Sharing Options
Microsoft OneDrive for Business allows users to retain a central repository of files, while providing the option of sharing with Loyola community members as well as users outside of the Loyola community.
For detailed instructions of each sharing option available, please visit Microsoft’s support documentation.
Loyola's Settings for OneDrive Sharing
Within Loyola’s environment, the default sharing option is the “direct share" option. This will require you to identify a direct user recipient either by name or by email address.
If you would like to share a file more broadly, via a link, we recommend that you use the option “People in Loyola University Maryland with the link”. This secures the file within the Loyola environment, but allows for easy sharing via a link.
Anyone with the Link…
We do not recommend sharing files with the option “Anyone with the link can…”. This setting will allow anyone with the link to view the file. This means that the file is publicly available. There are mechanisms that are used to crawl web environments to find files with this setting, and if there is sensitive data in these files it will be publicly available.
For more information on checking who your files are shared with, take a look at Microsoft’s support documentation. You can also manage sharing access from OneDrive as well.
Sharing With a Non-Loyola email Address
By default, when you share a file with an external email address, the recipient will be prompted to validate their identity with a secondary authentication method.
- Once the link is opened by the recipient they will be presented with the option to generate a code to validate their identity:
- After selecting ‘Send Code’, a Microsoft-generated code will be sent to the email address of the recipient. The recipient will need to enter this code on the website that opens when the link is clicked. Please note, when shared with users outside of the Loyola community, these users will not have the permission to further share the file with others within the OneDrive environment.
Setting a Password or Expire Date
Microsoft gives you the option to set a password on shared documents, as well as an expiration date.
Consider using the expiration date for files that you may be sharing externally for a project in which users will not need access forever. This adds extra protection to your files by adding an expiration period to the link to the file.
Passwords add extra protection to secure data that you may need to store. If you set a password for a file that you need to share, consider how you will deliver this password to the recipient. Email is not a good practice to share this type of information, you should provide this information verbally over the phone or face to face.