OneDrive for Business cannot Download Multiple Files? Top Solution

One Drive is a cloud storage integrated with Microsoft Office 365. It comes as an inbuilt function with a storage capacity of 1 TB within Office 365 on the subscription plans. It allows to store photos and files which can be accessed from anywhere and at any point of time.

One Drive allows you to download the individual file or multiple files to the local system. It enables the easy download of the files from the One Drive, a cloud storage to a computer if you have a link to the One Drive location.
The selected or complete multiple files are stored into the default location which is ‘Downloads’ folder or alternatively, into the other location as set as default.

How can one go for download of multiple files into the local system?

The following are the steps to download multiple files into the local system:

1. Go to your One Drive either by logging in or by accessing into the Microsoft Office 365.
2. An individual or multiple selected files can be downloaded by moving the cursor towards the One Drive item and then clicking on the small circle that appears next to it.
3. If you want to download all the files in the One Drive then select ‘Ctrl + A’ button.
4. Click on ‘Download’ button that is located on top of the page.

Limitations of Manual Method for OneDrive for Business cannot Download Multiple Files

• The manual method does not download easily the multiple files
• It is time consuming and unexpected errors may arise thereby stopping the download process
• It does not support the download of heavy and bulk files
• Some files may get downloaded whereas others not

In such a manner, One Drive for business cannot download multiple files in one go as there are chances of errors and uncertain time period.

Alternative Solution: Office 365 Backup & Restore Tool

The following are the steps to backup or download document files from One Drive for Business Files:

1. Install and Launch the above utility and then chose the option ‘Office 365 Backup & Restore’.
2. If your tool is not activated then follow the activation steps.
3. Once the tool has been activated then a window will get opened. Here, click on the ‘Setup’ tab to choose the source and destination for backup.
4. Select ‘Office 365’ as a source platform and ‘Outlook’ as a destination platform.
5. Under the workload section, select the document checkbox as a category and deselect others in order to download all the files from the One Drive locally. This has been shown in the Figure B.
6. Under the workload section, corresponding to the document, select the date-range filter option. This option allows you to select the start and end date respectively for which the documents need to be backed up.
7. Here, the documents (docs, slides, sheets, drawings) are downloaded to your local computer.
8. Under the Source tab, enter the source admin email and the application id. Click on ‘Validate’ to allow the permissions to grant accessibility. After validating, the permissions are granted for accessibility to the source user. Then, click on ‘Next’ button.
9. Under the destination tab, browse for the backup folder path where the resultant files would be stored and choose the file size (in GB). This has been shown in the Figure E. Click on ‘Validate’ button to grant the permissions for accessibility and then click on ‘Next’ button.
10. Under the Users tab, there are three modes in which you can add users from the source account and they are as follows:  Fetch Users: It will automatically fetch users from the source domain. Import Users: This will import users through CSV. Download Template: This provides the template as a sample for creating CSV file.
11. The list of users are displayed on the screen.  Click on ‘Validate’ to authorize the particular user source email account. Once the email account is validated then, click on ‘OK’ button. This has been shown in the Figure G.
12. Once the validation is successful, then click on ‘Start Backup’ button to start the backup process.  The software will ensure your license and other details. Then, click on ‘Start’ button to begin with the export process.
13. The backup status can be viewed in multiple formats like Tile view and List View.
14. The successful backup will be showed on the user screen.
15. After the successful backup, the reports like Backup Summary Report and Detailed Report can be downloaded.
16. Re-Run backup option provides three options as under: Retry Failed Items: To backup the files which didn’t backup Re-Run Full Backup: To run the entire backup process Delta Backup: To backup the newly added data without data redundancy

Conclusion

In the above blog, a brief on One Drive, the manual method to download the multiple files along with the limitations and then the alternative automated solution has been given to download multiple files in one go. The automated solution as ‘Backup & Restore’ tool ensures to download multiple files in a hassle free manner with data consistency and no loss of data.