OneDrive

This page describes how to use OneDrive for justified use cases and its limitations.

Info

CERNBox is the main cloud based file storage solution at CERN.
Limited use of Microsoft OneDrive is possible as a complementary solution for justified use cases.
In order to use OneDrive, you will need to obtain the OneDrive licence.
OneDrive for work/school is dedicated to store professional data. One should avoid storing personal data there, as access will be given to the user's supervisor when the user leave CERN.

Limitations

OneDrive must not be used for storage or processing of Sensitive Personal Data as defined by OC11 paragraph 7.

Justified use cases

Use of OneDrive is justified for:

integration with some tools from the Microsoft portfolio that have a hard dependency on OneDrive, for example:
- OneNote
- Teams
- Whiteboard
- Project Online
advanced shared editing using desktop versions of Word, Excel, PowerPoint.

Introduction

Today, users are exposed to various file storage solutions, such CERNBox, Google Drive, Dropbox, iCloud and Microsoft OneDrive, which is built directly into Windows 10 and Windows 11.

Technically, OneDrive allows storing documents, photos, and other files online and sync them across multiple computers and devices. We can also share any file on OneDrive with other people.

To do this, just:

sign in with your work/school account to use OneDrive for work/school or,
sign in with your personal Microsoft account to use OneDrive for home.

OneDrive or CERNbox are like a blessing for everyone. With this, one can save important files of any format and one can easily switch accounts to access different files at any time. Some users use different accounts. For example, personal and work accounts to store their personal pictures and important work files respectively. This also allows us to easily manage our data.

OneDrive CERN or Private?

How is OneDrive for work or school (OneDrive CERN) different from OneDrive for home (Private)?

Important note!

Many people at CERN have created their personal OneDrive account by using their CERN email such as FirstName.Name@cern.ch. This could make some confusion.

OneDrive for work or school is an online storage for your work or school organization. This OneDrive is managed by your organization and lets you share and collaborate on work documents with co-workers or classmates. Site collection administrators in your organization control what you can do in your OneDrive library.
OneDrive for home is an online personal storage that you get when you set up a Microsoft account to use services such as Outlook.com. Use OneDrive to save documents, photos, and other files in the cloud, share them with friends, and even collaborate on content.

Additional resources

What is OneDrive and how can I use it at CERN? KB0006443
What's the difference between Microsoft "Work or school account" and "Personal account" and which one should be used? KB0008592

Data backup and retention policy on CERN OneDrive

Data backup policy

As we are also using CERNBOX at CERN, it has been necessary to setup some policies to harmonize both software configuration to ensure they can work with each other.

Policy	Description
Prevent users from moving their Windows known folders to onedrive	On Windows MS OneDrive propose to the user to move Desktop, Documents and Pictures folders into the OneDrive folder. Those repositories are already redirected to C:\Users\usernanme\cernbox. For this reason, we enabled this policy to prevent conflicts and let CERNBOX manages those folders.
Set the sync app update ring	We selected the Production ring which is a balanced schedule compared to other plans, to adopt new features.
Block file download when users are low on disk space	We enabled a hard limit of 500Mb of minimum free disk space to allow the usage of MS OneDrive to preserve the system.
Warn users who are low on disk space	We enabled a warning in case the machine is reaching 1GB only of free disk space.
Requite users to confirm large delete operations	User will have to confirm large delete operation above 200 files  to prevent incidents.
Set the maximum size of a users OneDrive that can download automatically	User will have to select which folders to sync locally with MS OneDrive if his cloud folder is bigger than 500Mb for the CERN tenant

Data retention policy for Onedrive at CERN

Here is a description of the process of what happen to user's data when an account is deleted from the Microsoft 365 admin center.

CERN specific settings

Data retention is actually setup at 240 Days in our tenant
Automatic Delegation is ENABLED on the CERN tenant:

A secondary owner account is SET for our tenant

What does it means for my data ?

As soon as a user is deleted the count begins in the Microsoft 365 admin center, even though the deletion process takes time. By default, when a user is deleted, the user's manager is automatically informed by email and is given access to the user's OneDrive during 240 days (specific CERN setting). Due to this particularity, it's strongly adviced to not store any personal data on MS OneDrive.

During this time, the user's manager can retrieve data and store them in a safe place.

In the unlikely possibility that a user doesn't have a supervisor, then a ticket will automatically be opened with the service-desk who will ensure that 3rd level Windows support will investigate this issue and decide what to do with the users's data

OneDrive CERN on a self-managed Windows device

Important note!

Many people at CERN have created their personal OneDrive account by using their CERN email such as FirstName.Name@cern.ch. This could make some confusion.

Although you can't connect your OneDrive for home (Personal) to your OneDrive CERN account (Work or School), you can copy or move files between them.
If your email address is also used for a personal OneDrive account, you'll have to select the "work or school" button during the OneDrive setup.

Click the Start search box and type "onedrive" When you see OneDrive appear in the search results, click it.
If you have an CERN OneDrive account, enter your email address (ended by @cern.ch) associated with your OneDrive account and click "Sign in"
If you don't already have a CERN OneDrive account, follow KB0006443 to learn about What is OneDrive and how can I use it at CERN ?

If your email address is also used for a personal OneDrive account, you'll have to select the "work or school" button

Login into the CERN SSO

Uncheck “Allow my organization to manage my device", this setting is applicable only to devices which are self-managed
Click on "No, sign into this app only" to prevent Windows to capture your credentials and use them to login on your behalf in other applications.

BEST PRACTISES

To move files between your personal OneDrive account and your work\school OneDrive account, follow these steps:

Copy files between OneDrive for home and OneDrive for work or school

Sync both versions of OneDrive to your local computer. See Sync files with OneDrive in Windows for more info.
Open both folders on your computer and copy or drag files from one folder to the other.
Re-sync both folders with OneDrive.

Warning

To prevent OneDrive to store your personal files on Microsoft Cloud, we recommend in this step to clear the Desktop, Documents, and Pictures selections. Indeed, unselected folders won’t be backed up.
We strongly recommend using CERNBOX if you want to store professional documents related to your work at CERN.

Choose which OneDrive folders to sync to your Windows computer.

If you don't want to sync all your folders in OneDrive to your Windows device, you can specify which folders you'd like to sync.

Open OneDrive settings (select the OneDrive cloud icon in your notification area, and then select the OneDrive Help and Settings icon then Settings.)
Go to the Account tab.
Select Choose folders.
In the Sync your OneDrive files to this PC dialog box, uncheck any folders you don't want to sync to your computer and select OK.

Info

You cannot add non-OneDrive folders (such as C: and D:)
If you uncheck a folder you are syncing to your computer, the folder will be removed from your computer. The folder and its contents will still be available online.

The sync settings you choose are unique to each computer unless you're syncing everything everywhere. Also, if you're choosing folders on two computers and you create a new folder on computer A that you want to sync to computer B, you'll need to go to computer B and select the new folder there.

Use case

I am using a personal laptop at home, and I have a OneDrive personal account (for personal stuff) and a OneDrive Work/School account (for business stuff).

Is there any way that I can log into one or the other account and access my files from the same app on my laptop? I would like to avoid putting my stuff on my OneDrive for work/school account and vice versa. Is it possible to have OneDrive (Personal) and OneDrive for Business (CERN) on the same computer?

This is not a special problem because many of us now have multiple OneDrive cloud accounts at hand. Many users like to use personal OneDrive account to store family photos, music, videos, etc., and use OneDrive for Business account to save work files, documents, projects, etc. To better manage several OneDrive accounts on the same PC, is there any way that can make it directly?

Luckily, you will find two free ways to use OneDrive private and business on same computer.

How to Add OneDrive Personal and Business with OneDrive Desktop App?

If you are using Windows 10/11 system, you can directly click the "Start" button, and then scroll down to find OneDrive.
Then, Sign in with your personal OneDrive account.

Follow the guides to complete adding your OneDrive account.
Once the sync process is complete, click the OneDrive icon on the taskbar.

Click Settings then click Add an Account and follow the previous account-adding steps to add your OneDrive for Business account.

After adding these two OneDrive accounts to your computer, you can access files between these two accounts through Windows Explorer.

OneDrive does not support adding two personal OneDrive accounts on same PC. If you want to add another personal OneDrive account, you need to unlink one account first.

Error Message When Adding Second OneDrive Account

You may find it’s very convenient to manage multiple OneDrive accounts on Windows 10/11 because OneDrive has been integrated into Windows 10\11 without downloading and installing the app if you are using Windows 10\11.

How to Switch OneDrive Account on the Windows 10/11 PC?

Simple ways to switch between OneDrive accounts can make your life for easy than earlier it was.

Use case

Imagine that you are at your home and your colleague calls you to share an important file urgently. Don't you feel enthusiastic when you can solve this issue within a few minutes? Not only sharing but you can work on your files with your colleagues in real-time too.

Follow the following simple steps to switch OneDrive account:

Right-click on the OneDrive icon on your taskbar.

Go to Settings.
Open the Account Tab in the new window and tap on Unlink this PC. Then, Unlink account.
Click OK.

Restart OneDrive to apply the new changes and add a new account on it like you want.
Changing the location of the folder will merge it with the first one.

More? By repeating the same steps, you can get back to your previous account too.

ONEDRIVE CERN ON A MAC DEVICE

Installation

Client software for macOS is available from portal.office.com
Installation takes around 465 MB
Default OneDrive folder location is: Users/"username"/OneDrive - CERN

Choose which OneDrive folders to sync to your Mac

If you don't want to sync all your folders in OneDrive to your Mac, you can specify which folders you'd like to sync.

Click the OneDrive cloud icon up in your Menu bar, click the three dots to open the menu, and select Preferences.

Go to the Account tab.
Select Choose folders.

In the Sync files from your OneDrive dialog box, uncheck any folders you don't want to sync to your computer and select OK.

Warning

You cannot add non-OneDrive folders.
If you uncheck a folder you are syncing to your computer, the folder will be removed from your computer. The folder and its contents will still be available online.
The sync settings you choose are unique to each computer unless you're syncing everything everywhere. Also, if you're choosing folders on two computers and you create a new folder on computer A that you want to sync to computer B, you'll need to go to computer B and select the new folder there.

ONEDRIVE CERN ON A CERN-MANAGED WINDOWS DEVICE

On Windows, OneDrive is part of the operating system, installed by default.
Default OneDrive folder location is : C:\Users\"username"\OneDrive - CERN

Configuration

After having OneDrive enabled by the Service Desk, it may be configured for login with CERN credentials (email address and password).

Search "OneDrive" in your Windows start menu and launch the application. You'll then be prompted to enter your email address and password

If your email address is also used for a personnal OneDrive account, you'll have to select the "work or school" button

Login into the CERN SSO

Uncheck "Allow my organization to manage my device", this setting is applicable only to devices which are not part of the CERN Windows domain.
Click on "No, sign into this app only" to prevent Windows to capture your credentials and use them to login on your behalf in other applications.

Check the OneDrive folder location, and click on NEXT

Click on "Open my OneDrive folder" to open it

Usage

A very important feature provided by MS OneDrive, as well as CERNBox with the latest client, is the concept of "Files-On-Demand", which means files can be of 3 different states

You’ll see all your files in File Explorer and get new information about each file. New files created online or on another device appear as online-only files, which don’t take up space on your device. When you’re connected to the Internet, you’ll be able to use the files like every other file on your device.

By default files are not synced locally, despite you can see them, they will be downloaded locally only when you try to open them.
A dedicated article about this important feature and how to save space with files-on-demand is available here
A lot of resources are also available in the MS Onedrive blog to help you to get more familiar with this product.