Syncing Your Team's Shared Files to OneDrive On-Demand on a Mac Computer (How-to)

Microsoft Teams allows you to sync files from a Teams site to your computer using OneDrive. When syncing Teams files with OneDrive, it allows you to access files through the macOS Finder. See below for instructions on how to sync and access files in Teams using the OneDrive application.

When syncing files to your computer with Microsoft Teams and OneDrive, you can sync specific channels' files, or alternatively, all files stored within the team.

Enable Files On-Demand in the OneDrive Preferences

Before syncing files from a Team, it is recommended to enable Files On-Demand in the OneDrive preferences. The Files On-Demand feature in OneDrive downloads files as you use them, saving space on your computer.

Open OneDrive Preferences

  1. Click on the OneDrive icon in the upper right corner of your screen, near the power and network icons.

OneDrive cloud icon

  1. Click on the Help & Settings (Gear) icon.
  2. Click Preferences.
Accessing OneDrive Settings on Mac

Enable Files On-Demand

  1. Click the Download files as you use them (recommended) button to enable Files On Demand.

OneDrive Settings screen, Turn On Files On-Demand

  1. Click OK to confirm enabling the Files On-Demand feature.

Enabling Files On-Demand, Clicking OK to Confirm.

  1. Close the Preferences window.

Sync Files in a Team

Sync All Files in a Team

  1. Go to the Files tab of a channel on a Team you wish to sync.
  2. Click on Documents. This will take you to the Documents folder, which contains all files and folders stored within the Teams site.

Viewing all files in a Teams site

  1. Click on Sync.
  2. OneDrive will briefly open and begin syncing your files. Click Close on the "We're syncing your files" dialog box.

Syncing All files in Teams

Sync Files from Specific Channels

  1. Go to the Files tab on the channel that you want to sync.
  2. Click on the Sync button to sync the channel's files. NOTE: Depending on the size of your screen, you may need to click the 3 dots icon for the Sync option to be displayed.
  3. OneDrive will briefly open and begin syncing your files. Click Close on the "We're syncing your files" dialog box.
  4. If you need to sync files from other channels, repeat steps one and two for each channel.

Syncing files to OneDrive from a single Channel

View your Synced Teams Files

  1. Open a new Finder window.
  2. On the left-hand side of the Finder window, select OneDrive - Shared Libraries - Drake University under the Locations section.
  3. Double-click on one of the folders to view the files and folders inside. You may interact with the files similarly to a traditional file system.

Accessing Synced Teams Folders in OneDrive

Stop Syncing Files from a Team

If you no longer wish to sync files from a Team on your computer, you may stop syncing them at any time from the OneDrive Preferences. This will remove the folder from the Drake University section of the macOS Finder.

  1. Open the OneDrive Preferences. This is done similarly to the steps in Step 1 of this knowledge base article.
  2. In the OneDrive Preferences window, click on the Account tab.
  3. Click Stop sync on each Team's files you wish to no longer sync.
  4. The folders for each Teams site synced will no longer appear under Drake University in the macOS Finder.

OneDrive Preferences screen - stopping syncing of a Teams site

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