One of the many benefits of Teams is that you can sync a Teams Channel file space with your local OneDrive. This allows you to work with files locally without touching the Teams interface.
This works great when you need to jump to and from several different files throughout your day, or if you need to keep multiple files open at the same time. But please note: it is not recommended that you open a file from Windows Explorer that is being used for real-time collaboration. If you open the file on OneDrive, Teams will typically lock the file until you are done. A workaround to this is to just open those files within Teams. The file will still sync down to your OneDrive.
How to Sync Teams and OneDrive
Navigate to the Teams file or folder that you want to sync to and click on “Open in SharePoint:”
Within SharePoint click on Sync:
You will get a message indicating that the sync is complete:
Now you’ll see your files in Windows Explorer:
Suggested Work Flow:
I’d recommend un-syncing a project folder at some point if there isn’t a lot of activity. To do so, right click on the folder in OneDrive, and click on Settings. You’ll then be able to stop syncing.
What if someone deletes a file accidentally?
This can be a bigger concern now since it would be very easy to delete entire folders, so SharePoint has an answer for you: the recycle bin. Open SharePoint for your Team using the ‘Open in SharePoint’ option and navigate to Recycle bin.
This is a file that I deleted from OneDrive. You can recover the file from here.
I hope this helps to give you a better Teams experience. For more tips on maximizing productivity and connectivity with Teams, check out this blog post about integration with Smartsheet.
