Frequently Asked Questions

OneDrive for Business is the cloud storage and file collaboration tool that is included with all MSU students, faculty and staff Microsoft 365 accounts. 

To access your OneDrive  account online:

1. Log into Office 365 at Office.com

2. Click the app launcher icon in the upper left-hand corner of screen (see below).
Office 365 App launcher icon

3. Click OneDrive. 

Visit What is OneDrive for Work or School for more information.

OneDrive for Business(ODFB) is available to every student, faculty and staff as part of MSU's Microsoft 365 license. ODFB is supported by UIT.

OneDrive, or OneDrive Personal,  functions much the same way that ODfB does, but is a personal account managed by the user. MSU does not provide support or have access to your OneDrive files and folders, even if you use your MSU email to create your OneDrive account.

Visit What is OneDrive for Business and click on How is OneDrive different than OneDrive for Business for more information. 

If you are working in files by yourself, or sharing only a few files with others that are not part of your team, you should use OneDrive.
If you are sharing files and folders as part of your department or working groups, SharePoint Document Libraries would be the better option.
To read more about which option would be better, visit Microsoft Supports article: Should I save files to OneDrive or SharePoint?

OneDrive for Business is available to all MSU Bozeman faculty, staff and students through the MSU Bozeman Office 365 campus license. 

No. These accounts are available for students, faculty and staff to use if they choose. 

OneDrive for Business is different from OneDrive, which is intended for personal storage.

Your name and email address associated with your Microsoft 365 account will automatically be changed in the settings when your @montana.edu email address is updated to reflect your name change. If you have questions on this process please contact the UIT Service Desk at helpdesk@montana.edu or 994-1777.

If you have a name change please contact the UIT Service Desk to change your name and email address (994-1777 or helpdesk@montana.edu). Once the name and email address have been successfully changed, your O365 primary email will automatically be updated. The change may take up to 24 hours to complete.

When you separate from MSU your access is immediately disabled. Your OneDrive data will be accessible by anyone that it was shared with for 30 days only.


After 30 days your account and data is deleted and cannot be recovered.

Note:  If your OneDrive account is deleted (for example if you leave the university), files that you originally owned will still be removed, even if ownership is shared. To fully move a file or folder to a different account, download the file or folder and upload it to the new account/location, see How do I transfer files or folders from another user?

It is highly recommended that files and folders intended to be shared among a group of people be moved into a SharePoint Document Library and not another user's OneDrive.

No you cannot change the email address. It is associated with your O365 account, which is connected through your @montana.edu email address.  

You can use a file migration tool (may have a cost associated) or download all content from your OneDrive and re-upload to OneDrive for Business.

We suggest that you use the latest versions of Microsoft Edge, Chrome, FireFox or Safari to access any O365 applications.

The OneDrive desktop sync app is not supported for Linux. However, files saved to OneDrive for Business can be accessed using the latest version of Microsoft Edge, Chrome, Firefox or Safari.

It is possible, but not recommended, as you could accidentally sync the sensitive data to the cloud and/or desktop. You should never sync any data that is restricted or contains student information as this will create a copy of the data on your local hard drive. If ever in doubt contact the IT Service Desk at 994-1777 or helpdesk@montana.edu.

You can use the Search OneDrive box to search for items in your OneDrive, items that someone has shared with you or items stored on an O365 site you follow. 

Access Microsoft's Training for One Drive at this URL
https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/onedrive

Access MSU's UIT How-To page for additional training specific to MSU. 

Note:If the file/folder owner has shared data with you, it will be accesbile for 30 days after the owners last day with MSU.

If the employee has been seperated from MSU for more than 30 days, data may not be able to be recovered.

For MSU employees, if the owner of the folder content has left MSU and you need access to data in their account, please submit a ticket to  helpdesk@montana.edu with the following items:

  • Your (requester's) contact info:
  • Name
  • NetID
  • Phone
  • Email
  • Name of previous content owner
  • Folder name or document name of which you need to become the owner
  • Written permission from the former employee's manager, verifying you are the appropriate new owner of the content

Only you and the people you choose to share your documents with have access to the content in your OneDrive for Business folder.

System administrators can move folders at a high level and can view content you upload. The system administrators have this access in order to conduct audits or to troubleshoot if an issues arises (for example, content found to be a violation of the security or copyright policies).

All files except for the types below can be stored in OneDrive for Business.

Files that have a *.tmp or *.ds_store extension and file names desktop.ini, thumbs.db, or ehthumbs.db cannot be saved in OneDrive for Business.

There's a 10-gigabyte (GB) file size limit for each file that's uploaded to the OneDrive for Business library.

Content deleted from your OneDrive for Business (whether deleted from the cloud OR from your synced folders) will remain in the Recycle Bin for 93 days. After 93 days it is not recoverable. To access the Recycle Bin:

1. Log into Microsoft 365 at Office.com

2. Click the app launcher in the upper left-hand corner

3. Click OneDrive

4. Click Recycle Bin

You can restore a document previously deleted by clicking the radio button next to the document name and clicking Restore on the menu bar. 

Yes! Co-authoring collaboration is available through our O365 platform and Office Online. Visit Document Collaboration and Co-authoring for more information.

To share files from OneDrive online:

  1. Log into Office 365 online apps at Office.com

  2. Click the app launcher in the upper-left-hand corner of the window.
  3. Click OneDrive.
  4. Right-click the item's name and then click Share.
    The Share pop-up window opens.
  5. Enter the name or names (if from MSU) or email addresses of persons with whom you'd like to share the file. 
  6. Select the permission the person should have: edit or view only.
  7. Add an optional message if you'd like and click Send. 

You can also choose to send the email via Outlook or just get a link that you can share or post. 

To share files from OneDrive on your computer:

Open the OneDrive folder on your computer and then right-click on a file, then click Share, and see instructions beginning at step 4 above.

For more information on collaborating with OneDrive visit: Getting Started with OneDrive.

SECURITY NOTE: Always refer to Data Storage Security Grid to ensure the storage location is appropriate for the data you are storing.

Yes. You can share folders with anyone that has an email address. 

In your OneDrive settings you can Run sharing report. This will give you a listing of all folders and files that are shared, who they are shared with and what permissions they have.
Watch the video Who am I sharing with? to learn how to run the report.

Note: If your OneDrive account is deleted (for example if you leave the university), files that you originally owned will still be removed, even if ownership is shared. To fully move a file or folder to a different account, download the file or folder and upload it to the new account/location.

It is highly recommended that files and folders intended to be shared among a group of people be moved into a SharePoint Document Library and not another user's OneDrive.

  1. In OneDrive, right click the folder or file, and then click manage access > Click Advanced
  2. Click Grant permissions. If Grant permissions is grayed out, select Delete Unique Permissions to stop the inheritance. Click OK, and then Grant Permissions will appear.
  3. Input the user name
  4. Click SHOW OPTIONS, select full control as the permission level. (You may need to uncheck Require sign-in, and Send an email invitation. that is up to you)
  5. Click Share

This process does not transfer any files or folders. The new person will need to move items from the original OneDrive location to a new location and reshare the items.
See How do I transfer files or folders from another user?

For Group Shared Data, i.e. If the data will be needed by the department as a whole, the data should be moved into a SharePoint site to ensure it does not get lost if the owner is no longer with MSU. More info on moving data from OneDrive to SharePoint can be found by clicking here

For non-Group Shared data, refer to this Microsoft support document for steps to transfer files or folders: Copy files from another person's OneDrive (microsoft.com)