File sharing & file storage

Use Teams for content required by other staff on an ongoing basis.

  • Don’t use for content that should not be seen by other members of that team or channel.
  • Any content in a team is automatically shared with members of that team.
  • You can add people outside the University to a team as guests.
  • Each team has its own SharePoint online site for storage.
  • Teams has 1TB of storage as standard. This can increase to 25TB, contact the UofG Helpdesk for more information.
  • Team Owners are responsible for managing content and access permissions within the team. They can delete the team and all its content. We recommend a minimum of two Team Owners, and no more than four.

Recover and restore files

The University’s SharePoint (and Exchange) data is stored in two UK Microsoft data centres. Three separate copies are held in each data centre for 14 days for disaster recovery.

Files in the Recycle Bin are stored for 93 days before they are permanently deleted.

Office365 saves up to 500 versions of a file so you can view or revert to an older version.

If the Team or SharePoint site has been deleted by the Team Owner in the last 30 days, it may be possible for an IT Administrator to recover it. After 30 days the Team or SharePoint site will be permanently deleted, contact the UofG Helpdesk for support.

Use OneDrive for personal file storage and ad-hoc collaboration.

Access your OneDrive through Office 365

  • OneDrive gives you up to 1TB storage as standard. This can be increased to 5TB, contact the UofG Helpdesk for more information.
  • Office365 saves the last 500 versions of a file so you can restore an older version.
  • OneDrive stores any files and conversations you have in Teams Chat (not content shared in a Teams Channel).
  • For content required by other staff on an ongoing basis – use Teams instead of OneDrive or Chat.

File sharing

You can share folders and files on your OneDrive with colleagues and students.

You can also share with people outside the University:

  • If they also have a OneDrive account you can share files directly. This is the most secure method.
  • You can send a link to their email address, but be aware that the shared file can be read by anyone who has the email.

Recover and restore files

The University’s SharePoint (and Exchange) data is stored in two UK Microsoft data centres. Three separate copies are held in each data centre for 14 days for disaster recovery.

Files in your Recycle Bin are stored for 93 days before they are permanently deleted.

Office365 saves up to 500 versions of a file so you can open or revert to an older version.

If any of your files are deleted, overwritten, corrupted, or damaged, you can restore your OneDrive to any point in the last 30 days. Contact the UofG Helpdesk for support with this. 

Leaving the University

All content in your OneDrive is deleted 90 days after you leave the University.

Before you leave, hand over any key files on your OneDrive that are required by the University. The recipient must store these in a secure location.

University Transfer Service

Staff and students can use this service to:

  • Share files up to 10GB with anyone, anywhere
  • Receive files from anyone, anywhere

Need to share a file larger than 1MB with several people? Instead of cluttering up everyone's email inboxes, use the University Transfer Service to temporarily make the file available to them in a secure and efficient way.

Note: Confidential material should be encrypted. See Confidential data.

Network drives

Staff can share data using a shared network drive which is accessible via Standard Staff Desktop and the Glasgow Anywhere Desktop

Contact your local IT support for advice on setting up a new drive or to make changes to an existing drive. 

Nextcloud: research data sharing

We can provide an on-campus cloud service for people who cannot use Teams, or have local data protection requirements. It provides a simple cloud file-sharing system, accessible through your web browser or through a desktop sync app.

 Please log in to the UofG Helpdesk and search for "Nextcloud" to request access.

NOTE: Microsoft Teams is a much more powerful solution for project data storage, and provides advanced sharing, editing and a much higher data quota than is possible with Nextcloud.

Support