OneDrive for Business - macOS Client

Background

UA OneDrive for Business is the University of Alaska's branding of the Microsoft Office 365 OneDrive for Business, an online service that provides resources for file storage, collaboration, and communication with other UA individuals. The OneDrive for Business service, aimed at enterprise users, is not the same as the OneDrive service offered by Microsoft to individuals. For information on the differences, visit Microsoft's What Is OneDrive for Business page and read the section titled How is OneDrive for Business different from OneDrive.

OneDrive for Business is a personal document and file storage hub. It's easy to upload, download, and share files. You can also create, view, and edit documents online using the integrated Office Online applications, Word, Excel, and PowerPoint. For those times you need the complete set of Office features, you can open your files in the full version of the applications and save them to your hard drive or back to the cloud.

Because OneDrive for Business is associated with your relationship to the University of Alaska, everything stored in it will be inaccessible should you leave the university. For this reason, it's best to use it to store materials that are your own personal university related (e.g. homework, business) use, like OneNote notebooks. For storing materials that are important for departments, schools, colleges, or other groups at the university indefinitely, you should be aware that there are several options available more suitable for collaboration such as network file shares, Google Team Drives,  Microsoft Teams, and a SharePoint Online site. All of them offer various features and benefits. If you're not sure which one is best for your group's needs consider reviewing our Where Should I Save Files article for some suggestions.

For additional information read about UA OneDrive for Business.

Needed Materials

 

Install and setup

  1. Download the Microsoft OneDrive for Mac client.
  2. Start OneDrive Setup.
  3. Enter your University of Alaska email address (e.g. UaUsername@alaska.edu) and then click Sign in to setup your account.

Frequently Asked Questions

  • System Requirements

    The OneDrive for Mac client requires macOS 10.12 or above. This reflects Microsoft's recent decision to stop supporting older versions of macOS as of February 1, 2019.

    If you're running a version of macOS older than 10.12 be aware of the following:

    • Existing OneDrive sync client installation on unsupported operating systems will stop updating. These clients will continue to run, but functionality will no longer by tested by Microsoft. It is not advised to continue to run on these unsupported operating systems.
    • New installations on unsupported operating systems will be blocked.
    • Bugs and issues found on, or specific to, unsupported operating systems will no longer be investigated or fixed by Microsoft.

 

Other related information

 

Need additional help or have issues

For additional assistance contact the IT Services Technical Support Center via phone at (907) 786-4646, toll-free at (877) 633-3888, or email at uaa.techsupport@alaska.edu.