Best way to use MS OneDrive 'unlimited' cloud storage?

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OneDrive

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  ethanol on 10/11/2014 - 16:34

  +1

  When it used to be 1TB vs unlimited, this gave you 5x1TB, now being unlimited, I guess the fact that its 5xUnlimited is a but redundant.

  As you say, it works differently to some (like Box / Dropbox) where you can choose what to locally Sync - certainly not as flexible.

  I have granted 1 "install" to my Home Server which has its own MS account and from which I'm uploading all Photos / Videos / Music and then sharing it with my main MS account.

  This means I can access via the cloud that content without as you say needing a local copy of that data.

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    Noblejoker on 10/11/2014 - 17:29

    Agreed - only prob is sharing that cloud data
    With Dropbox or Drive I can share from one account to another and choose to have that folder synced to the local machine
    With OneDrive I can only access via web not explorer
    Am considering actually logging into ALL our devices with the one account
    Would work on desktop but Wife has a Win phone which is ok but if we got a 2nd one for me would be buggered
    Starting to think I should have paid for Drive for flexible sharing

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  IIGnomeII on 10/11/2014 - 16:41

  +1

  So what do people think is the best way to sue the new 'unlimited' OneDrive storage

  Not too sure why you want to sue them :P

  Depending on your mobile choice and some other things but I think the best way is to create a folder system for things like photos, documents and other stuff that you use between family members.
  You then install the onedrive app from the store or the website and that should allow you to mark a directory that will be uploaded to onedrive.
  The ones that you rarely access you can mark as available online only so that it takes it off your computer and stores it on their servers.

  There is a lot more if you have a higher speed connection but it gives you a few base things you can setup now.

  • 

    Noblejoker on 10/11/2014 - 17:26

    +1

    fixed - Grammar nazi :)

    • 

      IIGnomeII on 11/11/2014 - 08:42

      :thumb:

      :)

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  Mobe1969 on 08/01/2015 - 11:29

  +1

  Under your plan can you create document libraries under sharepoint sites? We can under our work one. At any rate, you can just map them on network drives from multiple computers. Either through the wizard in windows (using the URL eg https://xxx.sharepoint.com/<sharepointsite>\<libraryname>), or using the unc in the format \xxx.sharepoint.com@SSL\DavWWWRoot\<sharepointsite>\<libraryname>

  You can share those libraries with anyone with a live account, even if they are just on gmail. If they aren't domain authenticated, you are better off using the second format, add the domain xxx.sharepoint.com as a trusted domain, and then when prompted in the drive map for credentials, enter their live email and password.

  The same should technically work for the personal onedrive area also, but I've not been able to do this with the business account.

  • 

    Noblejoker on 13/01/2015 - 10:05

    Not sure the Home user 360 plan includes sharepoint etc but will investigate

    • 

      Mobe1969 on 13/01/2015 - 10:19

      +1

      You can share personal onedrive accounts and mount them as network drives too. Eg you share a folder or something with a person or people, and then they can map the network drive. I haven't been able to get that to work though with a business Office365 account.

      There is an article here that shows how to mount onedrive:
      http://club.myce.com/f186/how-map-onedrive-network-drive-let…

      The person probably needs to add "d.docs.live.net" to the trusted internet sites, and also probably log into the web version via internet explorer with the live account you shared to, and set the login to login automatically and remember password.

      I've done this myself, to a workgroup PC at home, and to a domain PC here. Upload speed to onedrive is pretty pathetic though.

      • 

        Noblejoker on 13/01/2015 - 10:21

        Ok now that looks interesting
        My real goal is to share documents (mostly pics) among 4 family members
        This networked shared drive may be the ticket
        Cheers

      • 

        Mobe1969 on 13/01/2015 - 10:26

        +1

        @Noblejoker:

        Well for that, if you are looking for a free way of doing that I just use Picasa which syncs to Google plus, and share straight from Picasa, or from within Google Plus. You can have the pics at a reduced resolution unlimited ("the longest edge of the photo does not exceed 2048 pixels"), or for full res it uses your google drive space. works pretty simply.

        The office365 picture stuff is pretty woeful, even if you have sharepoint and can create picture libraries.

      • 

        Noblejoker on 13/01/2015 - 10:33

        @Mobe1969:
        Agreed
        I have gone to G Drive paid at $2/mth
        Thing is I can share a folder and it appears in the users regular folders and downloads and syncs but counts only against me for space
        So my paid account and the wife and kids free account all share with a desktop folder (inside G Drive) just as you would expect
        Drive and Dropbox do this - OneDrive #epicfail
        Seems my $100 for 360 won't be renewed especially as I don't really need the Office licences

      • 

        Mobe1969 on 13/01/2015 - 10:43

        +1

        @Noblejoker:

        Yeah if you don't need the office licenses, I'd be hard pressed using office365 at the moment. The unlimited storage though, and being able to use it as a network drive is actually quite tempting. I have been investigating this at work for trying to move away from network storage and "cloudify" everything. In theory it ticks all the boxes. The main complaint is though the upload speeds to onedrive are just pathetic, like I continually get averages around 30kBps.

        You see, with the onedrive/office365 you can do something that you can't as easily do in ALL the others - use the space as a network drive. All these others (including onedrive) seem utterly fixated with some bloody sync mechanism. Which means anyone syncing has to mirror it. And with onedrive, sync means everything. So you have to have local storage space to match. And if you delete it locally, it deletes (recycles) it in the cloud. So if you or your family need some local room and go and delete a synced folder, bam. Then you go and restore it, and bam it syncs again to everyone. Just ridiculous.

        I really like the idea of just being able to use cloud storage same way I'd use a nas or file server on a lan. I just can't believe it is still not really feasible. Office365 comes pretty damn close with the unlimited storage and drive mapping. Just the speed is rubbish. We did some route tracing and it looks like our files here are currently in Boston, via Hong Kong… But that still doesn't account for the 30kBps speed