What's the difference between OneDrive and SharePoint, and where should our files live?

It's one of the most common sources of confusion in Microsoft 365, and getting it right prevents a lot of future pain.

The simple distinction

• OneDrive is your space — an individual staff member's personal work files, like a private drive that follows them across devices. Others only see what that person deliberately shares.
• SharePoint is the shared space — team sites and document libraries for files the business owns collectively. When your team works with files in Microsoft Teams, those files actually live in SharePoint behind the scenes.

Where files should live

The rule of thumb: if a document belongs to the business or a team, it belongs in SharePoint/Teams — not in someone's OneDrive. The classic mistake is important company files sitting in one person's OneDrive; when they leave, those files can be locked away or lost in the offboarding scramble. Company data in shared libraries stays with the business.

Getting the structure right

A sensible setup has a clear home for team and company files, sensible permissions, and OneDrive reserved for genuinely personal work-in-progress. We design and tidy up this structure as part of managing Microsoft 365 — including permissions and backups — so files are easy to find, properly shared, and safe. See our Microsoft 365 page or call (08) 9325 1196.