How To Give Access to Another User on OneDrive

In an organization, there are many scenarios related to OneDrive. Suppose an employee left the organization without giving an important document in their OneDrive repository. Or the employee is on vacation and forgets to provide you with the urgently needed file, which is available on their one drive.

In all these scenarios, how you can give access to OneDrive to another user is a typical question related to OneDrive. This problem occurs because any account on OneDrive is private by default. So even if you are the administrator of Global Office 365, you cannot access another person’s file.

If you have ever tried to access anyone’s OneDrive file before, being an administrator. You must have gotten the message “Access Denied” because you cannot access the resource.

The message will display to anyone who wants to access the file without permission. Before opening any File or Folder of others’ accounts, it is mandatory to have their permission.

How To Give Access to Another User on OneDrive

There are two unique ways in which you can gain access to another person’s OneDrive account:

1. Get Access Through Global office 365 Administrator
2. Get access through SharePoint Administrator

Let’s take a close look at these two methods:

1. Get Access Through Global Office 365 Administrator

For this method to work, you must have a licensed Global office 365 Administrator.

We need to learn to grant access to OneDrive via Global office 365 Administrator. Here is what you can do.

• Ensure you are in the Global Office Administrator group.
• Open App Launcher. If you need to learn how to navigate to it, type its name in the window search bar.
• Inside App Launcher, there are various options. Navigate to Admin Link.
• Go to the Left-hand Panel and select User.
• Inside the User, you have to click on Active User.
• When you are inside Active User, you will see the users list. Check the box of the user whose OneDrive access you want.
• On clicking the username box, you can now see a different detail of the user. At the bottom of the menu display, there is OneDrive Setting. Select it.
• Under OneDrive Settings, go to the access section and click on the Access file.
• In a few seconds, you will get a direct link to that user whose OneDrive access you want.

2. Get access through SharePoint Administrator

It is the second method by which you can grant access to OneDrive using SharePoint administrator. As you already know, the SharePoint administrator does not have access to all functionality, but you can easily give access to another user by following these simple methods.

• Go to App Launcher.
• In the App Launcher, click on the Admin Link.
• Now from here, things will be different. In the Admin Link, go to the Admin Center. Inside it, you will see the SharePoint option. Click on it.
• Once you are inside of SharePoint Admin Center, select the option User Profiles.
• On the next screen, find the user or profile whose access you want to give to someone else. When you see its profile, click on the small drop-down menu beside the name.
• In it, choose Manage Site Collection Owner.
• Here, you will mark the owner name of the OneDrive account present in the OneDrive Site Collection Administrator column because, by default, OneDrive is private. So, it does make sense that OneDrive site Collection is personal to its owner.
• From here, your work is easier. Now you only have to add an alternate name to the OneDrive Site Collection Administrator column and click OK.
• The process is complete. Another user can now access the file and folder on their desired OneDrive account.
• You can also download files, backup, read or modify the content according to the situation.

Read How to Create a Shared Folder in OneDrive

How to Share Files on OneDrive

You can boost your productivity by sharing files through One drive. You can share the file with another staff member, but remember to share only the link rather than email the attachment. 

Also, set an expiration date when sending to another user. The advantage of sharing files on OneDrive is that other users do not require an office to access them. They can access it through a web browser. 

Here is what you can do.

• Log in to your OneDrive account.
• Right-click on the folder or file that you want to share.
• Select Share.
• Choose specific People. Here you can set the type of access you want to give like if you’re going to restrict users only to reading for that, you will need to Allow editing.
• Put the email address of the user with whom you want to share the file and copy the link. The process differs a little if the receiver is internal or external.

For internal users

• Enter the name of the receiver of the file. It will give you that user address from Active Directory.
• You can add a message if you want to. It is optional.
• Select Send to share the file.

For the external user

• You need to enter your complete email address.
• It is optional if you want to add a message.
• Choose to send to forward.
• The receiver will get an email containing the link to access the file.

Read How to Remove Green Checkmark from OneDrive Windows

Frequently Asked Questions

Conclusion

These were the steps on how to give access to another user on OneDrive. You need to be careful while providing access to another party. Make sure to whom you are providing the link is trustworthy.

You may like the following onedrive tutorials:

• How to Share a OneDrive Folder via Email
• How to Access OneDrive Recycle Bin
• Sync Documents to OneDrive
• How to Delete All Photos from OneDrive