Move and copy files in OneDrive and SharePoint
Not being able to drag files around in the web versions of OneDrive and SharePoint used to be a real drag if you were wanting to move or copy your files. There were few good ways of having the seamless flow of moving around files that you could have on the desktop. However, over time, like many features of Microsoft 365, this functionality has improved to a point where you can daily-drive these web interfaces without needing to ever see a file in your desktop explorer view.
Head over to office.com and you can open the web interface of OneDrive:
Once you select any file or folder you will see a “Copy to” and “Move to” option appear in the ribbon.
Select either “Copy to” or “Move to” and select a destination in the dialog either elsewhere in your OneDrive or in any of the SharePoint sites you have access to.
Exactly the same procedure can be used to move around files in SharePoint document libraries, either ones that are part of standalone SharePoint sites or team sites that are created as part of a Microsoft Teams team.
A big benefit of this process versus previous methods that moved files around synced libraries in explorer is that the basic metadata associated with the file is maintained as well as version history.
Lastly, one of the big benefits of using OneDrive or SharePoint is in the ease of collaboration with others, but if you are moving around a lot of files, do you risk breaking the access you have given to your collaborators (or that others have given to a file or folder you have access to)?
The developers have thought of that, and if a file you are moving is shared with others an additional option will appear for you to maintain those sharing permissions and inform your collaborators of the move. Obviously, there are situations where you might not want this to be the case (e.g. promoting a draft document many are working on to a final version that should be read-only), but this option makes it easier to better organize your files without breaking anything unintentionally.
Have fun getting organized as we head toward the new year!
For more information on file move and copy in OneDrive see the link below:
Title background credit: Photo by frank mckenna on Unsplash
