From my previous post on OneDrive, this is a quick summary of how to identify the status of your OneDrive account and how to change the status of files stored in OneDrive. My other posts include version history and restoring files as well as sharing files with other users.
OneDrive for Business uses a range of icons to help identify the status of files and folders as well as the overall status of OneDrive. I will follow this up with details on how to Share OneDrive data in several ways.
Below, I have set out what the icons mean and what to do about them when you see them.
You will see your OneDrive icon in the Windows Explorer. Above you can see a personal OneDrive account is configured and is marked as such. You can add up to 9 separate OneDrive business accounts! In this example, there is just one. In the example above, all is rosy, A number of folders and one file are all synced to the computer. The files are on both the computer and stored in OneDrive on the cloud.
Checking the Status – System Tray
In the system tray, next to the clock you will see the OneDrive icons.
In the example, there are two icons showing. This is from my computer. I have a personal OneDrive that shows in Grey and a Business OneDrive showing in Blue. As there are no other icons attached, both accounts are synced up to date.
The above images show the various states OneDrive can be in. If the account shows full or locked, get in touch with your system administrator to resolve the problem. All of these appear in the system tray. A sync error may only be temporary, say if a file is locked by a process for instance.
Checking the Status – Windows Explorer
When you are looking at your files in the Windows Explorer you may see any of these icons.
A green tick with a circle means the file is stored on this computer and synced to the cloud. These files were created on this computer.
A Green circle with a white tick means the file is permanently stored on this computer as well as in the cloud storage. I will show you how to set this below.
Two blue arrows indicate the file or folder is currently being synced.
A cloud icon shows that the files are available in the cloud. All files and folders show in the explorer window and if you open a file with this icon it will be downloaded first. These files are not available unless connected to the internet.
A small person icon next to any of the above indicates that the file or folder is shared with other users.
Managing Storage Space
The default storage on OneDrive for Business is 1Tb. This far exceeds the storage on most computers, especially business machines. This is easily handled though by being able to select at any level what files and folders to retain on the PC and what to keep in the cloud.
In the example above, I have right clicked a folder. Part way down the menu is the familiar blue cloud of OneDrive with the option to Share. The first option is sharing which I deal with below.
The second option, view online, will take you to your files online and show them in your web browser.
The next two options are what we are interested in.
Always keep on this device – This will cause all the files in the folder to be downloaded to the PC. All those files will be available at any time whether the PC is connected to the internet or not. When synced, you will see a green circle with a white tick by each file or folder set this way.
Free up Space – This will cause your files to be removed from the device and just be stored in your OneDrive cloud storage. When synced, you will see a green tick in a white circle by each file or folder set this way.
Version History
There is one other option that can appear in this location of Windows Explorer.
Version history – If you right click a file, you will see Version history. This is a useful resource which I will cover in another post. It allows you to turn back the clock and access older versions of files.
So that’s it for now, look out for the next instalment on OneDrive for Business.