Windows 10: OneDrive - Sync Multiple Accounts in Windows

How to: OneDrive - Sync Multiple Accounts in Windows

How to Sync Multiple OneDrive Accounts in Windows


Information Quite a few of us Windows users have multiple Microsoft email accounts, each of them today with OneDrive. I am for sure not the only user who subscribes Office 365 Home to get 5 Office licenses just for my personal use, each of them with 1 TB OneDrive storage, especially when the O365 Home costs only about a third more than O365 Personal with only one license.

Today we can get huge hard disks with quite a little of money. Wouldn't it be nice if I could sign in to Windows 10 with my primary MS account and sync it's OneDrive content to my desktop but also be able to sync the OneDrive from my additional MS accounts to the same folder?

By default OneDrive only syncs the account it was set up with, you cannot have two OneDrives synced to same folder. Luckily there is a really easy solution for this: You can always share your OneDrive with yourself!

This tutorial will show you how to do that, how to get all content you want to be synced from all your OneDrive accounts stored in the same OneDrive folder on your hard disk. The video below will show you the whole process described in this tutorial.

• To subscribe Office 365 Home with 5 licenses, total of 5 TB OneDrive:
  Office 365 Home | Subscription software for up to 5 devices | Buy
• To subscribe Office 365 Personal with 1 license, 1 TB OneDrive:
  Office 365 Personal | Subscription software for 1 person | Buy

Video: How to sync multiple OneDrive accounts:



(Video from Solved Windows 10 instructional videos by Ten Forums members - Windows 10 Forums)


Part One: Share the content of your additional OneDrive
1.1) The starting situation: I want to use my primary MS account and its OneDrive (#1) to access my secondary MS / OneDrive account (#2), syncing the content of both OneDrives to same OneDrive folder in my Windows desktop:



1.2) First I need to sign in to the secondary OneDrive using my secondary MS account credentials

1.3) When signed in, I move all the content to a new folder I name Shared. To do this, I need to select every folder and file (CTRL + A selects all) and click Move to link in Menu bar:




1.4) I select New folder, name it and click Create:








1.5) Finally I select the new folder and click Move:




1.6) The content is now moved and the root of this secondary OneDrive only contains one item, the newly created folder. I select it and click Share:




1.7) I enter the email address of my primary MS account and click Share:




Sharing done, I need now to add the shared folder to my primary OneDrive


Part Two: Add the shared folder to your primary OneDrive
2.1) My primary MS account has now received an automated message telling about the share. The email has a link to open the shared folder:




2.2) I click Add to my OneDrive and confirm it by clicking Add folder in following dialog:








2.3) The folder will be added to my primary OneDrive:






Part Three: Select the content you want to sync to desktop
3.1) In OneDrive settings you can select if you want all or only certain parts of the secondary OneDrive to be synced to your desktop:




See this tutorial for more information about selecting synced folders: OneDrive Selective Sync - Choose Folders in Windows 10 - Windows 10 Forums



Part Four: Work with multiple OneDrives
4.1) The shared folder from my secondary OneDrive is now synced to my desktop, along with my primary OneDrive content. A "Shared" symbol will clearly show this folder is shared:



4.2) When saving from any application, I can now select to save to the secondary OneDrive by selecting the shared folder in Save As dialog:




4.3) Remember these basic rules when saving from any application or moving / copying files to the shared folder inside your primary OneDrive folder, or deleting anything from said folder:

• When you save to the shared folder of your secondary OneDrive, the file size will be reduced from the secondary OneDrive's storage quota because the files and folders will be added to that OneDrive's cloud storage, The storage quota of your primary OneDrive remains unchanged
  
• When you delete anything in the shared folder of your secondary OneDrive, the storage quota of the secondary OneDrive increases because the deleted files and folders will also be deleted from that OneDrive's cloud storage. The storage quota of your primary OneDrive remains unchanged
  
• When you save to the shared synced folder of your secondary OneDrive, the saved content will be synced both with the OneDrive the content belongs to (secondary OD), and the OneDrive this content is shared with (primary OD)

That's about it! Happy Computing

Kari


Related Tutorials

• How to Link or Unlink OneDrive with Microsoft Account in Windows 10
• How to Choose Folders for OneDrive Selective Sync in Windows 10
• How to Sync Any Folder to OneDrive in Windows 10

:)

 

Windows syncing multiple accounts from the same cloud service.

In which application are you trying to sync the accounts?

OneDrive for Windows 10

Google Drive

How exactly are you trying to add the account or trying to sync the accounts?

1. Set up the account for OneDrive for account #1

2. At the very last step before clicking finish, click on the link to where the folder will be synced to

3. Change to ..My Documents/OneDrive - Account 1/

4. Sync

Switch account to sync for account #2

1. Log out of account #1

2. Sign into account #2

3. At the very last step before clicking finish, click on the link to where the folder will be synced to

4. Change to ..My Documents/OneDrive - Account 2/

5. Sync

For Google Drive, follow the same process except I named the folders Google Drive - Account...

Trying to "Add an account" in the OneDrive settings only instructs me to logout of the first account then log into the second account.

On Android, OneDrive is able to sync the personal and business accounts at the same time, and Google Drive is able to sync as many accounts as you sign into given the limits of the storage of your device at the same time. Neither of these apps require logging
into and out of each account in order to sync multiple accounts.

 

Windows syncing multiple accounts from the same cloud service.

Why can't Windows sync multiple accounts from the same service at the same time? Instead, I have to sign out of my OneDrive or Google Drive account and sign into another one and keep track of separate folders in order
to sync both my personal and professional accounts. It is extremely tedious and annoying as compared to Android which is capable of this.

 

You are welcome *Smile