How to Use Microsoft OneDrive: Complete Tutorial for Beginners

About this video

Presenter Garrick gives a beginner tour of Microsoft OneDrive, Microsoft’s cloud storage for storing, syncing, backing up, and sharing files across devices instead of emailing large attachments. OneDrive is free with a Microsoft account: as of recording, free accounts get 5 GB, the basic package gives 100 GB, and Microsoft 365 personal, family, or business accounts give 1 TB per user. It is built into Windows 10 or later, and can be downloaded for earlier Windows, Mac via the website or App Store, and iOS/Android. The web interface at onedrive.com is used for most demos: the waffle menu and Create/Upload to make Office files, folders, and uploads that auto-save to OneDrive; My Files, search, sort and list/tiles views; and delete sending files to the Recycle Bin, where personal files stay 30 days and work or school files around 90 days before automatic deletion, with Restore available. On Windows and Mac, the OneDrive folder syncs both ways, with status icons — cloud for online-only, green check for on-device, person for shared, and syncing in progress — plus right-click ‘Always keep on this device’ for offline work and ‘Free up space’ to make files online-only. Sharing is covered in depth: invite by name or email, set can-edit vs can-view, Send an email or Copy link, and in link settings choose Anyone, People you choose, or Only people with existing access, with expiration dates and passwords requiring a paid subscription; Version History lets you open or restore older versions. Search searches file contents, not just names, and finds photos by automatically added tags for content and people, which can be turned off in settings. Personal Vault needs re-verification each unlock, auto-locks after 20 minutes on desktop and 3 minutes on mobile, is limited to three items on free/basic accounts, and does not appear in the Mac app. The video also covers the Photos gallery, albums and Explore collections, backup of important PC folders, Files On-Demand choices, Choose Folders sync, and the mobile app’s offline files, document scanning with automatic cropping and filters saved as PDF, and PDF annotation tools.

Key takeaways

• Start free with 5 GB; basic is 100 GB and Microsoft 365 personal, family, or business plans give 1 TB per user
• Use status icons plus ‘Always keep on this device’ and ‘Free up space’ to control what lives on each computer
• Share by link or invite with view vs edit control; expiration dates and passwords need a paid subscription
• Rely on Version History as a safety net and search by file content and auto-tagged photo content, not just filenames
• Put sensitive IDs in Personal Vault, knowing free/basic accounts are limited to three items and it re-locks after 20 minutes (3 on mobile)

Episode details: published September 23, 2025 · 36:35 long. Summary written by Self Growth Videos from the episode itself. Business results and any income figures mentioned are Kevin Stratvert’s own claims, shared for education — they are not typical or guaranteed.

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