OneDrive - FAQs

FACULTY, STAFF, AND STUDENTS

OneDrive is available to all current SFU faculty, staff and students with a Microsoft 365 account.

OTHER

There are no current plans to provide access to SFU alumni, retirees, emeritus and adjunct professors.

Microsoft OneDrive is free for all current SFU faculty, staff and students.

1. Sign up for Microsoft 365

Prior to accessing the Microsoft OneDrive, you will need to sign up for an SFU Microsoft 365 account via the SFU sign up page.

2. Access Microsoft OneDrive

• OneDrive Web: Visit M365 Portal > Select OneDrive icon
• OneDrive Desktop: Launch the software on your desktop

INDIVIDUAL-USE

To download Microsoft OneDrive on your individual-use device, visit Microsoft OneDrive's download page for more information.

UNIVERSITY-MANAGED 

If you are an SFU faculty/staff and you hold a university-managed device, OneDrive should be pre-installed on your device. Please submit a service request to the IT Service Desk for any software inquiries or installations.

Role or sponsored accounts can use OneDrive to store and share documents.

At this time, Microsoft does not have Linux support for the OneDrive desktop application. As an alternative, you may access the web version of OneDrive.

OneDrive does not support WebDAV connections.

The storage limit for OneDrive is 1 TB.

The size limit for a single file on OneDrive is 250GB.

Neither Microsoft nor SFU provide backups to your files stored on OneDrive. You are responsible for backing up your files if you require additional data resiliency.

However, OneDrive does have features such as Recycle Bin, file versioning, and file restoring to help address potential file corruption, accidental changes, or deletions.

If you have accidentally deleted a file or folder, you may be able to restore them within 93 days. For more details, visit the Microsoft Support page on Restoring deleted files or folders in OneDrive.

You can only sync shared folders on your computer. If you wish to sync a shared file, ask the file owner to place the file into a folder and share the entire folder with you.

To sync a shared folder via the OneDrive desktop app:

1. Sign in to the Microsoft 365 Portal.
2. Select the OneDrive icon on the left navigation menu.
3. On the OneDrive page, select “Shared” on the left navigation menu bar.
4. Under the “Shared with you” tab, go to the shared folder you wish to sync and select “Add shortcut to My Files”.
5. Your OneDrive desktop app will automatically sync and the folder should appear on your desktop within a few minutes. 

Note: If you've previously set your OneDrive's desktop app to only sync specific folders, you will need to manually enable syncing for the newly shared folder in the OneDrive settings.

For more details on syncing, visit the Microsoft support page on Add and sync shared folders to OneDrive.

Your web browser may not be compatible with the application. Update your web browser or switch to a different web browser, such as Chrome or Firefox.

There can be many reasons to why your files cannot be uploaded on to OneDrive, but here is a list of the most common reasons:

• Your file name contains special characters or unorthodox naming that conflicts with Microsoft's operation system.
• Your file or folder path is too long (e.g., having too many folders within folders) 
• Your file is too large to be uploaded.

For more details, visit the Microsoft Support page on Restrictions and limitations in OneDrive.

The default setting on shared files are view-only. To modify the editing permission of your file, visit our how-to page on how to change sharing permission for more details.

OneDrive at SFU is protected by the enterprise-level security from Microsoft. Microsoft also provides the following to OneDrive at SFU:

• Data access to files and folders on a user’s OneDrive is only limited to the user account,
• Data replication of core user data to at least two geographically distributed Microsoft data center for disaster recovery purposes, and
• Encryption of data in transit and at rest.

To learn more about Microsoft’s trust and security related information, visit the Microsoft Trust Center.

All data uploaded to OneDrive at SFU are stored within Canada and are protected under the BC Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act (FIPPA).

All members of the SFU community are reminded to only share personally identifiable information (PII) as permitted under FIPPA.

All members of the SFU community are reminded to only share personally identifiable information (PII) as permitted under FIPPA.

Files that may be personally identifiable should be shared directly to specific people, and they should have a purpose of accessing those files. We do not recommend sharing PII via sharable links that do not restrict access.

If you are unsure which sharing permission to use, please see our recommendations on the usage of sharing permissions.

For more information on how to identify, understand, manage, and use university data appropriately, see the SFU Data Security Standard page.