Syncing Teams files to your desktop or laptop

One of the advantages of Teams is its ability to integrate with OneDrive to synchronize folders and files to your local computer.

Before we being, please make sure you have Teams and OneDrive installed. Also, you must be a member of a Team in order to sync the files to your computer.  

STEP 1:  LOCATE THE FOLDER YOU WANT TO SYNC TO YOUR COMPUTER:

Using OneDrive, we can create a local copy of folders and files from the Files section.  Any files saved to this Channel’s file section will show up on Team members’ computers, regardless of where they are. Navigate to the team that you would like to sync the files to your computer to in the Microsoft Teams desktop application. Once you locate the team, locate the Channel or files that you would like to sync with your computer, then select Sync. 

 

STEP 2:  YOUR DATA IS NOW AVAILABLE ON YOUR LOCAL COMPUTER:

Look in your file browser (File Explorer in Windows, Finder in Mac) and you will see a folder named “Florida Atlantic University”, and when you expand should see the folder you just sync'ed from Teams. You can also access this folder by right-clicking (Windows) or double finger tapping (Mac) the OneDrive client near the clock.

NOTES:

  • You can treat this folder like any other folder on your computer.  Open and Save files to it and they will be available to other members of your Team.
  • These files are synced.  If you delete from your local folder, it will delete on the web version.  For everyone.  Deleted files can be found in the recycle bin located in the SharePoint view of your Channel files (see step 2).
  • You cannot adjust permissions for this sync.  Everyone who is a Team member has the ability to create and delete folders and files.  Just like they do in Teams.
  • Access to these files is determined by membership to the Team.  It is the Team owner’s responsibility to periodically review membership to determine if access to resources is still appropriate.
  • Large files saved to your local sync folder may take a few minutes to reach all team members syncing that folder.

Instructions on how to stop a folder sync can be found here.

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