Download Multiple Documents from Office 365 to Hard Drive

INTRODUCTION

In this Informative article, we will discuss on how to move/ download multiple documents from Office 365 to local drive/ server.
As we already know that Office 365 provides access of all the data through the cloud which enables the users to access the data from anywhere & at any time.
But the cloud also has some limitations like, if the user accidentally deletes or losses the data. The he might lose the data forever. So the user should download documents from Office 365 to on-premise to be on the safer side.

Download Documents from Office 365 to Hard Drive

User Concerns Regarding Access Office 365 File Offline

"At present, I am using Office 2010 and I am planning to switch to Office 365 soon. My question is that whether I will be forced to save my documents to the cloud. Can't I access/ save Office 365 files locally? There are some confidential files which I would not like to be uploaded to the cloud."

"Hi, I've just bought a new laptop and with it I have got Office 365. Recently, I tried to save a word document but the only location available for saving is OneDrive. I am unable to view & access Office 365 files offline. I'm more of a computer illiterate, and would still like my data to be saved on my computer so that I dont have to login everytime to OneDrive. I want to be able to modify my docs as soon as I login to my desktop. Please help me on how to download folders from OneDrive to PC."

"I am an Office 365 admin, I need to copy SharePoint site to local drive as soon as possible. Is there any way I could perform backup Office 365 documents without any failure & quickly?"

Need to Download Documents from Office 365

The Microsoft Office 365 productivity application offers cloud platform access to the users. The reasons to transfer/ move the data from O365 to local drive are as follows:

To access mailbox documents on local server/ drive.
To be able to access important data in case of data disasters like corruption, hacking or deletion.
In case of Outage or no internet connection, you can access the data which is saved to your personal drive.
To share bulk & selective documents/ information with non Office 365 users.

How to Save Office 365 Documents to Hard Drive?

Here are the steps on how to download documents from Office 365 to Hard Drive:

Manual approach to Saving Office 365 Documents Locally

First, go to Microsoft OneDrive sign in page and enter your credentials.
Second, look for all the required documents under My Files.
Third, hold down shift key and select all documents you want to copy then hit the download button at the top.
Fourth, if multiple documents are selected OneDrive makes a *.zip file to transfer/ save the documents to the hard drive.
Fifth, if needed unzip them via WinRAR.
Finally, all the needed and required files are backed up by the user.

Note: Internet connection is required to perform the above mentioned steps.

Limitations of the Manual Method

So, the user is having lots of data files in the Office 365 cloud storage. But, here are the limitations of the manual methods are given below:

Also Read: How to Export Office 365 Mailbox to PST File?

Lengthy and Time consuming process because files from one user account can be downloaded at a time.
If OneDrive is not frequently backed up the data can be lost easily (due to policy settings).
Bulk export results in a zip file formation wich can corrupt the saving of multiple Excel, PowerPoint and Word files to computer.

Note: If the above method does not suit the users. Then, we recommend the use the third-party tool such as Office 365 Downloader which helps to transfer/ download folder from OneDrive to PC (folder from complete Office 365 mailbox).

Professional Approach to Saving Office 365 Documents Locally

First, download the critically acclaimed Office 365 Export Tool on your machine.

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Second, select Office 365 as the source and File System as destination.
Third, go to the workload section only select the Documents and apply the date filter.
Fourth, Validate the permissions for both source and destination.
Fifth, pick a mapping methedology from the options Fetch, Import, Download.
Finally, Validate user selection and hit Start Migration.

Note: The tool needs to be activated to perform the above mentioned steps.

Notable Features of the Automated Utility

Users who choose to bring their data files in the Office 365 cloud storage via the utility get to enjoy the features given below:

Also Read: How to Export Office 365 Mailbox to PST File?

Date filter to download documents from Office 365 on local storage in an accurate manner.
Priority seletion option to move the data of most important users first.
Bulk export feature all files in their native format for saving of multiple Excel, PowerPoint and Word files to computer.
Users can move recently added items with the help of Delta migration.
Any mistakes during the download of documents can be undone via the Retry migration mechanism.

These just touch the surface of the tremendous potential of the tool for saving OneDrive files locally

Conclusion

In this blog we have discussed user concerns, need & ways to download multiple documents from Office 365. We have seen that the users wish to move/ backup Office 365 documents that are present in OneDrive, or even the data like sites from SharePoint. So to be able to download documents from Office 365 we have suggested a manual method. But the users can also go for an automated solution. If you are any one of the following then you should preferably choose an automated approach which allows saving Office 365 documents locally/ offline.

Who should go for automated solution to export Office 365 documents locally?

The business users whose system is always prone to the virus.
The person who wants to access Office 365 files offline to avoid circumstances like loss of internet connection and Office 365 servers not working.
Users who wants to backup/ export the uploaded OneDrive data in bulk.