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OneDrive as part of Office 365 Home vs. Business (and maybe vs. ProPlus)

Anonymous
2018-04-22T15:49:06+00:00

I currently use Office 365 Home and just learned with some horror that a folder I had believed I had shared securely from OneDrive by using the Share with e-mail and NOT creating a link, actually still just creates a link that anyone can use. In effect, I inadvertently made my private folders public by sharing with specific individual e-mail addresses. This is inconceivable to me that Microsoft thinks this is acceptable. 

My questions are:

  1. If I upgrade from Office 365 Home to Office 365 Business (the $8.25/mo plan), will that fix this? That is, will I be able to share OneDrive folders with specific outside users based on their e-mail address and Microsoft will not grant access unless that user is logged in with the specific account to which I shared, and that user won't be able to re-share or forward a link to grant access to others?
  2. Office 365 Home allows me 5 users and multiple computers per user, so I can install on two desktops and my laptop and also share with my wife and kids, each with multiple computers, where each user gets their own dedicate 1TB of OneDrive storage. This is more than 5 total PC installs, more like 5 PC installs per user for up to 5 users. Does Office 365 Business also support multiple users? I think I lose this by going to Office 365 Business, but can't find this stated clearly anywhere.
  3. Other than the 300 user limit, is there any difference between Office 365 Business and Office 365 ProPlus? Do both support Exchange Online Archiving?
  4. Would I lose use of Skype for talking, texting, and video calls with other Skype users, or are those features free to everyone anyway? I don't care about the 60 minutes free international calling I know I also get with Office 365 Home.
  5. I have a client for whom I have an Office 365 Enterprise account. That works fine with a OneDrive Business account alongside my personal Office 365 Home and OneDrive Personal account. Would the same be true if I moved that to an Office 365 Business account (or would the two business accounts' OneDrives fight with each other on my computer)?
  6. If I do make the change, is there any automated way to migrate my OneDrive from Office 365 Home to the new Office 365 Business, or would I need re-upload everything to the cloud (which would take a long time and effectively saturate our Internet pipe for a week due to our very limited upload bandwidth in this part of the country)?

I run my own Exchange Server, so I don't need or care about having Microsoft providing e-mail hosting, but I do need the Office apps, including Outlook. I might like to use Teams and Planner, which I believe are only in ProPlus (or higher), but not sure I care enough about those to pay extra for them.

Thanks,

Colin

Microsoft 365 and Office | Subscription, account, billing | For home | Windows

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Vincent Choy 10,860 Reputation points Volunteer Moderator
2018-04-25T09:14:47+00:00

Your Question -

"I asked if there were any advantages to OneDrive for Business over Office 365 Business Essentials, because it looks like Office 365 Business Essentials includes OneDrive for Business plus adds other features at the same price as OneDrive for Business. If that's right, why would anyone only buy OneDrive for Business when Office 365 Business Essentials is that plus more at no additional charge? Please tell me if I'm missing something."

Office365 Business Essentials is a product bundle designed for small businesses of up to 300 users. A company cannot purchase more than 300 licenses of Office365 Business Essentials. As such the bundled is offered at a discount.

One Drive for Business (OD4B) is a standalone product. It is bundled in "Office365 Business" family of plans, and it is also bundled in "Office365 Enterprise" family of plans. The OD4B standalone product does not have the 300 user restriction. 

For small businesses want one OD4B, it is more cost effective to subscribe to O365 Biz Essentials than the standalone version.

However, for businesses with more than 300 users, they need to subscribe to E1 (USD8) plan to get equivalent features as Biz Essentials.

Hope that clarifies why OD4B standalone is perceived to be more expensive than O365 Biz Essentials.

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Anonymous
2018-04-25T08:23:48+00:00

Hi Colin,

1.” So for my #2, I believe you are confirming -- my wife and kids would lose their accounts if I move from Office 365 Home, which allows me to share with up to 4 additional users, each of whom gets their own 1TB OneDrive space, to Office 365 Business or One Drive for Business, which just allow 5 computers, but do not provide family members with their own OneDrive space, right? Can you give me a 'yes' or 'no' answer on that?”

       Yes.

  1. There is no advantage to OneDrive for Business over Office 365 Business Essentials. As the following screenshot mentioned, there are two ways to subscribe Office 365 Business Essentials. The original price for it is $6.00 user/month. Since there is a one-year contract, it provides a discount.

Regards,

Zixuan

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Anonymous
2018-04-23T07:12:42+00:00

Hi Colin,

The following are the answers for your questions：

  1. If you want to share a file/folder with specific people, you can set the sharing setting to select Only the people you specify you will have access to edit and then enter that people's account. When he tried to access the shared file via the sharing link, there will pop up a Request Verification Code to verify his identity like the picture below:

For more information about sharing files in OneDrive for Business, please refer to this support article: Share OneDrive files and folders

2.  Regarding to Office 365 Business, its price is for per user/month.  Each user can install Office on 5 PCs or Macs, 5 tablets (Windows, iPad, and Android), and 5 phones. And OneDrive for Business gives each user 1 TB of personal cloud storage.

3.Since both of Office 365 Business and Office 365 Proplus don't have exchange online service, they don’t support Exchange Online Archiving. For the detailed difference, you may compare the following two articles about their introduction: Office 365 ProPlus, Office 365 Business

  1. You can still use Skype as it is free. While using Skype for Business needs Skype for Business Online Service. (If you still have concern about Exchange online service and Skype online service, please post in our proper category to get the related support.)

5.From my understanding, you are using OneDrive sync client and sign into it with these two accounts. If so, you can sync with two work accounts. There isn't conflict.

6.You should sync the files in your personal OneDrive and OneDrive for Business to your computer. After that, move or copy the files/folders in the personal OneDrive synced folder to your OneDrive for Business synced folder. 

Regards,

Zixuan

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  1. Anonymous
    2018-04-24T08:29:14+00:00

    Hi Colin，

    1.In Office 365 for Business plan, one license covers 5 phones, 5 tablets, and 5 PCs or Macs per user. For instance, if a user has a license to install the desktop version of Office application, then he can install Office on 5 PCs or Macs and use his work account to activate these devices.

    1. We could understand your feeling while personal OneDrive and OneDrive for Business are different and this is the method to migrate the files. You may refer to the Step 4 in this support article.
    2. I have confirmed more information about the Exchange Online Archiving. The outlook in Office 365 ProPlus and Office 365 Business can support Exchange Online Archiving but it needs related license. This means it doesn't work if you have only got the outlook client. (For more information, we kindly suggest you post a new thread in our outlook category to get expert support.)

    Regarding your last question, you are right that OneDrive for Business is best for business that only need file sharing and storage. While Office 365 Business Essentials is best for business that need more business services (OneDrive for Business plan, SharePoint Online Plan etc.).

    Regards，

    Zixuan

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  2. Anonymous
    2018-04-23T13:26:11+00:00

    Zixuan Yuan, thank you very much for detailed reply. I do have a few follow-up questions based on those answers:

    1. Sounds like it would address the problems with OneDrive with Office 365 Home. That's good news.
    2. So just to confirm, this means that if I "upgraded" to the Office 365 Business, my wife and kids would lose their versions of Office? I think you're saying that Office 365 Business only works for 1 user, not 5 like Office 365 Home. Is that correct?
    3. I know that Office 365 ProPlus does support in-place archiving. This does not require Exchange Online. I run my own Exchange Server, which fully supports In-Place Archive or Online Archiving, but surprisingly not all versions of Outlook allow the user to access the archive. The version with Office 365 ProPlus does. From the info at this link, it looks like the one in Office 365 Business does too: https://support.office.com/en-us/article/Outlook-license-requirements-for-Exchange-features-46b6b7c5-c3ca-43e5-8424-1e2807917c99?CorrelationId=185cf2ce-9cd7-43bc-877e-0094d1200f1f&ui=en-US&rs=en-NZ&ad=NZ
    4. Just to make sure I'm clear, you're saying there's no way to move my files between OneDrive and OneDrive for Business in the cloud? You're saying that the only way to get the files onto OneDrive for Business is by copying them on my local drive and re-syncing that to the new OneDrive for Business account. Is that right? That will be really painful, because of the size of the files and our low-bandwidth connection. I would MUCH prefer if there were some way to do it all in the cloud. Any ideas?

    Lastly, based on #2 above, if my family would really lose their copies of Office, maybe instead of updating from Office 365 Home to Office 365 Business, I should stick with Office 365 Home and just add OneDrive for Business or Office 365 Business Essentials, or use DropBox, which would better reflect my anger at MS over the complete lack of security in OneDrive personal... but I digress. My question here is: is there any advantage to using OneDrive for Business over Office 365 Business Essentials? It looks like they're the same price ($5/mo) and both include the same OneDrive support, but then Office 365 Business Essentials adds Exchange, Teams, etc., so it seems like Office 365 Business Essentials is universally better than OneDrive for Business. Am I missing something?

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