Overview
OneDrive storage is a Bring Your Own Storage option: instead of keeping project files in Beeswax's cloud storage, Beeswax stores them in your own Microsoft OneDrive. It sits alongside NAS storage and Google Drive storage as a way to use your own storage.
Connecting takes one click — you authorise Beeswax with Microsoft, and from then on files you upload to your projects live in a dedicated folder in your OneDrive.
There is one way a file ends up in your OneDrive: you upload it through Beeswax. Drop the file on your OneDrive card on a project's Files page, and Beeswax writes it straight into your OneDrive and keeps no copy of its own.
Unlike Google Drive, Beeswax cannot link files that are already in your OneDrive. That is explained under Why you can't link existing files below.
Note: OneDrive storage is part of the Bring Your Own Storage feature and may not be included on every plan. If it isn't on your plan, the card shows an Upgrade to unlock badge.
What Beeswax can see — please read this before connecting
This is the one place where OneDrive and Google Drive genuinely differ, and it is worth being plain about.
When you connect Google Drive, Google offers a narrow permission that lets an app see only the files it created itself. Microsoft has no equivalent. The narrowest permission Microsoft offers that lets Beeswax store files for you is one that grants access to all the files in your OneDrive.
So, honestly:
- Beeswax asks for read and write access to your whole OneDrive, because Microsoft offers nothing narrower.
- Beeswax uses that access only for the Beeswax folder it creates, and the files it puts there for you. It does not browse, index, search or copy anything else.
- We cannot prove that to you with a permission screen the way the Google integration can. You are relying on how Beeswax behaves, not on a boundary Microsoft enforces.
If that trade isn't one you want to make, use Google Drive storage or NAS storage instead, or keep your files in Beeswax's own storage. All of those remain available and nothing about them changes.
Your organisation may need to approve Beeswax first
If your Microsoft 365 is managed by a workplace or school, your IT administrator may have turned off the ability for people to approve third-party apps themselves. If so, the sign-in will stop and tell you that consent is needed.
That is not an error and there is nothing to retry — ask whoever administers your Microsoft 365 to approve Beeswax, then connect again. Personal Microsoft accounts are not affected.
How to connect
You can connect OneDrive from either place:
- Money → Connected Apps — click Connect on the OneDrive card, or
- Account Settings → File Storage — click Connect OneDrive
Then:
- A Microsoft sign-in window opens. Choose the Microsoft account whose OneDrive you want to use.
- Review the permission request and Accept.
- Beeswax returns you to Storage Settings and creates the Beeswax folder in that OneDrive.
Once connected, the OneDrive card shows the connected account and when it was last checked.
Note: Connecting, reconnecting and disconnecting are done by Account Owners and Super Admins. There is one OneDrive connection per business.
Making it your default storage
Connecting OneDrive makes it available — it doesn't automatically become where new files go. On the Account Settings → File Storage page you'll see all your storage locations with a Default column. Set the one you want new project files to use as the default. From the same page you can test the connection and manage per-project folders.
You can have a NAS, a Google Drive and a OneDrive connected at the same time. Each gets its own card on a project's Files page, and where you drop a file is where it is stored. A file lives in exactly one place — Beeswax never keeps a second copy somewhere else.
Where your files go
Files you upload are organised into per-project folders inside the Beeswax folder in your OneDrive:
Beeswax / <Client name> / <Project name> / <folders you configured>
You can rename or move that Beeswax folder in OneDrive and Beeswax will keep up — it tracks the folder itself, not where it happens to sit. Renaming a project in Beeswax renames its folder in OneDrive too, and the files inside are untouched.
A few names Microsoft refuses outright — anything ending in a full stop, names beginning ~$, and a handful of reserved words such as CON — are adjusted slightly when the folder is created, so a client or project named that way still works.
Opening a document in desktop Word, Excel or PowerPoint
Every OneDrive-stored file has Open in OneDrive in its menu, which opens it in the browser. Word, Excel and PowerPoint files also get Open in Word (or Excel, or PowerPoint). That link hands the document straight to the desktop app on your computer, which signs in to OneDrive itself and opens the file with autosave and co-authoring. If you run the OneDrive sync client, it is the very same file you see in your local OneDrive folder, so edits made either way stay in step.
A few things to know:
- The desktop app has to be installed. If it isn't, the link does nothing, so the browser link is always there as well.
- Browsers differ in how they hand off. Edge opens the app directly, Chrome and Safari may ask once whether to allow it. Choose to always allow and it won't ask again.
- Very long file locations can't be passed to the desktop app (Microsoft caps the link at 256 characters). If a file is buried deep enough that its link is too long, the desktop option is hidden and the browser link still works.
- This only works for files that live in OneDrive. Files stored in Beeswax or Google Drive can be downloaded and opened locally, but the desktop app can't save back to them.
Why you can't link existing files
Google Drive storage lets you link a file that is already in your Drive: Beeswax stores a pointer, the file never moves, and nothing is copied. That works because Google's file picker hands Beeswax access to that one file and nothing else.
Microsoft has no such mechanism that works at the scale of a bookkeeping system. The available options either grant access to your entire drive anyway, expire after a few hours, or change the sharing permissions on your own documents as a side effect — which would quietly degrade your own OneDrive as Beeswax registered files in it.
Rather than do any of that, Beeswax simply doesn't offer linking on OneDrive. If linking existing files matters to you, Google Drive storage and NAS storage both support it.
Sharing a file publicly
Marking a OneDrive-stored file as visible to clients asks OneDrive to create an anonymous view link for that one file.
Many organisations turn anonymous sharing links off. If yours has, Beeswax will tell you the share could not be created — the file is fine and nothing is broken, but public sharing from Beeswax will not work for OneDrive files until your administrator allows anonymous links.
Deleting files — Beeswax never deletes a file it didn't create
Beeswax does not delete files it does not own. This is the rule for every storage backend.
Every OneDrive file in Beeswax is one Beeswax uploaded for you, so when the delete dialog offers to remove the file from your storage as well, that choice does exactly what it says. Deleted files go to your OneDrive recycle bin, the same as if you had deleted them yourself — so a mistake is recoverable from OneDrive for as long as your recycle bin keeps it.
Anything else in your OneDrive is never touched.
Connection states
The OneDrive card reflects the health of the connection:
| State | What it means | What to do |
|---|---|---|
| Connected | Working normally; new files can be stored in your OneDrive. | Nothing — manage the default and folders in Storage Settings. |
| Disconnected | The connection was deliberately turned off. Existing files stay where they are. | Click Reconnect to store new files here again. |
| Needs attention | The Microsoft authorisation expired or was revoked. | Click Reconnect to re-authorise. |
| Upgrade to unlock | OneDrive storage isn't included on your current plan. | Upgrade your plan (or ask your account owner). |
Microsoft sign-ins expire more readily than you might expect — changing your Microsoft password, for example, ends the authorisation. Reconnect restores it and affects nothing already stored.
Disconnecting
From the OneDrive card's ⋯ menu, choose Disconnect. Beeswax stops using that OneDrive for new files.
- Existing files stay where they are — disconnecting doesn't delete anything from your OneDrive, and files already stored there remain attached to their projects.
- While disconnected, Beeswax can't open or preview files that live only in your OneDrive. Reconnecting restores access.
- New files will fall back to your other default storage.
Disconnecting in Beeswax removes Beeswax's stored credentials. Microsoft does not offer apps a way to hand back their own access, so to withdraw Beeswax's permission on Microsoft's side as well, go to myapps.microsoft.com, find Beeswax, and remove it. Doing both is the complete disconnect.
Note: Only Account Owners can disconnect OneDrive.