How to Save Office 365 Documents to Computer? Step By Step Complete Guide

Organizations can have several situations when users and administrators need to save Office 365 documents to a computer. Sadly, Microsoft Office 365 does not provide any direct provision for saving Office 365 files and documents in the local system in bulk. So, there is an evident need for an efficient method, and this write-up discusses one of the best solutions for the same.

Microsoft Office 365 provides various SaaS services like Outlook Online, OneDrive for Business, SharePoint Online, Yammer, etc. As a cloud-based platform, it offers numerous advantages for storing important data. It also enables industry-leading data safety and ease of access for all the data stored in the cloud account.

Moreover, OneDrive for Business is one of the most integral parts of the Office 365 suite. It provides space in the cloud to store, share, and sync data files and documents. Document files can be PDF, JPG, DOC, TXT, DOCX, etc. There can be various circumstances when a user needs to download documents from Office 365 to the local system. Let’s have a look at them.

Table of Content

• Reasons for Downloading Office 365 Files & Folders to Computer
• Most Secure Software Solution to Save Office 365 Documents Locally
  • Quick Software Steps to Save Office 365 Documents & Files to Local Computer
  • Why Should We Choose an Automated Tool?
• How to Download Documents from Office 365 (OneDrive for Business) Manually?
  • Is Manual Solution Efficient to Answer; How to Save Office 365 Documents to Computer?
• Final Thought
• FAQs

Reasons for Downloading Office 365 Files & Folders to Computer

There is no guarantee that the entire data stored in the cloud (Office 365) is safe and secure. There are cases reported about cloud Ransomware attacks and other cases of data loss from the cloud accounts. The documents and files stored in OneDrive can also be accidentally deleted by the user or even by some intruders (hackers). The most dangerous part is, that there are many issues recently reported regarding error messages appearing on OneDrive. Let us go through some of the issues that appeared in the Office 365 account.

1. Error code: 0x80070005 appears when setting up Known Folder Move in OneDrive for Business.
2. OneDrive for Business automatically gets paused.
3. Incapable of downloading or uploading files from OneDrive.com

So it becomes quite crucial to perform this task. In the coming section, we are going to discuss, how to save Office 365 documents to computer without any data loss in Windows OS. Moreover, it can also export the entire Office 365 mailbox to PST.

Most Secure Software Solution to Save Office 365 Documents Locally

Downloading PDF, JPG, DOC, TXT, and DOCX files from OneDrive in Office 365 is not a difficult task. The SysTools Office 365 Export Software provides the option to backup Office 365 documents to the local system in their native file format. It ensures maximum data security and integrity throughout the entire backup process. The most important factor is, that it also allows you to download Office 365 email items in local file format.

Quick Software Steps to Save Office 365 Documents & Files to Local Computer

Step 1. Download, install, and launch the software on your Windows computer.

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Step 2. Choose Office 365 as the source and File System as the destination.

Step 3. Choose documents from the workload selection and apply a date filter if required.

Step 4. Log in with the source Office 365 admin credentials and click on the validate button.

Step 5. Provide destination path and location to save Office 365 files locally. Then click on the validate button and click on Next to save Office 365 documents to the computer.

Step 6. Add users’ accounts using any of these three optional and create mappings for bulk data export.

Step 7. Select the required users’ accounts and validate permissions. Lastly, click on the Start Export button to save Office 365 documents to your computer safely.

Why Automated Tool to Save Office 365 Documents to Computer?

This tool is one of the best applications to copy Office 365 documents and files locally. The major fact is, that it archives documents in their native formats. These are the standard file formats supported as saved in OneDrive such as DF, JPG, DOC, TXT, DOCX, etc. The other reasons are, that it provides various advanced functions along with the service. Go through the various features and functions of the application:

• Backup entire Office 365 user account mailbox items.
• Option for date-based filtering in Email archival.
• Option to split large-sized PST files to ensure data security.
• Option to save primary, in-place archive, and shared mailboxes.
• Download single-user data or multiple users’ accounts at one go.
• Offers the concurrent export option to speed up the process.
• You can also use this software for Office 365 tenant-to-tenant migration.

Is all data stored in the cloud safe always? To know more about this, go through the following section. Find out why we need to save Office 365 data locally.

How to Download Documents from Office 365 (OneDrive for Business) Manually?

Apart from the automated method, there are a few free ways, that you can use to perform this task. Let’s discuss them in detail.

Method 1. Directly Downloading Using OneDrive or SharePoint

This is the other option to download files and documents from OneDrive or SharePoint to the local system. For this, you need to go to OneDrive or SharePoint’s online website and log in with the respective credentials.

Step 1. Select the document or file that you need to save on the computer.

Step 2. You can select multiple files or you can select a folder by going a level back and choosing the required folder.

Step 3. Now select the Download option.

Step 4. Save the file or document in the destination location that you need to save the file.

Method 2. Save Office 365 Documents to a Computer Using Microsoft Power Automate

This manual method is one of the most used by administrators, as it allows them to automate file downloads by setting up flows between Office 365 and local or external cloud storage. Yes, this is one of the major limitations in that it is unable to download Office 365 documents directly to a PC or local storage device.

Here are the steps to follow:

• Step 1. Navigate to – https://make.powerautomate.com/ and login with the valid credentials 
• Step 2. Select Create and click on Automated Cloud flow.
• Step 3. Choose a trigger like When a file is created in OneDrive for Business.
• Step 4. Now, click on  + New step and add OneDrive for Business – Get file content.
• Step 5. Set the destination location where you want to save the documents from O365.
• Step 6. Add Create file action for a cloud storage destination (e.g., SharePoint or Dropbox).
• Step 7. Map file name and content fields.
• Step 8. In the last step, save and test the flow by adding a sample file to OneDrive.

Short Comings of Using Microsoft Power Automate

It comes with several limitations, such as:

• It can not save the documents directly to a local PC or local storage device.
• Only technically skilled or tech-savvy users can perform this task, as it requires familiarity with automation workflows. 
• To use Power Automate, you have to purchase it separately, if you existing subscription plan does not offer it. 

Method 3. Syncing OneDrive for Business with a Local Computer

Microsoft offers the option to sync OneDrive for Business with a local folder. Which makes documents available on the computer for offline usage. Additionally, it gets updated automatically when changes are made on the cloud. This approach is ideal for ongoing sync needs, but not recommended for bulk document downloads.

Here are the respective steps to follow:

Step 1. Launch OneDrive on your PC, and sign in with the valid credentials, if not already signed in.

Step 2. When prompted, choose the folders that you want to download, it will sync to your local computer. 

Step  3. Open File Explorer and go to the OneDrive folder. Here you can find all the synced files and documents from that folder. It is available for Offline access. 

Short Comings of Using OneDrive Sync to Download Documents 

• Using this method you can not download documents from a bulk user’s account.
• With syncing you also face a size limitation issue, as the individual files over 250GB can cause the application to crash.
• You can also face sync conflict issues, if more than 2 or multiple users are editing the same file, leading to duplicate copies or errors.

Method 4. Using eDiscovery for Bulk Downloading 

Microsoft 365 eDiscovery tool is the most customizable approach among all the manual methods. It is particularly made for compliance search and fulfill legal requirements. However, administrators can download a large set of documents and data from Office 365 using this method.

Here are the brief steps of eDiscovery to follow: 

• Step 1. Login to Microsoft 365 Compliance Center.
• Step 2. Navigate to eDiscovery.
• Step 3. Create a New Case.
• Step 4. Hold Settings (if necessary).
• Step 5. Search for Content.
• Step 6. Review Results.
• Step 7. Apply Filters (if required) and Export Content.

Short Comings and Dependencies of Using eDiscovery  

• This method is only available for users with administrative permissions. 
• It can be a challenging task for those users, who are not technically sound. 
• eDiscovery often comes up with several errors if the right configuration and permissions are not facilitated.

Is Manual Solution Efficient to Answer; How to Download Office 365 Documents to Computer?

The above-discussed manual steps to save Office 365 documents to computer provide the option to save data locally. However, it has its limitations too. It does not guarantee the time it can take to gather and download the requested data. Moreover, you can not download documents from multiple Office 365 accounts by logging into them manually.

Meanwhile, you can also face download failure in the following scenarios:

1. No option to download OneNote notebooks. The saved file will generate an error message while opening.
2. The option to save multiple files/folders is not available yet (needs an Office 365 business plan)
3. The download button does not appear or may disappear upon refreshing the web page.
4. OneDrive for Business needs Microsoft Edge or Google Chrome to download files
5. Another limitation of manual download is
   • Size limit of Individual file: 15 GB
   • Size limit of Zip file: 20 GB
   • Number of Files: 10,000

Related: Solution to Migrate Office 365 Docs to Google Apps

Final Thought

The blog discusses the best solution for the user query i.e. “How to save Office 365 documents to computer?”. Users can also use the manual method to download a few files/folders from OneDrive or Cloud to a computer.

However, downloading or copying large data files from Microsoft Office 365 to the local system becomes a difficult task if not performed using the right approach. Therefore, the above-mentioned software is considered one of the best solutions available to download OneDrive files and folders safely.

FAQs

Q1. How do I save files to my computer instead of OneDrive for Business?

If you want to download Office 365 documents and files on your computer instead of OneDrive then you can get help from the above-discussed automated software. It seamlessly saves files from Microsoft 365 to the computer just in 5 steps.

• Step 1. Install the utility and launch it on your PC.
• Step 2. Opt Office 365 and File System as platforms.
• Step 3. Enable the Documents tab and apply the Date filter.
• Step 4. Login with Office 365 Admin credentials.
• Step 5. Select User Accounts and click on Start Export.

Q2. How do I download a Word document from OneDrive to a computer?

For a single Word file or a small number of data files, you can simply select the documents, and click on the Download button. Then a prompt will display here you have to specify the location, where you want to save. Now click on the Save button.

Q3. What happens if I uninstall OneDrive?

When you uninstall OneDrive for Business from your computer device, it will unlink itself from that device. Rest devices will remain unaffected.  When you do this, it will stop syncing device files to OneDrive and OneDrive files to the device itself.