The short answer to SharePoint vs OneDrive is this. Microsoft’s OneDrive service description says OneDrive is storage for one person’s own work files, and it points to SharePoint for files that a team or an organization shares. So, as a general rule, company files belong in SharePoint and a person’s own working files belong in OneDrive. The practical task is deciding which files go where before anyone leaves.

It’s easy to put that off. Files the business needs can pile up in one person’s OneDrive while everyone just works. If that person’s account is later deleted, a deletion process can start on the files in it, as Microsoft’s retention and deletion page describes. Shared work is steadier when it doesn’t sit in a single account.

SharePoint vs OneDrive: What Is Each One For?

Microsoft’s service description says OneDrive storage is provisioned per user and designed to serve the needs of individual users. The same page calls SharePoint the best solution for more advanced content management and collaboration across a team or organization. One is built around a person. The other is built around shared work.

The wording in Microsoft’s OneDrive service description is specific. It describes OneDrive for work and school accounts as online storage provided for individual licensed users in an organization. It also says storage of data other than an individual’s personal work files, including departmental and organizational data, is not supported. That line is drawn around the person, not the company.

So the real question isn’t which tool is better. It’s whose files these are. A person’s own work belongs with that person. Content the business shares belongs with the team. Asked that way, the decision stops being a technical one. It becomes a question about who relies on what, and that’s a question an owner or an operations lead can answer without knowing anything about how either service is built.

Which Files Belong in OneDrive, and Which in SharePoint?

As a general rule, files the business needs no matter who made them belong in SharePoint. So do files other people open. A person’s own drafts and working files can stay in OneDrive. The split follows the people who depend on the file, not the file type.

Three questions do the sorting. They’re worth running with your IT provider rather than deciding file by file on the fly, because the answers set a rule that holds for the next file too.

  • Would the business still need this file if the person who made it left tomorrow?
  • Does anyone besides its owner need to open it regularly?
  • Is it a draft that only its author is working on?

A yes to either of the first two points to SharePoint. A yes to the last points to OneDrive. The first question is the one that matters for shared work, because it asks what the business would still need if the person who built the file left. Client folders, staff policies and shared templates sit on the SharePoint side of that line. A proposal one person is still drafting can sit in their OneDrive. That tracks with Microsoft’s statement that departmental and organizational data isn’t supported in OneDrive. When a file doesn’t fit either answer, make it a question for your IT provider rather than a call for whoever happens to own it.

What Happens to a OneDrive When Someone Leaves?

Microsoft’s retention and deletion page says that by default, when a user is deleted, that user’s manager is automatically given access to the user’s OneDrive. The default retention period for OneDrive is thirty days, and the page says that can be changed. It also describes further rules and settings that can change this.

That default assumes a manager is on record. Microsoft’s OneDrive retention and deletion page says what happens when that isn’t the case. If access delegation is disabled, or if no manager or secondary owner is set for a user, no one has automatic access when the user is deleted. No one is warned that the OneDrive will be deleted either. The page recommends specifying a secondary owner account as well. Someone given access has thirty days by default to open and download the files they want to keep. Managers or designated secondary users can move files from a departing employee’s OneDrive to their own OneDrive or to a SharePoint site.

Files are one line on a leaver list, and a leaver list can be easy to leave half done. A separate post covers what to remove when someone leaves the company. The file question is worth settling before the day it comes up, and settling it once keeps it from being reopened for every leaver.

What Should Your IT Provider Confirm in Writing?

Ask your IT provider for answers you can read, keep and check later. A conversation fades. A written reply can be pulled up months later, when the person who asked has moved on and the setup has drifted. Six questions cover the ground, and none of them need technical knowledge to follow.

  • Where do client and company files live, in SharePoint or in someone’s OneDrive?
  • Which OneDrive accounts hold files the business needs?
  • Does each person have a manager on record?
  • Is a secondary owner set?
  • What is the OneDrive retention period, and is it still the default?
  • Who moves a leaver’s files, and where do they go?

Name one person on the business side who owns where files live. One person, not a committee. Keep the written answers with your equipment records, so the next person can find them without asking around. Setups can drift as staff change, so it’s worth rereading those answers when someone joins or leaves. Microsoft can change these pages, so confirm what they say on Microsoft’s pages or with your IT provider before you build a rule on top of them.

O&O Systems’ Cloud and Microsoft 365 page says it takes care of the setup and management, from selecting the licenses to configuring accounts, so your team can focus on work.

Where files live is a different question from whether they’re backed up, and a separate post covers why Microsoft 365 data needs its own backup.

Frequently Asked Questions About SharePoint and OneDrive

What is the difference between SharePoint and OneDrive?

Microsoft’s service description describes OneDrive as per-user storage, provisioned for individual licensed users and designed to serve the needs of individual users. It points to SharePoint for more advanced content management and collaboration across a team or organization. As a general rule, that puts a person’s own work in progress in OneDrive and shared company content in SharePoint. Your IT provider can say how your own plan and accounts fit that split.

Is SharePoint the same as OneDrive?

No. Microsoft’s service description treats them as different things for different purposes. One is storage provisioned per user. The other is for content management and collaboration across a team or organization. Microsoft’s retention and deletion page also treats a SharePoint site as somewhere a departing employee’s files can be moved to, which is another sign the two aren’t interchangeable. Which one a file belongs in comes down to who depends on it.

Can we keep all our company files in OneDrive?

Microsoft’s service description says storage of data other than an individual’s personal work files, including departmental and organizational data, is not supported. On that reading, shared company files point to SharePoint rather than to anyone’s OneDrive. Setups differ from one business to the next, so ask your IT provider to confirm what applies to your own accounts and where shared files should sit.

How long is a OneDrive kept after its owner is deleted?

Microsoft’s retention and deletion page says the default retention period for OneDrive is thirty days, and that it can be changed. By default, the deleted user’s manager is given access to that OneDrive, and a person given access has thirty days by default to download what they want to keep. The page describes further rules and settings that can change this, so ask your IT provider what applies to your accounts.

Does O&O Systems help with Microsoft 365 accounts?

The Cloud and Microsoft 365 page says O&O Systems handles the setup and management, from selecting the licenses to configuring accounts, so your team can focus on work. If you get in touch about accounts, it’s worth raising where your company files live and which accounts hold them, so that question is on the table from the start.

Decide Where Files Live Before Someone Leaves

Sort the files with the three questions. Name one person who owns where company files live. Write down what happens to a OneDrive when its owner leaves, and keep that note where someone else can find it. None of it takes long. It holds up when the person who set it up isn’t around to explain it, which is the point of writing it down at all.

If you’re still weighing SharePoint vs OneDrive for your own files, you can contact O&O Systems about where your company files live in Microsoft 365 and start with who needs to open them.