How to Automatically Save Files to OneDrive: 3 Ways

Are you trying to figure out how to automatically save files to OneDrive? If you are, this post is for you!

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by CBACKUP Lasted Updated April 28, 2024

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How Do I Automatically Save Files to OneDrive?

 

OneDrive is greyed out as an option to save files for me. I'm guessing this is because the top directory is read-only but does anyone know if there's a workaround to automatically save something to OneDrive?

- Question from Reddit.com

It's a common question when people backup files to OneDrive, and you may also look for solutions to such questions: how to automatically save files to OneDrive? So today let's discuss the feature of OneDrive to help you know about it and also provide 3 ways to solve the question of auto saving files to OneDrive.

OneDrive

Benefits of Auto Saving Files to OneDrive

OneDrive stands as an internet-based storage platform, here are several advantages of choosing OneDrive for auto saving files.

  • Free Space: It generously offers users a substantial amount of free storage space. Every user is granted 5GB of free storage by default.
  • Access Anywhere: With a Microsoft account, you gain unrestricted access to these files and folders at your convenience.
  • Strong Encryption: Microsoft provides strong encryption to protect users’ data both while it’s in transit and when it’s at rest.
  • Simple Sharing Files: OneDrive simplifies the process of sharing files. To share a file, you can right-click on it and specify the email address of the recipient.

You may explore methods for how to automatically save photos to OneDrive? Let's check it out!

How to Automatically Save Files to OneDrive on Windows/Mac

In this part, you will learn about three different ways to solve how to automatically save to OneDrive on Windows/Mac. If you have the same question, the following ways will help you. Keep reading!

Way 1: Save Files via OneDrive Folder

If you have OneDrive desktop App on your PC and want to use OneDrive folder to auto save your documents, here is the way.

Step 1: Press Windows key + R to open Run and type OneDrive.

Step 2: Sign in to your OneDrive account and you can see the location of your OneDrive folder. You can change location by hitting the Change location button.

OneDrive Folder Location

Step 3: Now, you can drag and drop files to OneDrive folder to save your data.

Way 2: Save Files Automatically to OneDrive via Autosave

AutoSave, a feature accessible to Microsoft 365 subscribers, automatically saves your file at regular intervals as you make progress, ensuring that your work is continuously preserved. By default, AutoSave is active for Microsoft 365 users when a file is stored on OneDrive. In short, this feature enhances data security, minimizes the risk of data loss, and saves time in storing your data.

Autosave can perform in Excel, Word, and PowerPoint for Microsoft 365 users, here let's see how to turn on OneDrive AutoSave in Excel:

Step 1: Launch Excel application on your computer > click New on the left side > select Blank workbook.

Open New Workbook

Step 2: On the workbook page, AutoSave button exists at the left top and now you can turn the switch on.

Autosave Excel

Step 3: then in the pop-out prompt “How do I turn on AutoSave?” click OneDrive – Personal,  and then any modifications on the Excel will be automatically saved to OneDrive. But if your OneDrive AutoSave is not working, you have to use the third way to save your data to OneDrive.

Autosave to OneDrive

Way 3: Another Quick Way to Save Files Automatically to OneDrive

The AutoSave is only available for Microsoft 365 subscribers. So if you want to find another solution to solve the question of how to automatically save files to OneDrive, CBackup can help you do the same thing.

What is CBackup? It is a professional and free cloud backup service and supports you to backup/sync to public cloud drives such as OneDrive, Google Drive, Dropbox, etc. You can set a scheduled task to auto save files to OneDrive at a designated time, like One time only, Daily, Weekly, or Monthly.

You may favor other powerful functions of CBackup:

Increase OneDrive Storage for Free: If your OneDrive is out of storage space, you can use CBackup to combine public cloud drives to increase storage space.
No File Type/Size Limitation: CBackup allows you to sync or backup files from your PC to OneDrive without file size/type limitations, and your transmission speed totally depends on your internet.
Flexible Sync and Backup Choice: CBackup supports you to sync or backup special files by using File Filter. You can choose to exclude or contain special file types to sync and backup.

Let's discuss how to save files to OneDrive using CBackup.

Step 1: Download CBackup desktop application and sign up > then Log in.

Download CBackupWin 11/10/8.1/8/7/XP
Secure Download

Step 2: Click Storage > add OneDrive as your first cloud drive > hit Authorize Now. ( You have to follow the pop-out prompts to complete the authorization.)

Select OneDrive

Step 3: Then click Sync on the left pane > Sync PC to Public Cloud to create a new sync task.

Choose PC to Public Cloud

Tip: You can also choose to backup PC to OneDrive by clicking Backup on the left side > Backup PC to Public Cloud to start a new backup task. With the Backup option, which is a one-direction process, you can use OneDrive for backup only, and restore files backup when needed. While sync is a two-direction process, ensuring that the same files are present in multiple locations.

Step 4: Now you can click Settings on the left bottom > click Scheduler to set a scheduled task as your preference.

SpecificTime Mode

Step 5: At last, you can select local files or folders you want to sync and choose OneDrive as your target location. Now click Start Sync.

Sync Files to OneDrive

How to Stop Files Automatically Saving to OneDrive

Now you may know how to save files to OneDrive, besides that, you may encounter some problems when you use OneDrive to save your data, for instance, you want to use the best alternatives to OneDrive or your OneDrive is out of storage. This post also gives a detailed guide to solve the questions, for example, how do I stop OneDrive from automatically saving?

So when you want to stop OneDrive from syncing your files, you can follow these simple steps to stop files from saving in OneDrive.

Step 1: Press Windows + R to open Run and when the OneDrive icon comes out, right-click the icon.

Step 2: Click Help & Settings and choose Settings in the pop-out menu.

Step 3: Click Account tab on the left pane > hit Unlink this PC, then your OneDrive will not link your PC and your files will not save to OneDrive as well.

Unlink This PC OneDrive Account

Conclusion

In this post, there are 3 different ways to solve how to automatically save files to OneDrive. After reading the article, we hope it helps you solve your problem. You can choose the manual way to save your files to OneDrive with the OneDrive sync folder.

Or you can use CBackup to automatically sync your data without file size limitation and it also can back up your files to public clouds like Dropbox, OneDrive, Google Drive, etc. And it can help you backup OneDrive to Google Drive and other clouds easily.

CBACKUP
CBACKUP · Editor
CBACKUP is an editorial team of CBackup. They give users help documents and many excellent articles covering cloud backup and sync issues, and provide cost-effective cloud backup services. They are pleased to help you solve cloud backup problems. Please feel free to contact CBACKUP editorial team with any questions.

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