OneDrive is Microsoft’s free online storage service. Files are stored in a secure environment on the internet. We also call this ‘in the cloud’. Users have access to their stored files via a folder on the computer, but also via a secure login on the internet or an app on the smartphone or tablet. So you can access your files anywhere, such as your photos. OneDrive automatically recognizes the photos in your files and places them in the Photos folder.
Store photos online with OneDrive
Want to get acquainted with OneDrive first? Then read the article ‘Working with OneDrive’.
- Go to www.onedrive.com.
- Click the box under ‘Sign up’. Enter your email address and click Next one.
- Enter your password and click To register.
- click on new when asked if you want to stay logged in after leaving the site. It is safer to log in again each time you visit.
- Click in the menu bar at the top upload.
- Then click folder or Files. We want to upload a photo and click Files.
- Browse to the photo you want to put on OneDrive. Select one photo by clicking on it or select several by holding down the Ctrl key while clicking the photos.
- click on To open.
- Uploading the photos starts. A progress window appears. The window will disappear again when the upload is complete. Your photos are then added to OneDrive, but they are not in a folder.
- Click on the left photos to open an overview of the photos.
- Here are all the photos stored in OneDrive. Also those that have just been uploaded. The photos are sorted by month and year by default. The most recent are at the top.
- Click on a photo and it will open in the OneDrive album view.
- You see the picture. Click the circle icon with the letter i at the top right. You will then see information about the photo.
- Provide the photo with keywords, so that you can find it faster later. Click on Edit tags.
- Enter a keyword, for example ‘France’ and press the Enter key. Then click on the cross.
- Navigating to a next or previous photo is easy: you use the arrow keys to the right or left respectively. If this does not work immediately, click on the top right Next one or Previous.
Share photo
Do you want to share a photo from the online environment? It goes like this:
- Click on the top left To share > E-mail.
- Enter the email address of the person you want to share the photo with. You can enter multiple addresses. Then press the semicolon on the keyboard before typing another email address.
- In the box with ‘You can add a message here’ you can type an accompanying text. Then click on the button To share.
- A message has now been sent with a link to your photo.
- You close the album view by clicking the arrow at the top left. You are then back in the overview with all photos.
A photo or a picture?
OneDrive distinguishes between photos and images, or pictures. The difference? A photo, taken with a digital camera, smartphone or tablet, always has a recording date. Images from the internet don’t have that. Photos that you get from the internet sometimes have a recording date and sometimes not. Only images with a shooting date will automatically appear in the ‘All photos’ folder
It is, however, possible to fill in the missing recording date. This is not possible in OneDrive, but only via Windows Explorer. (You were introduced to OneDrive in File Explorer in the “Working with OneDrive” article.)
- Right-click on the image in question and click Characteristics.
- Click on the tab Details.
- Fill in a date under ‘Origin’ at ‘taken on’ and click on OK.
When you upload the image to OneDrive, it will automatically end up in the ‘Photos’ folder.