OneDrive for Business and Office Online

OneDrive for Business and Microsoft Office Online are available through your Office 365 account, providing you 5 TB of cloud storage together with online versions of Word, Excel, PowerPoint, etc. With 5 TB of storage, you can store all your personal files online and access them anywhere from your PC/Mac, tablet/phone or using any web browser. Besides, you can also share files with others and sync with your workstations.

Note: Starting from 1 Feb 2024, OneDrive for alumni / graduates / projects accounts will have 100 GB due to revised Microsoft storage policies.

Available To
Staff, Student, Alumni
Service Fee

Free

Service Hours

7x24

Getting Started

Staff / Student with valid ITSC Account can access their OneDrive for Business via the following ways:

Depending on your need and preference, you can always access to OneDrive via a web browser only (edit files using the Office Online). However, if you prefer to edit files using Microsoft Office and save them to your OneDrive directly, you will need to upgrade to Office 365 ProPlus (uninstall the old Office and install this one).

Install the OneDrive Mobile App only if you have the need to access them via mobile devices.

In order to further strengthen access to your files stored in OneDrive for business, two factor authentication (2FA) is required during sign in. 

Access OneDrive Online via web browser

After signed in to http://portal.office.com (see Getting Started if you are new to Office 365), you can access to OneDrive, Word Online, Excel Online, PowerPoint Online through the app launcher.

Click on the app to:

  • create and share Office documents (Word Online, Excel Online, PowerPoint Online)
  • store, open, and share online files

With Office online, you can work together at the same time and see each other’s changes immediately. Since Office Online runs in your web browser, there’s nothing to setup even you don’t have an Office application installed. Details please refer to Using OneDrive for Business.

Access your files via file explorer (Need OneDrive Sync Client)

Users are recommended to upgrade to Office 365 ProPlus (OneDrive Sync Client included) as it is the latest version of Microsoft Office.

  1. Check OneDrive version
    • Click the OneDrive cloud icon in the notification area, and then select More > Settings.
    • Select the About tab and see the version number under About Microsoft OneDrive.
  2. Install the latest version of OneDrive app from https://onedrive.com/download if it is not the latest version.

Launch the OneDrive app and sign in with your email address:

 

Using OneDrive for Business

With OneDrive for Business, you can:

You can get more useful information from Microsoft's support pages:

For the OneDrive mobile app, see Troubleshoot OneDrive mobile app problems. When sharing to external guest users, please note that the verification email might deliver to the Junk E-mail folder and you can ask the guest users to check email in their Junk E-mail folder if necessary.

Limitation of OneDrive

1.Files cannot contain special characters including: " * : < > ? / \ |
2.The entire path, including the file name, must contain fewer than 400 characters.
3.These names aren't allowed for files or folders: .lock, CON, PRN, AUX, NUL, COM0 - COM9, LPT0 - LPT9, _vti_, desktop.ini, any filename starting with ~$.
4. Beware the recommended 300,000 items limit when you need to sync files.

Data Security

OneDrive for Business can be used to store data classified as high-risk under the HKUST Guideline for Risk Classification.

The following pre-cautions must be taken.

  • If you will sign in with your school account on OneDrive Sync client installed on non-office computers, be aware that that data might be synchronized to devices outside the campus network. Please encrypt your high-risk data before putting them into OneDrive for Business.
  • Please follow the following precautions on mobile devices if there are high-risk data:
    • Enable screen lock with your mobile device
    • Enable passcode protection with your OneDrive App (under settings --> password)
    • Never save an offline copy in your mobile device
    • Reset your password and wipe your mobile in case loss of your mobile
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