Map Office 365 OneDrive to network drive

[Sam_]

Hello,

 

Im Trying to map our users Office 365 OneDrive accounts to appear as a network drive on the client pc's using group policy, I have done it myself manually which works but includes signing into the account via Internet Explorer to authenticate. Has anyone done this via group policy? If you have and wouldn't mind sharing how, it would be appreciated.

 

Thanks

[AJWhite1970]

Hi. I use the OneDriveMapper powershell script from here http://www.lieben.nu/liebensraum/onedrivemapper/ which I then converted to an .exe file and have the shortcut on the desktop. You could also just as easily run the .ps1 script on login if you wanted it automated.

 

HTH

Andrew

[Sam_]

Thanks Andrew I shall give that a look!

[Sam_]

Tried it but it doesnt work, at least not for me. Even if i manually specify the username and password it fails to map the drive with "Failed to force sign in persistence" and that it cannot detect my username even though I've specified it.

[AJWhite1970]

Did you edit the ps1 script or just run it?

 

You need to change $O365CustomerName to your Tenant Name (mydomain.onmicrosoft.com)

[thimon]

Still testing, however I've been able to create a Network Location shortcut that points to the user's OneDrive location once OneDrive has auto signed in - %OneDriveSync%

[JackCPickup]

Still testing, however I've been able to create a Network Location shortcut that points to the user's OneDrive location once OneDrive has auto signed in - %OneDriveSync%

 

Safer and more flexible than mapped drives that's a plus!

[free780]

Or just use the sync client in 1709 as the mappers use webdav which has poor performance.

[Sam_]

Or just use the sync client in 1709 as the mappers use webdav which has poor performance.

 

We're not running Windows 10, but 7. Have tried but cant get the mapper to work and yes I did edit the script for our tenant AJWhite.

[oapscarface]

I'd second 1709 Windows 10 and on demand OneDrive, I know it's a huge job moving to Windows 10 (3000 PCs to do here) but trust me, performance/reliability of OneDrive On Demand beats any other product. With pass through and seamless SSO https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/active-directory/connect/active-directory-aadconnect-pass-through-authentication in place we've not looked back and working flat out to get OneDrive On Demand deployed. Plus it's FREE!

[free780]

Also you have less than 2 years to stop using Windows 7 and Server 2008R2. If you "choose" Microsoft then you have to get with the process of moving to Windows 10 and the continual process of upgrades. I've not had any issues with on demand sync.

[Sam_]

Thanks for the suggestion about this on demand feature, I like the sound of this, I guess its manageable via group policy with each users 365 account? We do have plans to move to Windows 10 and Server 2016 most likely this summer so would be a good oppertunity to use it then.

 

Also it requires Azure AD passthrough? Can it use another form of SSO sync service? As we have a third party managing our tenancy which syncs our users and groups up so could this work?

Edited April 13, 2018 by Sam_

[oapscarface]

It is yes, there's a GPO for enabling and managing settings for it. There are some prerequisites but I can't seem to find my document on it, this website seems to cover most of it - https://gshaw0.wordpress.com/2017/11/21/onedrive-files-on-demand-update/

 

It doesn't 'require' Azure AD Passthrough no, if you're using roaming profiles or people are always on the same machine a onetime config will be fine, with Passthrough/Seamless students can just log into Windows and get their onedrives showing out of the box, one issue though is that Microsoft seem to think that if the user is new to the machine (no profile) then that user needs to have OneDrive installed during login EVERYTIME. I think this is to ensure that you are running the latest version, but it means theres a delay between logging in and then getting OneDrive.

[Sam_]

It is yes, there's a GPO for enabling and managing settings for it. There are some prerequisites but I can't seem to find my document on it, this website seems to cover most of it - https://gshaw0.wordpress.com/2017/11/21/onedrive-files-on-demand-update/

 

It doesn't 'require' Azure AD Passthrough no, if you're using roaming profiles or people are always on the same machine a onetime config will be fine, with Passthrough/Seamless students can just log into Windows and get their onedrives showing out of the box, one issue though is that Microsoft seem to think that if the user is new to the machine (no profile) then that user needs to have OneDrive installed during login EVERYTIME. I think this is to ensure that you are running the latest version, but it means theres a delay between logging in and then getting OneDrive.

 

Great thanks for your help, will definately look at doing this.

[atcoates]

Can we create this? I want to move our shares to sharepoint. What I want to have in school for staff is something that would look exactly the same as it currently does, or as close as possible. Can I then have the folder in school set to "always keep on this device" that way users won't have to use up bandwidth or wait an extra second or two. This way we keep staff happy in school and give them all the benefits of cloud access when they are working at home etc. Any help much appreciated.

[Alis_Klar]

It is yes, there's a GPO for enabling and managing settings for it. There are some prerequisites but I can't seem to find my document on it, this website seems to cover most of it - https://gshaw0.wordpress.com/2017/11/21/onedrive-files-on-demand-update/

 

It doesn't 'require' Azure AD Passthrough no, if you're using roaming profiles or people are always on the same machine a onetime config will be fine, with Passthrough/Seamless students can just log into Windows and get their onedrives showing out of the box, one issue though is that Microsoft seem to think that if the user is new to the machine (no profile) then that user needs to have OneDrive installed during login EVERYTIME. I think this is to ensure that you are running the latest version, but it means theres a delay between logging in and then getting OneDrive.

 

Is this slow login not a dealbreaker for schools who don't use roaming profiles? I don't use roaming profiles to speed up login as we are still on Win 7 which is fast at creating a profile. Is is generally recommended to have roaming profiles in Windows 10 anyway?

Edited April 27, 2018 by Alis_Klar

[jmak]

Can we create this? I want to move our shares to sharepoint. What I want to have in school for staff is something that would look exactly the same as it currently does, or as close as possible. Can I then have the folder in school set to "always keep on this device" that way users won't have to use up bandwidth or wait an extra second or two. This way we keep staff happy in school and give them all the benefits of cloud access when they are working at home etc. Any help much appreciated.

Yes - although it works slightly differently in different versions on Windows. From 1709 onwards it should be relatively straightforward. There's native capability to show SharePoint libraries in Windows explorer. Users can also choose specific folders within the library to keep on their device, so that data held locally can be minimised.

 

Earlier versions require more work, although I've seen it working on Windows 7.

[atcoates]

Yes - although it works slightly differently in different versions on Windows. From 1709 onwards it should be relatively straightforward. There's native capability to show SharePoint libraries in Windows explorer. Users can also choose specific folders within the library to keep on their device, so that data held locally can be minimised.

 

Earlier versions require more work, although I've seen it working on Windows 7.

So through GPO can we set the sharepoint folders to be held locally on a network share, we don't want staff to have to individually sync these. This would be for machines on the domain. At home staff have their own persoanl devices so could choose what to sync etc. We would enforce restrictions at home so they couldn't copy to local storage etc.

[jmak]

So through GPO can we set the sharepoint folders to be held locally on a network share, we don't want staff to have to individually sync these. This would be for machines on the domain. At home staff have their own persoanl devices so could choose what to sync etc. We would enforce restrictions at home so they couldn't copy to local storage etc.

Sorry to leave you hanging - and for getting your hopes up...

 

I didn't pay proper attention and assumed you were talking about SharePoint Online, which does work better from 1709 onwards.

 

I don't have any SharePoint on premises, but from what I've read, although it is possible to map libraries as network shares, it actually got harder from 1709 because SMB1 is not enabled by default and mapping to SharePoint on premises requires it. Not an area I know about - sorry I haven't been more helpful...

[atcoates]

Sorry to leave you hanging - and for getting your hopes up...

 

I didn't pay proper attention and assumed you were talking about SharePoint Online, which does work better from 1709 onwards.

 

I don't have any SharePoint on premises, but from what I've read, although it is possible to map libraries as network shares, it actually got harder from 1709 because SMB1 is not enabled by default and mapping to SharePoint on premises requires it. Not an area I know about - sorry I haven't been more helpful...

Hi yes would be a sharepoint folder within office 365 but was in file explorer for all staff within school on domain joined machines. We'd want that to be stored on a central share where we set the files to be always available.

[jmak]

The intention with SharePoint online/ Office 365 and current versions of Windows 10 is that you can set it up so that the libraries appear in Explorer like network shares/folders. Individuals can then choose to keep local copies of individual files, folders or libraries to their own machine.

 

There is a proper way to set up a hybrid environment, but that's beyond my knowledge.

 

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-gb/SharePoint/hybrid/hybrid

 

It has occurred to me to set up a VM on a server and use a service account to login and select the option to keep all the libraries. I could then share the folders as network shares and then have a GPO in standby to deploy in the event of internet connection failure. Pretty sure that's not how it's intended to work though and totally untested...

[atcoates]

So if we had data dedup running and we told users to right click the folder and always keep on this device. Effectively we always have a copy held locally for each user but would only take the space once?

 

I'm trying to move my schools to the cloud and this seems the most gentle way of doing it!

Edited May 2, 2018 by atcoates

[jmak]

Does anyone know when the Group Policy to Configure team site libraries to sync automatically is coming out of preview/available beyond Insiders Ring? https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/onedrive/use-group-policy#AutoMountTeamSites

 

The description on that page says that the GPO creates a registry entry: HKCU\Software\Policies\Microsoft\OneDrive\TenantAutoMount]"LibraryName"="LibraryID"

Can you already manually set up those registry entries and deploy using GPO or does it rely on some other component?

 

Linked question: do any of you run a school machine on the Insiders Ring? Or do you wait for features to be properly released?