Saving Email Attachments, Photos and Videos to the OneDrive Folder

In our OneDrive tutorial series, we’ve already taught our users most of the basic and as well as the more advanced tweaks and settings that they can do to this free cloud storage from Microsoft but everything does not end there yet. There are still even more to find out and discover about this very useful tool that is included in your brand new Windows 8.1 machine. Just like most of the features that are included in Microsoft’s brand new operating system edition, OneDrive also has a modern app version and you can use it anytime you need to store your important files into your OneDrive account for safe-keeping.

In this tutorial, we will be discussing some of the remaining things that you need to learn in working with the OneDrive folder which is found in File Explorer and look into the details of how it works with some modern style apps such as Mail, Photos and Videos so be sure to get familiar with these apps and start by learning where the OneDrive folder is located in your Windows 8.1 machine.

Accessing the OneDrive Folder

What’s perfect about OneDrive as a cloud storage service is that it’s already a part of the File Explorer libraries and folders. Accessing it is therefore done from the File Explorer itself which should be pinned on the taskbar on any untouched Windows 8.1 machine. In case the File Explorer thumbnail has already been removed or unpinned from the taskbar, you’ll need to use some other methods in accessing this same location which are quite longer. To access the File Explorer using the first method I’ve mentioned, simply click or tap on the its thumbnail that is found on the taskbar.

After clicking on the thumbnail, the File Explorer Window will appear and from here, you should see libraries and folders which are available from the navigation pane that is located at the left portion of the screen. From this section, you should also find OneDrive as one of the folders which you can simply click to open its contents.

Another way in accessing the File Explorer tool is done with the use of the Search feature which is perfectly integrated with the Windows 8.1 system. To do this, all you need to do is press the Windows+S keyboard shortcut combination and after doing so, you should be able to see the Search screen that will appear from the right edge. From this screen, just enter the words “File Explorer” into the input box that is provided and wait until the search results appear just below the input box.

Now, on the search results, simply look for shortcut that says “File Explorer” and after doing so, the File Explorer Window should open. The Search screen can also be accessed from the Start Screen. To do this, simply click or tap on the Start Button which is found at the bottom-left corner of the screen and once the Start Screen opens, you should be able to see the Search button at the top-right corner which you can simply click to open the Search screen the same as what you were able to access above.

On the File Explorer Window, all you need to do is click the OneDrive folder that is located on the navigation pane at the left hand portion of the screen and you will be able to see all the stuff in it which will be displayed on the contents pane.

Saving Attachments from the Mail App to OneDrive

Windows 8.1 also has an app that allows you to send and receive emails and keep a record of them. Emails can either just be a simple message or one that can have attachments like files, pictures and other media contents. These attachments can also be added to OneDrive if you want to keep them safe from being lost. To do this, just open the email using the Mail app in your Windows 8.1 computer and once you’re able to open it, simply right-click on the attachment and hit the “Save” option.

After doing so, you should be able to get into a new metro screen that shows the folders which are available in your computer. From here, simply click on the arrow down icon beside the label that says “This PC” as shown on the screenshot below.

Next, a white box will appear that contains the other locations where you can store the attachment. From these options, just select the one that says “OneDrive” so you can open the contents of your OneDrive folder.

When the OneDrive’s contents appears, you can now click or tap on the folder where you want to store the attachment and once the folder location opens, just click on the “Save” button at the bottom to finally save the attachment in the folder location that you have selected.

You can also choose to save the attachment outside of all the folders that are existing in your computer’s OneDrive folder. Doing this is very simple, you just need to simply skip the folder selection process and jump right away to clicking or tapping the “Save” button once you arrive on the metro screen that shows your OneDrive’s contents. After doing so, you will see that the attachment you saved will just be outside of all the existing folders. You can do this with all of the other file types like Word, Excel and Powerpoint files, photos or videos and not just email attachments.

Saving Photos and Videos to OneDrive

You might also have important photos which you want to move to OneDrive for safe-keeping. If this is the case then you will need to learn how you can safe it into your OneDrive folder. To do this, you can start by selecting the picture from its original location then hitting the “Copy” option that appears on the ribbon at the top of the File Explorer Window.

After doing so, just go on and open your OneDrive folder from File Explorer and hit the “Paste” option which is found at the ribbon-based options on top or you can also right-click an empty space on the contents pane and hit the “Paste” option on the right-click menu that will appear.

Saving video clips is also done in the same way. Just go to the video’s original location, copy it then go to the OneDrive folder and hit the “Paste” option. If you took the photo or video using your device’s webcam, you can set it to automatically be saved into OneDrive. All you need to do is access the PC settings metro screen, hit the “OneDrive” link then on the screen that follows, simply click on “Camera roll”. After doing so, you will see a toggle switch that says “Automatically upload videos to OneDrive” which you will need to turn on so you can have all videos saved to your OneDrive account and access it from any Windows 8.1 device where you login using your Microsoft account.

As you can see, saving different types of files such as email attachments, photos and videos into your OneDrive storage is pretty simple and it doesn’t take an expert to do it. Start saving all your important stuff into OneDrive so you can get access to them from all your other Windows 8 or Windows 8.1-based devices and keep them safe from being lost due to software and hardware problems that can happen anytime.