Equipment provided by Procare also includes an license for Microsoft Office 365 applications, one of these is OneDrive - A cloud storage solution.
Essentially it allows for files on your computer to be stored and accessed online while still retaining the option to keep the files locally on the laptops built-in storage.
Why use it?
- It's generally a good idea to be using OneDrive, but the primary reason is that it offers a much greater storage capacity compared to the physical storage on the laptop.
- When your laptops local storage begins to get full, you may experience slow performance, programs closing unexpectedly and an inability to download additional files or save existing ones. Storing things on OneDrive will mitigate the amount of local storage that is used.
How to Use
To ensure that you are using OneDrive, check the bottom right of your task bar and look for this icon: ![]()
Clicking on it will either reveal a sign-in button or it will show that "Your files are synced".
To sign-in, you just need to use your Procare email and password.
Above the image shows File Explorer with the main OneDrive folder selected, if you are signed into OneDrive, your view should be similar. In the main view, you can see files and folders have a status symbol, this currently means these files are synced to the cloud and are stored online.
Other symbols:
A green circle with a tick - The file is on the laptops physical storage.
A red circle with a cross - There is some sort of issue preventing the file from syncing
Two rotating arrows - The file is currently syncing to the cloud.
Opening a file that is stored online will download it to you computer, so the status will change from a cloud to a green circle with a tick. OneDrive is particularly useful in saving space as it ensures the files you are not currently using will not affect your local storage, but are still accessible.
Free Up Space:
Files added to your computer are locally saved by default, to free up space and put all files in your OneDrive online - you can se the Free up space option after right clicking on your OneDrive folder. Alternatively, individual files can be pushed online by right clicking on them and selecting the Free up space option.