Overview

Microsoft Teams provides access to your LSUS files from any location and any device. This article is meant to provide you some guidance on how to go about accessing your LSUS files using Microsoft Teams.

Video Walkthrough

For a video walkthrough of some common ways to access your LSUS files in Teams, please click the following:

Working with Teams files

There are two primary methods for accessing your Teams files. Through the Teams application itself, and through the Windows file explorer, which you are likely most familiar with.

Working with files from within the Teams application

Within the Teams application the primary location where you will find your files is under the "Files" tab within a channel.

You can get to the Files tab within a channel using these steps:

1. Within Microsoft Teams, select "Teams" on the left
2. Select the Team which contains the files you wish to interact with
3. Select the channel within the Team which contains the files you wish to interact with
4. Select the "Files" tab
5. Now you will see the files that exist within the channel you selected.

For guidance on how to add files to the "Files" tab, you can refer to this following article from Microsoft: Upload and share files (microsoft.com)

Note that you can also access your Teams files using the "Files" ribbon on the bottom of the left menu in Teams:

Working with Teams files from the Windows file explorer

In order to work with Teams files using the Windows file explorer, you must have the Microsoft OneDrive desktop client installed and you must sign into it.
If you do not already have the OneDrive desktop client installed, you can download it here: Download the OneDrive App for PC, Mac, Android, or iOS – Microsoft OneDrive

To work with your Teams files from within the Windows file explorer, follow these steps:

1. Ensure you have Microsoft OneDrive installed and that it is signed in.
   If OneDrive is installed and signed in, you will see the blue cloud icon for OneDrive in your system tray.
   Screenshot for reference:
   
   
   If it is not blue as shown in the image, you can double click on the icon to be prompted to sign in.
   
   
2. (1) Open Microsoft Teams and select the Channel within Team which contains the files you would like to interact with via the file explorer.
   (2) Then click the "Files" tab.
   (3) Click "Sync"
   Screenshot for reference:
   
   
   
3. Open the File Explorer within Windows. You should now see a blue building icon on the left with the text "LSUS" next to it.
   Screenshot for reference:
   
   
   
4. Click ">" next to the building icon to drill into your list of synced Microsoft Teams Channels.
   Screenshot for reference:
   
   
   
5. You can now interact with the files in this Channel directly from the File Explorer. Any changes made to the files and folders here will be synced to the Channel in Microsoft Teams.
   
   Note: Modern versions of the OneDrive client leverage a feature called "Files on Demand."
   
   Files on Demand frees up space on your computer by only downloading a copy of your Teams files as you need them.
   The "Status" column in your file explorer will show whether a file has been downloaded to your computer or not.
   
   To ensure that the local copy of your Teams file is always synced and up to date on your device, right-click the file and select "Always keep on this device."
   
   To free up space on your device taken up by downloaded copies of your Teams files, right-click the file and select "Free up space."
   
   See the following screenshot for the meaning of each Status icon:
   

Further Guidance

Please see the following articles from Microsoft for further guidance on working with Files in Teams:

• First things to know about files (microsoft.com)
• Working with Files in Teams - Video Training from Microsoft (microsoft.com)
• Save disk space with OneDrive Files On-Demand for Windows 10 (microsoft.com)