Understanding SharePoint

Question

Hello,

My company is still trying to understand all the benefits of Sharepoint. Can someone indicate if the following statements below are true or false. If you have any additional input, please include it. Thank you.

1. SharePoint uses OneDrive App to automatically Sync the content of the local computer with SharePoint Server (same as with OneDrive Server)
2. OneDrive is not designed to Sync with network drives (P: drive), only with a local drive (C: drive)
3. This sync process runs under a user, so this user would need to be logged into the PC so it updates the files. I wouldn’t have OneDrive on multiple computers syncing to the SharePoint server from the same network share. That’s a big risk to sync issues.
4. We could have a computer always on running the sync process (OneDrive) under the designated user (SharePoint user)
5. Other option is to manually put the files in SharePoint instead of in a Network Drive to Sync.

Answer 1

Hi @Penny007

1) "SharePoint uses OneDrive App to automatically Sync the content of the local computer with SharePoint Server (same as with OneDrive Server)"

If you are talking about SharePoint Online, Server Subscription Edition, 2019, then yes, the OneDrive for Business Windows app works with SharePoint to bring down files locally to a user's device and keep it up-to-date.

Sync SharePoint and Teams files with your computer

https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/office/sync-sharepoint-and-teams-files-with-your-computer-6de9ede8-5b6e-4503-80b2-6190f3354a88

Applies to: OneDrive for Business SharePoint Server Subscription Edition SharePoint Server 2019 SharePoint in Microsoft 365 Office for business Microsoft 365 admin Office 365 operated by 21Vianet Office 365 operated by 21Vianet - Admin OneDrive (work or school) OneDrive (work or school) operated by 21Vianet OneDrive for Windows SharePoint admin center SharePoint operated by 21Vianet

2) "OneDrive is not designed to Sync with network drives (P: drive), only with a local drive (C: drive)"

You can sync any drive with OneDrive. Although it is natively set to work with your C: drive you can connect it to pretty much anything that you reach. Although it is likely to work with network drives it is recommended that you use this only on drives that are on the same partition (for continuity purposes).

You can use the command:

mklink /D data E:\data

More on mklink can be found at https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/office/can-t-synchronize-onedrive-files-and-folders-from-a-local-file-location-other-than-the-default-onedrive-path-b7eef9d4-4203-431d-8345-fe49254f9da0#:%7E:text=You%20cannot%20use%20this%20workaround%20in%20reverse.%20The%20original%20or%C2%A0%3CTarget%3E%C2%A0folder%20must%20be%20located%20in%20the%20OneDrive%20directory

3) "This sync process runs under a user, so this user would need to be logged into the PC so it updates the files. I wouldn’t have OneDrive on multiple computers syncing to the SharePoint server from the same network share. That’s a big risk to sync issues."

This is a risk, but if you utilize SharePoint Online, it is pretty good for handling syncing between multiple people at the same time.

4) "We could have a computer always on running the sync process (OneDrive) under the designated user (SharePoint user)"

Not sure why you would need a computer always running to sync OneDrive? OneDrive and SharePoint work in a way that they handle and merge edits together (that is the primary reason Shareing/Office 365/Office Online work majority of the time).

5) "Other option is to manually put the files in SharePoint instead of in a Network Drive to Sync."

I wouldn't use a network drive to sync files to SharePoint. I would have your users use the Sync feature in SharePoint and bypass the need for a network drive.

Sync SharePoint files and folders

https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/office/sync-sharepoint-files-and-folders-87a96948-4dd7-43e4-aca1-53f3e18bea9b

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If this is helpful please accept answer.

Answer 2

Thank you DillonJS.

Would you recommend using SharePoint Migration Tool to migrate the files?

Thanks!