Use OneDrive for individual work files

Each licensed user receives a OneDrive space attached to their account. It is suited to drafts, personal working documents and files primarily owned by that user, with sharing available when needed.

Because ownership follows the individual account, OneDrive should not become the permanent home for a department’s essential records. Leaver processes and shared ownership become harder when team data is buried under one person.

Use SharePoint for team-owned content

SharePoint document libraries belong to sites rather than individual employees. They are suited to shared departmental files, project records and content that must remain available when team members change.

SharePoint also underpins file storage in Microsoft Teams. Sensible sites, libraries and access groups help users understand where shared work belongs without requiring a complex enterprise information architecture.

A practical ownership test

Ask what should happen if the current file owner leaves tomorrow. If the document remains important to a team, client relationship or business process, it probably needs a team-owned SharePoint location.

If it is a personal draft or working file that may later be published elsewhere, OneDrive is usually appropriate. The final location should follow business ownership rather than whichever sync folder is easiest at the time.

  • OneDrive: individual ownership and personal working files
  • SharePoint: team or departmental ownership
  • Teams channel files: stored in the connected SharePoint site
  • Important shared records: avoid leaving them under one user account

Permissions and sharing

Both platforms support sharing, but uncontrolled link sharing can make access difficult to understand. SharePoint usually benefits from group-based access at site or library level rather than many exceptions on individual folders.

Before migration, review who genuinely needs access and remove obsolete data and permissions where practical. Recreating years of accidental complexity is not always the safest destination design.

Planning a file migration

Separate individual files from shared business content, record approximate volumes, identify unsupported paths or names and decide who owns each destination. A representative pilot helps reveal sync, permission and file-format problems before the full move.

Next Layer IT provides both SharePoint migration and OneDrive migration for suitable business data.