Sharing files or folders with OneDrive (desktop user)

OneDrive is essentially free online storage that comes with your Microsoft account. It can be considered as your own personal drive for saving documents, but you can use OneDrive to share files, or folders, with others too. Save your files to OneDrive and you'll be able to get to them from any PC, tablet, or phone. Files you save to OneDrive are available online at https://portal.office.com, and offline on your PC. That means you can use them anytime, even when you're not connected to the Internet. When you reconnect, OneDrive updates the online versions with changes you made offline.

This article describes how to share files or folders in OneDrive. The article assumes you are using a desktop machine. For mobile users, see KB0013272, Sharing files or folders with OneDrive (mobile user).

Note:
There's a short but informative video, produced by Microsoft that describes how to Share files and folders using OneDrive.

Sharing files or folders with OneDrive

Using OneDrive, you can share documents with internal colleagues and external parties. To do this, proceed as follows.

1. Log in to your Office 365 account, and open OneDrive.
2. From within OneDrive, highlight the file/document that you would like to share by placing a tick in the appropriate checkbox.
3. On the menu bar at the top of the page, click Share, or Copy link.

Note:
The Share function may alternatively be accessed by clicking on the three dots (ellipsis) that appear to the right of the file name just before the Modified column (you may need to hover over the file name in order for the ellipsis to appear).

The Share dialogue box opens, on the Send Link page.

Note:
The same Share dialogue box opens if you click Copy link instead of Share. The only difference being that when Share is clicked the dialogue opens on the Send Link page, and when Copy link is clicked, it opens on the Copy link page.

Note:
You can also access the Share dialog box from Windows Explorer or from Mac OS Finder by right-clicking a file/folder stored in OneDrive, then clicking Share.

Windows Explorer                                                  Mac OS Finder
                    

From the Share dialogue box you can invite people via an email, or click Copy link to create a link to view or download the file for manual sharing.

Send Link

Send Link is the recommended way to share a document.

1. Enter the name(s) or email address(es) of the recipients.
2. Optional: Click the dropdown list to change the type of link. 

• Anyone with the link - Gives access to anyone who receives this link. This includes direct recipients, or other users who may have been forwarded the link. This may include people outside of your organisation.
• People in (your organisation) with the link - Gives access to anyone who receives this link, as long as they are part of your organisation. This includes direct recipients, or other users who may have been forwarded the link.
• People with existing access - Can be used to send links to people who already have access to the document or folder. This option does not make changes to existing permissions.
• Specific people - Gives access only to the people you specify, although other people may already have access. If people forward the sharing invitation, only people who already have access to the item will be able to use the link.
• Allow editing - Is turned on by default. Un-tick it if you want to give view-only permission to recipients.

3. Type a short introductory message if required.
4. Click Send.

The selected individuals now have access to your shared document.

Copy Link

Important:
Be careful. Copy Link can make the file available to anyone, including other users who may have been forwarded the link.

1. Click Copy Link to create a link to view or download the file for you to share manually.

2. Optional: Click the dropdown list to change the type of link. The same options will be available as described previously for Send Link.
3. Paste the copied link into an email, text message, instant message, or any other medium.

On receipt of the email or message, your recipient will instantly have access to the file. 

Managing access

In time, you may wish to amend access to your shared files/folders. This can be completed within the same Share dialogue box used to initially share the item.

1. From the Share menu, click the three dots (ellipsis) at the top right of the screen, then click Manage Access.

2. From the Manage Access menu, click the black X on the right-hand side of the link you would like to remove.

The link is deleted.

Important:
Deleting a link will prevent users from accessing the item you are modifying.