OneDrive: Synchronize your OneDrive to your computer (Windows)

Overview

The OneDrive application allows you to synchronize files between your Microsoft 365 OneDrive, and your personal or office computer.  You can use this to have your files accessible from home, or in your office computer.  Once the OneDrive synchronization application is setup, all files in your OneDrive and the computer(s) you setup the software on will be kept in sync.

A few notes to be aware of before getting started:

• OneDrive is provided for current students, faculty, and staff.  If you are an faculty or staff member leaving the employment of SUNY New Paltz, you should back up your personal files outside of your OneDrive before leaving.  Similarly students do not retain access to OneDrive or Microsoft 365 after they withdraw, graduate, or otherwise become inactive as a student of the college and should also backup their files before leaving if they use OneDrive.
• These instructions SHOULD NOT be used in the Computer Labs on-campus.  If you need to access files on your OneDrive from a computer lab, just access your files from the web version of OneDrive without using the synchronization tool.
• If you want to keep files in sync between multiple computers (for example, your office computer and a personal computer), you need to perform this setup on each device.

Setup Instructions

1. Login to your Office 365 account and click the AppLauncher (the icon at the very top left)
2. Choose OneDrive to be brought into OneDrive
   
    
3. You will be brought directly into OneDrive (note: If you have never used OneDrive before, you may have to click "Your OneDrive is ready" at the bottom of the page that comes up.).  To synchronize files between your computer and your OneDrive, click on the Sync icon near the top.
   
    
4. If you already have the OneDrive client installed (it should be preinstalled on Windows 10 or later versions) you shouldn't need to install anything - skip to step 7.
    
5. Once you click on Sync, if you do not already have the OneDrive sync client installed, you can click the "get the latest version of OneDrive" link.  If that is the case, click the link, download, and run the application.  
   
    
6. After you install the application, click the "X" at the top right of the "Getting ready to sync" box, and click "Sync" again.  You'll be prompted to setup OneDrive.
    
7. Enter your @newpaltz.edu email address in the box next to "Sign in".  On the next screen, enter your password.
   
   
    
8. On the next screen, choose Next (or optionally, click "Change location" to change where the files are stored on your computer).
    
9. You'll be prompted to either "Sync all files and folders in OneDrive - State University of New York at New Paltz" (which is the default) or to select which folders to synchronize.  If you have a computer with a smaller hard drive and a lot of files on your OneDrive, you may not want to synchronize all files.  Click Next when done.
    
10. You will also be prompted as to whether to backup other folders (Desktop, Downloads, and Pictures).  You can choose to unselect these.

OneDrive will start synchronizing now.  How long it takes depends on how much data you have in your OneDrive, and the speed of your computer and network connection.  Your files will be located in a separate folder labeled "OneDrive - State University of New York at New Paltz" (though the full name may be cut off).