Download All Data from OneDrive for Business or Personal Account
Want to download all the data from OneDrive? You are at the right place. We will explore three distinct routes that administrators can take that will help them to get OneDrive data out of the cloud and back under their control.
On top of that, we have a process that everyday users with personal accounts can attempt to achieve a similar result. Let us first examine if there are any restrictions placed by Microsoft on downloading the data present in its OneDrive service.
Who can Download All Data from OneDrive for Every User in the Organization?
When you keep your data on the OneDrive Storage service, Microsoft gives you complete control over who gets access to that data. Earlier, we saw how many challenges arise when we try to give OneDrive access to another user account. Although we were successful in our attempt, it showed us how seriously Microsoft takes its data distribution, and downloading is a form of data distribution.
For personal accounts, downloading data is not that big of a deal unless it is some file that was shared with you, and the owner has put some restrictions.
In a Microsoft 365 Business/Enterprise subscription pack, admins have the option to disable file downloads. Done through Conditional Access policies within Microsoft Entra ID
Most often, this feature is used. So, if you are a user in a business environment trying to download every file from the OneDrive account, chances are you won’t be able to.
In short, you must be an admin with the appropriate role, preferably a Global admin. Once you have the necessary permission, start with the first method.
Use M365 Admin Center to Download All Data from OneDrive
Follow these steps:
Step 1. Go to and log in to the M365 admin center.
Step 2. On your left-hand side, you will see a light gray pane. From there, expand Users and choose Active users from the drop-down.
Step 3. Now select any user that has the OneDrive license and the data you wish to download.
Step 4. In the User properties window, switch to the OneDrive tab.
Step 5. There should be a “Get access to files” heading with a Create link button; click on it.
Step 6. Once you have the link open it.
Step 7. Put a check mark next to each folder and download it
Step 8. Repeat for every user.
How Administrators Can Use PowerShell to Save Every User’s OneDrive Content?
So, if in your latest OneDrive usage report you saw some users too close to the storage limit, you may want to download some data and clear it from the cloud.
PowerShell serves as an excellent alternative to the one-at-a-time Admin Center GUI. However, it is a more complex method, and you should only attempt it if you understand the cmdlets you are using or have worked with PowerShell before.
Step 1. Install the Graph PowerShell module.
Step 2. Register an Azure AD app with Files.Read.All and User.Read.All permissions get their ID, Tenant ID, and secret. Grant admin consent.
Step 3. Run Connect-MgGraph with your app details.
Step 4. Get all users (Get-MgUser -All).
Step 5. Loop through each user:
Step 6. Get their OneDrive drive (Get-MgUserDefaultDrive).
Step 7. Recursively find all files within that drive. (This is the tricky part to keep minimal, as true recursion is complex.) A basic script might only grab root files.
Step 8. For each file, download its content (Get-MgDriveItemContent).
If building a custom script was not hard enough, users have reported that downloading data in this manner hard stucks at around a 20 GB limit. It may be due to API limits or some other reason entirely. If you have access to eDiscovery, then Purview may help here.
What are the Steps in Microsoft’s eDiscovery Mechanism for OneDrive Data?
The eDiscovery process comes under the compliance part that any sufficiently sized organization has to follow.
Microsoft has a dedicated mechanism called the Purview portal that is linked to every service, including OneDrive.
eDiscovery is particularly useful for legal proceedings, compliance audits, or when needing to search and export data across multiple locations, including OneDrive. This method is part of Microsoft Purview and requires specific permissions.
Step 1. Log in to the new Microsoft Purview portal.
Step 2. Follow Solutions > eDiscovery > select standard.
Step 3. Create a new case.
Step 4. Inside this case, go to Searches and press + New search.
Step 5. Name the search(mandatory); you can choose to skip the description.
Step 6. Select the locations to search, ensuring to include the specific user’s OneDrive account. You can add the URL for the OneDrive site if known. Other wise include all SharePoint data(OneDrive comes under SharePoint).
Wait for the search to complete and then download the data.
How do Personal OneDrive Users Download All Data?
It’s actually quite simple; all you have to do is log in to the OneWeb app and select every folder/file you want to download.
A download button will appear in the top toolbar. Click on it
All your files will be saved locally. Note that OneDrive will not download in the actual file format, but zip the contents and download that compressed file.
You will have to unzip and extract all the contents.
An alternative to downloading is to set up a sync between your cloud OneDrive and your desktop system. It can be done with the help of the official app. If it’s not already on your machine, just download and log in with your M365 account.
Then wait for the sync to finish, all the on-cloud data will be available on your device, and all the files from your device. No need to hit download explicitly. One major advantage is that you can use the OneDrive app across various devices, and all of that data will keep on syncing frost with the cloud then with your computer.
Note that if you have multiple OneDrive accounts, you won’t be able to add them to this app; it only supports one personal and one work/school account.
Apart from the methods discussed previously, we have a fourth option available for admins.
Steps to Automate the Download All Data from OneDrive Task
IT administrators can fast-track the process by employing a professional solution. The SysTools Microsoft 365 Export tool can pull every bit of user data kept in OneDrive cloud systems and safely put it in admin-defined destinations.
Admins get to choose the start and the end date for plus make selections at the user level. That’s not all, as the tool allows priority marking and concurrent data download streams.
Here is how you use this tool on any Windows operating system.
Step 1. Open the tool on your system. Choose Microsoft 365 as the source and select File system as the destination. Uncheck every workload except OneDrive, and apply a date filter if you feel the need for it. Then, press Next.
Step 2. The source screen is where you validate the admin credentials. The best thing is that the tool does not even need the account passwords, just the admin ID and Application ID. Validate, wait for the green signal, and press Next.
Step 3. On the destination screen, browse for the parent folder where you will download all data from the OneDrive for Business account of every user in your organization. Validate and click Next.
Step 4. A mapping screen appears, which is the place where you can either fetch the users directly, import a premade custom CSV list, or download a template, edit it, and upload it back into the tool.
Step 5. Whatever way you choose, you arrive at the same user preview screen, where you can see the entire list. You can search, select, filter, prioritize, etc. Once done, validate your decision and start the export.
Conclusion
Now, there should be no problem when you try to download all data from OneDrive for Business or a personal account. Here, we gave step-by-step instructions on many different methods for the admins, including the admin center, the PowerShell commands, the eDiscovery mechanism of the Purview portal, and self-started downloads. However, as these methods are largely manual, admins may face problems in using them. So, as an alternative, we also include a professional export solution purpose-built to be used in the M365 cloud environment.