel is stored in the team's SharePoint folder, and you'll find it in that channel's Shared tab. What you send in a chat is stored in your work OneDrive and shared only with the people in that conversation.
So a file in a Teams channel and a file in the team's SharePoint library are in the same place. When Ana says "I put it on SharePoint" or "I left it in the channel," she uploaded it to a team library. It won't show up on your computer on its own. You have two ways to bring it over:
A Teams channel
Shared tab
The team's SharePoint library
where the channel's files live
How do you bring it to your computer?
Path 1 of 2: Sync
A folder named after your organization
on this device only
Continues at: You open it from File Explorer
Path 2 of 2: Add shortcut to My files
Inside your OneDrive
on all your devices
Continues at: You open it from File Explorer
You open it from File Explorer
| Sync | Add shortcut to My files | |
|---|---|---|
| Where does it show up? | In a folder named after your organization | Inside your OneDrive folder |
| On which devices? | Only the one you synced it on | Anywhere you use your OneDrive |
| Does it use your OneDrive storage? | Microsoft's page doesn't say | No |
| What does Microsoft recommend? | — | This one, when it's available |
Microsoft recommends the shortcut because it follows you to any device where you open your OneDrive, while syncing is tied to one computer, and because it says the shortcut performs better. You also saw the other advantage on the previous page: if you don't need it one day, removing the shortcut doesn't affect anyone.
If you sync, you don't pick the folder. Microsoft says the files sync to a folder on your PC named after the organization, and gives %userprofile%\Contoso as an example: %userprofile% is your user folder and Contoso is Microsoft's sample company. That folder shows up on its own in File Explorer's left pane, and you can't choose a different location. On a Mac, Microsoft says the synced library shows up in Finder under your organization's name, with each synced library in its own subfolder.
Warning: One path per library
Microsoft won't let you use both paths on the same library: if you've already added a shortcut to one of its folders, Sync fails with this message: "Sorry, we can't sync this folder. You're already syncing a shortcut to a folder from this shared library." And if you've already synced it, you can't add the shortcut. To switch, remove the one you have first.
Three signs you'll run into
- A lock on synced files. Microsoft explains that they sync as read-only: you may not have permission to edit them. If you change them on your computer, your changes won't sync. To get permission, talk to whoever manages the site.
- "Which library do you want to sync?" If you see that question after clicking Sync, the site isn't set up to sync with the OneDrive app. That's not yours to fix: let your IT department know.
- A Teams file you can't find. First ask yourself whether it reached you in a chat or in a channel. A channel file is in the team's library; a chat file is in the sender's OneDrive, shared with the people in that conversation.
Try it
Think of the last file someone on your team sent you. Was it in their OneDrive, in a SharePoint library or in Teams? How did you open it? If you can't tell, tell your Maestro how it reached you.