How to Download Office 365 Data to Computer?

Read time 4 min

Microsoft’s OneDrive is one of the best platforms to store your files and other documents. Office 365 users can upload files and documents and can access them or download them when required; it even allows you to share these files with other Office 365 users.

But, when it comes to downloading files from OneDrive, many users often struggle with downloading their OneDrive data. People who are using the desktop version of OneDrive can easily download files to their computer. But, those who are not using the desktop client can follow the below steps to download files from OneDrive.

Steps to Download Files from OneDrive

Downloading files from Office 365 is very quick and simple. It can be done as:

1. Go to OneDrive or SharePoint Online Website and sign-in with your account. Now, select the files or folders that you want to download. For instance:
   • If you wish to download individual or multiple files, then select each item by checking the circle checkbox that appears as shown below:
   • If you want to select all files at once available in a folder, then check the checkbox on the left of the header row and press Ctrl + A.
   • If you want to select a whole folder, then you need to go up or back a level to select the entire folder.
2. Now, after selecting the specific files or folders, click Download in the top navigation.

Note: This button only appears when you have selected files or folders to download. Also, if you refresh the web page, the Download button might disappear.

3. After clicking the Download button, the browser will provide options like Save or Save As. Click any option and select the location where you want to Save the file on your system.

Note: If you’ve selected multiple files or folders, then the browser will start downloading a zip file containing all the selected files and folders.

Limitations of Manual Method

Though this is an easy method to download files and folders from OneDrive, it has some limitations, such as:

• Files cannot be downloaded from the shared view
• OneNote notebooks cannot be downloaded. If you try to download a folder that contains a OneNote notebook, the zip file will contain an error
• In on-premises SharePoint Server, the option to download multiple files is not available until you buy an Office 365 business plan
• You cannot use Internet Explorer to download folders and files from OneDrive for Business (Microsoft Edge and Google Chrome can be used).
• The maximum downloading file size limit is 15 GB for individual files and 20 GB for the zip file.

Also, downloading files is time-consuming and monotonous, especially when there is a large amount of data. You might wonder how you can overcome this limitation. Well, there is an automated SharePoint Migration tool that allows you to download a large amount of data from OneDrive without any difficulties – Kernel Migrator for SharePoint. This tool not only helps you to download data from Office 365, but it also allows users to migrate list/libraries SharePoint Online (Office 365).