How To Manage Multiple OneDrive Accounts in 2020: Keeping Your Eggs in Multiple Baskets

Spreading your data over several accounts can help keep things organized. However, it can become a hassle to search your accounts for an elusive file, even if you only use one provider. In this article, we’ll go through how you can manage multiple Microsoft OneDrive accounts from one computer so that you can share and sync folders easily.

Key Takeaways: 

• You can add multiple OneDrive for Business accounts to show up in Windows File Explorer.
• To use more than one personal account at once, you need to use a third-party app.
• You can also use multiple different cloud services alongside each other easily.

Luckily, OneDrive comes with a built-in way to add multiple accounts. This also isn’t limited to Windows 10, with macOS and mobile devices supporting the same feature. If you want to learn more about what OneDrive offers, read our full review.

However, this built-in method lets you add only one personal OneDrive account. Instead, to access files across personal accounts, you should use a third-party app that enables you to manage or sync your cloud drives.

• How Do I Set Up Multiple OneDrive Accounts on One Computer?

  You can set up two or more accounts on one computer within the app’s settings menu, but only one can be a personal OneDrive account. To add multiple personal OneDrive accounts, you’ll need to use a cloud-to-cloud management service.

• Why Do I Have Two OneDrive Folders?

  If you changed the name of your OneDrive folder before you upgraded to Windows 10, it may not recognize the old drive and sync it up with the new one. The easiest fix is to unlink your OneDrive account and re-sign in — making sure to save everything beforehand. However, sometimes it can require a more serious fix, such as editing the Windows registry.

• Can I Have Two OneDrive Accounts on My iPhone?

  You can add multiple OneDrive accounts to your iPhone, although you will have the same restrictions as Windows 10 and Mac devices. This means you can’t link two personal accounts to your iPhone, and you’ll have to sign out whenever you want to work on a file in your other cloud storage drive.

Why Use Multiple OneDrive Accounts? 

There are a few reasons why you might use multiple OneDrive accounts. Many people will have a OneDrive for Business account that they want to use to work from home, and to accommodate this, OneDrive’s desktop app lets you add as many of these accounts as you need.

However, you might also prefer to keep different files in each account or want to get the most out of the free 5GB of storage. If this is what you need, you should follow our second method of managing multiple OneDrive accounts and use a third-party cloud-to-cloud management solution.

How to Sync Multiple OneDrive Accounts in Windows 10 

First-party tools are normally the easiest way to do things, and you should use them if they’re available. As Microsoft lets you add multiple OneDrive for business accounts to your computer, this is the best way to have your office or school files at home without dealing with third-party tools.

1. Go Into the Settings Window

   Click the OneDrive icon in the Windows 10 system tray to open up an access panel. Here you should select “help and settings” and then “settings” to open the settings window.

   

2. Choose to Add An Account

   In the “account” tab, choose to “add an account.” You can also unlink your PC in this tab if you want to disable OneDrive and add a new personal account.

   

3. Add Your Business Account

   Enter your email address and password to add your account. This will appear in Windows File Explorer as a second OneDrive folder with the business name attached.

   

Free Ways to Link Multiple OneDrive Accounts on One Computer 

If you have two personal OneDrive accounts — or you’re having problems with the first method not working — you’ll have to use third-party tools to add multiple accounts to one computer. 

There are several cloud-to-cloud management providers available, but MultCloud is free and easy to get started with, so we’ll be using it here. Read our MultCloud review if you want more information about the service.

1. Create a MultCloud Account

   Go to MultCloud.com and create your account. You will have to activate your account with a confirmation email and then sign in.

   

2. Add Your First OneDrive Account

   In the “add cloud drives” tab on the left, choose to add a OneDrive account. This will connect the OneDrive account that you’re currently signed in to MultCloud.

   

3. Add Your Second OneDrive Account

   Now repeat step two to add your second OneDrive account, except click the link to change your account.

   

4. Change to Your Second OneDrive Account

   The link will take you to OneDrive, where you can sign out and then log into your other account. When you’re done, go back to MultCloud and click “add OneDrive account.”

   

5. Find the Files You Want to Sync

   With both accounts added, go into the one with the files or folders you want to sync and find them. Select everything you want to move, right-click them and select “copy to.”

   

6. Copy the Files

   In the “copy to” window, go into your second OneDrive account, find wherever you want to put the files and click “transfer.” You can also check the “move” box if you want the documents deleted from the original drive.

   

7. Wait for MultCloud to Move Your Files

   Now, wait until MultCloud moves everything to the new folder. You can follow its progress with the window in the bottom-right corner of the page.

   

Alternatives to OneDrive That Allow You to Manage Multiple Accounts 

If you want to keep everything with one provider but don’t want to use OneDrive, there are a few options. Services like Google Drive and Dropbox (read our Dropbox review) make sharing in browsers easy. However, even our favorites — Sync.com and pCloud — limit users to one personal account at a time.

Instead, you should get one account with several different services to sync and share files between multiple cloud folders without dealing with limits or third-party apps. There are plenty of options for free cloud storage, and it’ll let you balance ease-of-use with security — depending on what you need for each folder.

Final Thoughts 

To add multiple OneDrive accounts to Windows 10, you’ll either need to use third-party tools or deal with the limit of having only one personal OneDrive account. Although it’s great to have these options, they’re rather limited to letting you do office work on your OneDrive for Business account without signing out first.

However, as this is a fairly standard policy across most decent cloud services, you aren’t going to solve this problem by leaving OneDrive behind. So unless you want to use services like MultCloud or CloudHQ (read our CloudHQ review), you’re stuck with grabbing a single account with several of the best cloud storage providers and using them together. 

Do you regularly share files between two OneDrive accounts? Have you tried to access them both at the same time on Windows 10? Let us know your thoughts in the comments section below. Thanks for reading.