How to Sync SharePoint Online to your PC and Mac

Steps may vary depending on OS type and version

Microsoft SharePoint team sites are a collaborative tool used to share content across an organization. Microsoft OneDrive is the personal online storage counterpart to SharePoint. SharePoint uses OneDrive Sync to sync files to your computer, which is why you will see OneDrive cloud icons in your system tray (bottom right of your screen) that you will click to manage SharePoint sync settings. The content for SharePoint and OneDrive can be accessed both online and locally on your computer.

To access your content anywhere you have an internet connection follow step 1
To be able to access your content locally on your computer, complete steps 1-5
To modify or stop sync, complete steps 6-9

Log into SharePoint Online

You can access SharePoint Online in two ways:

Browse to office.com and login with your organization credentials. If you are prompted to choose between the type of account, choose Work or School account. Once logged in, you can click on the SharePoint icon in the left navigation
Use a link to directly access the site. This link can be found in a Microsoft notification email that you have been granted access to a SharePoint site or to a folder within it, or provided to you by a site owner or user.

Important!

Syncing SharePoint to your computer can take up a lot of your hard drive space.

Newer versions of OneDrive allow you to set files to enable Files On-Demand (Save space and download files as you use them. Click here for more info). To do this:
1. Right-click the OneDrive icon in your system tray (bottom right side of your screen). You will want to hover over the icon beforehand to make sure you are selecting the correct OneDrive sync if you have multiple syncs configured
2. Click Settings
3. Click the Settings tab. At the bottom is the Files On-Demand option. Click the checkbox to enable
4. Click Ok
For older versions where this option is not available, you will need to de-select folders in one of the steps when syncing folders from SharePoint online.
If neither of these options is available, stop and contact us for assistance to prevent accidentally filling up your hard drive

Select the folder you want synced to your computer

You can navigate to child folders for syncing. This is useful if you do not need access to all folders within the site, and to reduce the number of clicks to get to the data.

Click Sync in the toolbar

If there are multiple child folders you want to sync, repeat step 3 and 4 for each folder

If the sync is successful you will see a SharePoint icon on the left navigation tree and beneath it the folders you have synced

How to Remove Sync from SharePoint Online

Right-click the OneDrive icon in your computer's system tray

Then click Settings

Click the Account tab

if it is not already in focus

To stop sync of an individual folder/location, Click Stop sync next to the folder you would like to stop syncing

Click Stop sync button at the confirmation popup. Note: If this is the last synced folder for that account, the account will be unlinked from the PC and to start sync again you will need to go back to step 1 of this guide

To stop sync of all content and unlink the PC, click Unlink this PC (in the account information section of the Account tab in the screenshot)

In File Explorer, right-click the folder you just removed from sync

Then click Delete.
Note: the SharePoint icon should disappear on its own, but may take a few minutes to update.