OneDrive Sync Client Update and New OneDrive Admin Center

We'll take a look at new updates to OneDrive for Business. We look at updates to the Sync Client to enable users to access and sync all your Microsoft 365 files. Including team sites and folders shared with you. And the new OneDrive Admin Center which provides a simple, centralized experience for configuring policies for sharing, sync, device management and more.

 

The OneDrive to be the file browsing experience for all of Microsoft 365. Microsoft is expanding the scope of the OneDrive sync client to sync all your Microsoft 365 files. Whether it's content from a team site, a folder shared with you in OneDrive, or files used inside Microsoft teams. Starting with my OneDrive I now have one click access to all of my Microsoft 365 files on the web from within the OneDrive experience. 

 

All the groups that I belong to are right there on the left navigation pane. Clicking on one of the group's takes me directly into the files and folders associated with that groups team site without leaving OneDrive. I'll click on the Loyalty Program, here. Then I will click on Documents. And then I'll click the 2017 Product Lineup. And to begin this folder sync, I just click the sync button in the command bar. That will open a OneDrive dialogue to confirm with Start Sync. 

 

Now you'll see the folder syncing. In addition to folders from team sites, I can now sync folders that are shared with me from other people's OneDrive accounts, not just mine. I already have a sharing email from Omar with a link to a folder called "Suraj". From the email and Outlook on the web, I can click the link to go to "Suraj" and land in his OneDrive folder. Once in the Hemant OneDrive folder, I can just click the sync button again to the command bar and sync the Hemant folder to my local PC or Mac. That way we can both work offline and everything will sync and stay up to date. Now if I move to file explorer, I now have both the Loyalty Program 2017 product line folder and the Suraj folder that Omar shared with me right there under Tech Suraj Teams. 

 

You'll see that this folder is separate from my OneDrive Tech Suraj Teams folder, and has a little building icon. To see the status of the files that were just synced, I can easily go to the new activity center experience which gives you a view of all the recent activity for your OneDrive sync client. Starting today these features are all available for the PC and our new Mac standalone client that can be downloaded and deployed independent of the Mac app store. In addition to improving the sync experience, we also want to make it easier to manage OneDrive by centralizing all the OneDrive settings and configurations in the new OneDrive admin center. If you've been managing Microsoft 365, you'll recognize many of these settings from places like the Microsoft 365 and SharePoint admin centers. This is a new OneDrive admin center.

 

This homepage is the dashboard for the admin center and we'll soon show recent Microsoft 365 message center posts filtered on OneDrive and usage reporting related to OneDrive for business. We want admins to bookmark this page and check it regularly to see what new features are rolling out and the value they're getting out of OneDrive. The sharing section helps admins gain control over how and with whom your users are sharing information. This includes controlling the use of external sharing, default sharing links, default permissions and expiration for links, limiting external sharing by domain, and what external users can do with files. In the sync section, you can determine whether the sync button is visible on the OneDrive website, limit syncing to just domain joined PCs, and block syncing of specific file types. 

 

In the storage section, you can easily set default storage limits for new users and retention policies for deleted user's. In device access, admins have the ability to control which locations devices can access from. And rich mobile application management Intune policies for iOS and the Android. These include settings for things like blocking download, copy paste, pass code length, and other key security features to prevent leakage from mobile devices. In the compliance section, admins can find quick links to the Microsoft 365 security and compliance center for scenarios like Auditing, Data loss prevention, Retention and eDiscovery. 

 

Lastly, as an admin I can turn on and off various notifications for the tenant. So that was a quick overview. 

 

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