Sync a SharePoint site
- Dan Jakubiak
- Nehal Gupta
UConn faculty, staff, and students may sync their SharePoint sites to their computer. Syncing a site places your shared files directly in your File Explorer (Windows) and Finder (macOS) so you do not need to use the website.
When students graduate or when faculty/staff separate from the organization, they will lose access to their SharePoint sites.
ITS recommends that you instead “Add a Shortcut to OneDrive”. Follow this guide to learn more: Link SharePoint to OneDrive
Users may follow the guide on this page if they wish to connect to an external SharePoint site or have a visually distinct SharePoint in their File Explorer (Windows) or Finder (macOS) window.
Installing OneDrive on your computer
Both SharePoint and OneDrive use the same OneDrive App
Sync your SharePoint to your Computer
Navigate to s.uconn.edu/sharepoint and sign in with your UConn email address and NetID password.
Click on your SharePoint site. Click on Documents in the left-hand menu. In the top toolbar, select Sync.
The website will check if you have OneDrive installed on your computer. You will see a couple popups. Allow your browser to open OneDrive.
If you do, the site will begin to sync to your computer. Depending on the number of files, this initial sync may take a few hours.
If you do not have OneDrive installed, click on “install the latest version of OneDrive.”
Repeat this process if you are a member of multiple SharePoint sites.
What does this sync look like on my computer?
Log in to your computer.
Windows: From your desktop, open File Explorer by clicking the icon, using the keyboard shortcut (Windows Key + E), or searching for it in the Start menu.
macOS: Open Finder by clicking on the icon or by pressing Command + Spacebar on your keyboard and searching for Finder.
Click on the institution’s name (in the screenshot below, the institution is University of Connecticut) in the left-hand menu.
To differentiate between the two locations, your personal OneDrive and your SharePoint sites, your Personal OneDrive will show your name as a prefix.
You will now see a list of the SharePoint sites you have synced to your computer.
Open this folder and access your SharePoint files as if they were on your computer.
Optional: Choose which folders to Sync
You may choose to have certain folders remain cloud-only and not accessible from your File Explorer (Windows) or Finder (macOS) windows.
After you have Sync’d your SharePoint to your computer and it has finished synchronizing, you may now alter your OneDrive App settings to not sync certain folders. Once this setting is changed, the folder(s) will disappear from your File Explorer and Finder windows.
On your desktop, click on the OneDrive cloud icon.
If you are using Windows, you will see the icon in the bottom right of your screen, next to the system time.
If you are using macOS, you will see the icon in the top toolbar.
Click on the settings gear and then Settings.
In the popup window, click on Account.
The first item in the list is your OneDrive. It is then followed by your SharePoint sites.
In the picture below, you can see a OneDrive (private files) followed a SharePoint site: “SP Road Show”.Find the desired SharePoint site and click on Choose folders.
Click on a folder to check/uncheck it.
Unchecking an item means you will need to navigate to https://s.uconn.edu/sharepoint in order to see it. The files/folders remain intact yet untouchable from File Explorer (Windows) and Finder (MacOS).
You may expand a list item in order to stop a child folder from syncing. A child folder is a folder within another folder.
The “Files not in a folder” are files that are in your SharePoint but not inside a folder. Consider these to be top-level files no in a folder (you don’t have to open a folder to view them).
To sync all of your files and folders, check the Make all files available box.
Click OK to save your changes.