Understanding SharePoint, Teams and OneDrive Files

SharePoint, OneDrive and Teams are tools that help you store, share, and collaborate on files. Here’s a simple guide to understanding how they work together:

SharePoint

• What is it? SharePoint is Microsoft's web-based platform developed for an organization to store and manage documents, information and resources.
• How is it used? It’s great for collaboration because everyone can access and edit the files they need from anywhere using Microsoft 365 apps like Teams, OneDrive and Outlook.

Teams

• What is it? Teams is a chat-based workspace where you can communicate and collaborate with your colleagues and access files stored in the Team's SharePoint document library.
• How is it used? Within Teams, you can share files directly in your conversations and also work on these files together in real-time. 

OneDrive

• What is it? OneDrive is your personal storage space in the cloud.
• How is it used? You can save your own files here and access them from any device.  You can share a file from OneDrive or move it from OneDrive to a Teams SharePoint document library.

How They Work Together

• Saving Files: When you save a file in Teams, it’s actually stored in SharePoint. This makes it easy for everyone in the team to find and use the file.
• Personal vs. Team Files: Use OneDrive for your personal files and Teams files for group collaboration. If you need to share a personal file with your team, you can move it from OneDrive to a Teams SharePoint document library.
• Collaboration: Teams makes it easy to work together on files. You can chat about the file, make edits, and see changes in real-time.