Receiving Your Files in OneDrive

If you don’t have a OneDrive account yet

A free Microsoft account gives you access to OneDrive with 5 GB of storage. This is enough for most people to sync a shared folder and download everything to their computer.

Why you need an account:

It allows you to add the shared folder as a shortcut to your own OneDrive.
It enables the OneDrive app on your computer to sync the entire folder automatically.
It avoids downloading files one by one from the browser.

How to sign up (free):

Go to https://signup.live.com.
Create a Microsoft account using any email address (Gmail, Yahoo, etc.).
Once created, you automatically have access to OneDrive.
Sign in at https://onedrive.com to confirm it’s working.

After signing in, you can follow the steps below to sync the shared folder to your computer.

Here's a step-by-step guide on how to upload a video to YouTube and various ways to :

How to Get the Whole Shared Folder onto Your Computer

Follow these steps to sync the shared OneDrive folder to your computer so you get all files and subfolders without downloading them one by one.

Step-by-step instructions

Step 1 – Open the link

Look for: The email or message with the shared folder link.

Do: Click the link.

You should see: A web page with the folder name at the top and a list of files/folders.

Step 2 – Add the folder to your OneDrive

At the top of the page (near the folder name), look for a button that says: “Add shortcut to My files”.

It might be in a row with buttons like Open, Share, Copy link, etc.

Do: Click “Add shortcut to My files”.

You should see: A small confirmation that the shortcut was added.

Step 3 – Open the OneDrive folder on your computer

On Windows:

Open File Explorer (yellow folder icon).
In the left sidebar, click OneDrive.

On Mac:

Open Finder (smiley face icon).
In the left sidebar, click OneDrive.

If you don’t see OneDrive in the sidebar, you may need to install and sign in to the OneDrive app first.

Step 4 – Find the shortcut folder

Inside your OneDrive folder: Look for: A folder with the same name as the shared folder, often with a small shortcut/link icon.

Do: Open that folder.

You should now see the same files and subfolders that were in the shared link.

Step 5 – Let everything download (sync)

You should see: Small icons on each file/folder (cloud, arrows, or checkmarks).

Do: Wait while the icons change from a blue syncing icon or cloud icon to a solid green checkmark.

That means the files are fully downloaded to your computer.

Step 6 – Use or copy the folder

Once you see green checkmarks:

You can open the files directly from this folder.
Or you can copy the entire folder to another place on your computer (for example, Desktop or an external drive) if you want your own copy.

Quick checklist

Opened the shared link in a browser
Clicked Add shortcut to My files
Opened the OneDrive folder on my computer
Found the shortcut folder and waited for green checkmarks
Copied or used the folder locally