Summary
This article provides instructions for transferring personal, non-institutional files from your USNH OneDrive account by copying them to a personal OneDrive or downloading them to a location on your computer. If you’re leaving the university or transitioning roles, it’s important to separate personal content from university-owned data.
Note: For USNH owned/shared data, see OneDrive: Moving Institutional Files to SharePoint before Leaving USNH
Important! Your USNH OneDrive for work or school account is not intended as the primary source for storing large amounts of department owned data (like SharePoint). It does NOT retain permanency and is subject to deletion when your employment or student status expires. If you are a collaborator in a OneDrive file that belongs to a departing individual, you will also lose access to that data unless it is moved or copied into a folder you own. See FAQ's for Graduating Students and Moving Institutional Files to SharePoint before Leaving USNH for more information.
Content
When leaving USNH, your M365 applications will no longer be accessible and OneDrive account data will be deleted. The date when that happens depends on the individual's status:
- Students: Typically, the files/folders for all departing students are retained for 30 days after the start of the next semester directly after the semester they graduated.
- For example, if a student graduates in May: Files/folders are accessible until early October.
- If a student graduates in December your files/folders are accessible until mid-February.
- Once that date passes, you will lose access to all M365 applications and OneDrive account data will be deleted.
- Faculty & Staff: OneDrive accounts are tied to individual identities and do not persist permanently. When your affiliation with USNH ends, your OneDrive account will be deactivated, and you will immediately lose access. Your files are retained for a limited time to support recovery needs or account transitions, after which they are permanently deleted.
- For retiring Emerita/Emeritus faculty
- The OneDrive desktop sync application will no longer work for your account. All files in your OneDrive desktop application will be saved locally and no longer backed up to the cloud. It is recommended to remove the OneDrive desktop sync application from your desktop after retiring.
- A storage max quota will be set 100 GB and your files will be accessible only through the OneDrive web portal . If your files are using more than 100 GB space, you will not be able to add or modify any content until you move or delete items to get under the 100GB quota. This means you cannot save new Word or Excel docs or edit existing docs until the files are under quota again.
- See Accounts: Access for Adjunct and Emeritus Faculty for more information.
How-To
To avoid loss of data, create a personal OneDrive account and move USNH files/folders to that account. Microsoft OneDrive offers a free OneDrive account with 5 GB of cloud storage.
Alternatively, download the files to a computer or external hard-drive or save them to another cloud service.
Important: Copy or move any files you want to keep out of OneDrive while you still have access.
Notes:
- Files you move from OneDrive for work or school to your personal OneDrive are considered new, so these files don't retain metadata details such as "Date created" or "Modified By".
- If you copy files you shared, you will need to re-share.
Task: To create a personal OneDrive account.
Note: Be sure to use a different email address than your school email address when signing up for a personal Microsoft account.
Instructions
Step 1 - Create a Personal OneDrive account directly through Microsoft by following Microsoft's onscreen instructions .
Outcome
A personal OneDrive account is created. An email message is sent to the email address used to create the account.
To open your Microsoft account from the email message, click VIEW YOUR ACCOUNT.
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Task: To download personal files from OneDrive
Important Note: Before downloading any content from your university-provided OneDrive, please ensure you are downloading only files that you personally own or created. Do not download files containing institutional data, student information, or shared departmental documents unless you have been explicitly authorized to do so. This guidance helps protect university records and comply with data privacy and retention policies.
OneDrive is intended for individual work files, not for storing long-term or shared institutional data. University-owned content should remain within approved SharePoint sites or be transitioned to another institutional storage location. Moving Institutional Files to SharePoint before leaving USNH
Instructions
Step 1 - Sign in to your USNH Microsoft 365 account at https://portal.office.com/onedrive
Step 2 - Navigate to the folders or files you wish to download.
Step 3 - Select the files and folders:
Step 4 - Click the Download button in the top menu.
Step 5 - Locate the downloaded files in your Downloads folder or wherever your browser saves files.
Step 6 - Unzip the files if necessary and store them securely on your personal device or backup storage.
Outcome
Selected OneDrive contents are downloaded.
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Further Readings
OneDrive: Moving Institutional Files to SharePoint before Leaving USNH - for USNH owned/shared data
FAQs for Graduating and Departing Students
Accounts: Access for Adjunct and Emeritus Faculty
OneDrive: Uploading/Saving your Files/Folders to OneDrive
OneDrive: Synchronizing Files/Folders
OneDrive: Introducing Sync
How to add an account in OneDrive
Sync files with OneDrive in Windows
Sync files with OneDrive on Mac OS X
Need additional help?
For assistance concerning site creation, content sharing, file synchronization, or other common SharePoint, OneDrive, Teams, or Office app activities, we recommend our Microsoft 365 Learning sites:
Learn more about the great tools our Microsoft 365 Learning sites offer!
Visit the Technology Help Desk Support page to locate your local campus contact information or to submit an online technology support request. For password issues you must call or visit the Help Desk in person.