Chromebooks may have a reputation as not offering a full desktop OS. Still, Google’s operating system has matured in recent years, with tons of great ChromeOS features and tricks to get the most out of your favorite Chromebook. For a long time, ChromeOS and Microsoft Office didn’t get along as well as they could have. While you can easily access your Google Drive in the ChromeOS Files app, the same can’t be said about Microsoft OneDrive. That’s changing, so let’s dive into how you can set up OneDrive to sync with your Chromebook’s Files app.

Before we dive in, note that OneDrive is only available in the Files app in beta. You need to turn on a developer flag to make it work. As such, you can’t expect OneDrive to run completely bug-free, but this stopgap solution is better than the workaround you had to rely on before.

How to turn on the OneDrive flag on your Chromebook

Setting up OneDrive is a little complicated right now as it involves turning on a feature flag, but it’s better than nothing. Here’s what you’ll do:

1. Open the circular launcher button in the lower-left corner of your desktop, type chrome://flags, and press Enter.

2. An Experiments window opens. In the search bar at the top, type Enable Office files upload workflow.
3. A single result appears with the same name. In the drop-down menu next to it, select Enabled.

4. Click the Restart button that appears in the lower-right corner to implement the changes.

How to set up OneDrive on your Chromebook

Once that’s done, you can activate the necessary Microsoft Office integration.

1. Locate a random Microsoft Office document in your ChromeOS Files app. If you don’t have one available, download a template from Microsoft’s official template site.
2. Right click it and hover over the Open with option.
3. Choose Microsoft 365 in the next menu.

4. A screen that wants you to Set up Microsoft 365 to open files appears. Select Get started.

5. Depending on whether you installed Microsoft 365, you’ll see a prompt to Install Microsoft 365. Click the Install option.

6. You’ll see a Connect to Microsoft OneDrive dialog when the process is finished. Select the Connect to OneDrive option.
7. A Microsoft sign-in page appears. Sign in with your Microsoft account.
8. Grant ChromeOS access to your OneDrive files after you’re signed in. Select the Accept button.

9. If everything works, a Microsoft 365 setup complete dialog box shows up. Click Done.

OneDrive is now available as a menu entry in your Files app’s left sidebar. You may need to scroll down a little to see it if your Google Drive section is expanded. In it, you can access the files stored in your OneDrive. In contrast to Google Drive, you can’t download files for offline usage. You must be connected to the internet to work with your OneDrive files.

If you use Microsoft 365 to edit files on your computer, you’re prompted to move the file to OneDrive. This is necessary since Microsoft 365 is an online service, so it needs access to the file on its servers to manipulate it.

We’re finally getting there with OneDrive for ChromeOS

It’s taken years, but it’s good to see Microsoft and Google working together to bring OneDrive to ChromeOS. It likely won’t take long until the integration goes live in stable, at which point, you’ll jump through fewer hoops to get started. You’ll be able to turn on the integration by signing in to your Microsoft account and won’t have to flip on any flags or change any ChromeOS channels.

If you don’t want to switch to the beta channel, Autosync is the most robust syncing service we’ve found for third-party cloud services for OneDrive on Chromebooks. It’s limited compared to the official tools available on Windows and macOS. In many cases, using the OneDrive website to upload and download your data manually or switching to the OneDrive integration might be easier.

You don’t need to turn to these workarounds if you use Dropbox. The Dropbox Android app properly hooks into the ChromeOS Files app, allowing you to copy, cut, and edit files from the cloud like you would with Google Drive.