This article describes how to setup access to your Mines OneDrive cloud storage location on your MacOS computer and explains how manage how your cloud files are stored.
As part of Mines' Office365 license, each Mines user is allocated 5TB of cloud storage space.
1. Install the Microsoft OneDrive application
Click on the Apple icon at the upper left-hand corner of the MacOS desktop.
Select App Store from the menu.
The App Store portal opens.
Using the search box at the upper right-hand corner of the screen, enter OneDrive for Mac.
The search results are displayed.
Click on the OneDrive Install button.
The App Store portal indicates it is installing.
When installation is complete, the "Installing" button will change to "Open"
Click on the Open Button
Close the App Store.
2. Connect to your Office365 account.
The OneDrive setup dialog opens.
Enter your Mines email address in the space provided.
Click the Sign In button.
You are redirected to the Mines login portal.
Enter your account password in the space provided.
Click the Sign In button
You are presented the two-factor authentican (DUO) authentication screen and are prompted for your authentication method.
Select your desired method.
3. Select what to synchronize.
One drive displays where your local folder will be located.
Click Next.
OneDrive displays the current content of your cloud storage.
By default, everything stored in the cloud is synched to your local hard drive.
You may or may not want everything to sync.
Remember that your cloud storage allotment is 5TB. Your Mac's hard drive is probably not that large.
Select which folders and files you'd like to sync locally.
Click Next.
The following screens depict the initial OneDrive orientation wizard.
Click Next to sequence through them.
Click Next.
You are prompted to install the OneDrive application on your modbile device.
For the purposes of this document, we are eschewing that process.
Click Later.
It is recommended that you select the Open at login so my files sync automatically option.
N O T E : It is not necessary to have the Viscosity VPN client connected if you are off campus for your files to sync.
Click on Open OneDrive Folder.
A pop-up notice will inform you that syncing is begun.
You may not see all your files immediately.
After a few minutes, you should see your files.
4. Managing your OneDrive Account.
Click on the OneDrive icon located at the upper right-hand side of your screen.
Select the Help & Settings option from the dialog box.
Select Preferences from the menu
The Preference dialog box opens to the Preferences tab.
Here you can choose if your want OneDrive to launch automatically when you log on.
You can hide OneDrive's icon on the dock at the bottom of your desktop.
You can choose to have OneDrive warn you before it deletes files from the cloud storage location.
Lastly, you can choose to automatically save screen shots to OneDrive instead of your desktop folder.
The default settings are shown in the next image.
Click on the Account tab.
Here you can see how much of your allotted space you have consumed on your cloud storage location and how much local disk space is consumed by the files that you've chosen to sync.
N O T E : Your local hard drive is probably much smaller than the 5 terabytes that are alloted to your cloud storage.
If you need to free up space on your local hard drive you can manually select which files and folders will be synched locally.
Click on the Choose Folders link in the Account tab.
A new dialog box opens which presents the files and folders located in your cloud storage location.
By removing the check mark in the box to the left of each entry, you can disable the local syncing of the selected file or folder.
N O T E : If you select to remove a file or folder from synching, that file or folder will not be available to yo if you are disconencted from the internet.
To permantently disconnect your MacOS computer from OneDrive, select the Unlink this Mac link.
Then click on the Unlink Account button.
When you unlink your OneDrive account from this computer, any files and folders you have on the loud storage location will remain there.
Likewise, any files and folders your have in your local OneDrive folder will remain there.
The result is simply that they will no longer sync.
N O T E : If you intend to pass your MacOS computer on to another person, you should unlink yoru OneDrive account and manually delete your local OneDrive folder.
To delete your local OneDrive folder, first determine where it is located.
Open up your OneDrive folder, then right-click your mouse ( <CONTROL>+Click if you have a one-button mouse ) on the OneDrive - Colorado School of Mines entry under the Favorites column at the left-hand edge of the Finder.
Select Show in enclosing folder.
This will show you where the OneDrive - Colorado School of Mines folder is located and you can delete it as you would any other folder on the system.
dkearney - 2021.03.12
2022.04.12 - Revised - dkearney