OneDrive updated for Windows Phone with tons of new user-requested features

By Sam Sabri
last updated

We love when our favorite apps get updated. Head into the Windows Phone Store and you’ll see a new version of OneDrive waiting for you. OneDrive, as you know, is Microsoft’s cloud-storage solution that allows you to store documents, photos, videos and more in the cloud. It also powers all the syncing between your devices. We’re looking at a fairly big update for OneDrive with a ton of new changes. Let’s check it out.

The last update for the app came out in mid-February when the app was renamed from SkyDrive to OneDrive. That renaming also introduced new features like a new thumbnail view, improved view of shared files, the ability to share multiple items at once and more! That was version 3.5 of the app, today we’re looking at version 4.1 with the following features:

  • Now looks great on large screen phones
  • Upload multiple photos, videos and files at once
  • New immersive view for viewing and managing photos
  • Open files from OneDrive in other apps
  • Share files to OneDrive from other apps
  • Sort files and folders
  • Bug fixes and performance improvements

The new OneDrive now looks amazing on large screen phones like our Nokia Lumia 1520. There’s a much higher level of information density on the display to put that extra screen real estate to use. The ability to upload multiple photos, videos and files at once will be welcomed by users.

Head into a folder with photos and you’ll notice a new immersive view when viewing a photo. It makes it feel more like the new photo viewing experience found in Windows Phone 8.1.

Opening files from OneDrive into other apps and sharing files to OneDrive from other apps are two features that are very, very welcomed by us. Plus you can now sort files and folders by things like name, newest, oldest, largest and smallest. Again, very cool stuff we’re excited to see in OneDrive.

Download and update to the new version of OneDrive and let us know what you think!

Grab OneDrive from the Windows Phone Store. 

Thanks for the tip everyone!

QR: OneDrive

Sam Sabri
Sam Sabri
178 Comments
  • Yesss
  • Can we upload files (I mean pdfs, word, excel, etc not pictures) in email on WP8.1? I need that.
  • For some reason the email app doesn't use the file picker.. I hope there will be an update for that as I remember seeing a screenshot where they had attached multiple office files to an email.
  • Go the OTHER way.  Bring up OneNote, select (or multi-select) the files from your OneDrive and choose the Share icon.  One of the options will be your email account(s).  Create your email, you'll see the file is attached.  It works.
  • Everyone knows this is possible, their problem is that this doesn't help for existing email conversations (replies and forwards).
  • At this point i think people are being intentionally obtuse about this functionality. Its not difficult to understand yet everytime the same tired excuse is given. Maybe we will see this when the official update hits but most likely not. Going to go down well in the enterprise, I'm sure.....
  • This has been one of my biggest gripes with WP for years now. I still can't believe this functionality doesn't exist and it's even more frightening that they think WP is good for business when this is one of my most used functions in work email - replying to an email thread with an attachment
  • Exactly. This really should have been part of 8.1.
  • I get the feeling we have a Mail client update coming before final launch. There are features such as S/MIME that were announced but nowhere to be seen yet. So perhaps proper 8.1 features are yet to come.
  • That would be awesome and definitely keep me on WP... If this isn't coming and they don't introduce an option for uploading your personal collection to a cloud for Xbox Music like Google does (20,000 of your own songs - no crappy Xbox matching to f it up) then I don't know
  • I think S/MIME is there, you just need to connect to an Exchange server that has enabled it (I could be wrong though). But yes, I also hope for a Mail app update (but since it doesn't have a splash screen (luckily!) I worry it's not one of the apps that got split out of the OS..
     
  • I hope that's not the case with S/MIME, as it can be (and is very commonly) used outside the Exchange context and other operating systems (and even Outlook itself) can use it on services such as IMAP and Gmail (which I use for work). Not sure if Mail has been split out or not. I'd say no at this point, though the lack of a splash screen isn't necessarily indicative because a splash isn't a requirement (for instance I ensure my apps start fast enough that they don't need one).
  • Did you try importing the certificate? Yes, I also don't use any splash screens in my apps, what I meant was that all new and split out MS apps use splash screens now, but Mail doesn't.
  • Yeah I have imported my certificates and no luck. Another reason I feel it's not in there yet is because if I receive signed mail it doesn't have the ribbon that Outlook shows (like it was demoed at //build/). Yeah I'm not too happy about the splash screens on the split out apps, considering how unnecessary they are if you build the app correctly, and how much more native an app feels when it launches instantly.
  • Oh alright, well, then let's hope it will come eventually. Yes I agree, it can't be that hard for MS to write native apps that have a decent performance.
  • It's a perfectly legitimate feature request. Often the user flow is from the email first, not the file. And you can't attach something in an existing email conversation. The sad part is, this really isn't that difficult to add, especially now that they've opened up the OneDrive app to other apps. When clicking the paperclip icon in a new email, it should bring up a list of apps to pull files from just like it does when you share something, etc. It's really pretty simple and should be added soon now that the OneDrive app has been improved.
  • Yes, we know that works... but when tapping out a moderate sized email on your phone and you realize that you need to add in something other than a picture then it gets annoying really quickly. With all of the great business and productivity features that came with 8.1 I was pretty surprised that this was not one of them. I am sure a fix is in the works... but sooner would be appreciated more than later.
  • Really?
  • Just checked... and NOPE! Cant attach anything other than pictures in emails?  Wow! Daniel, will this be added later on?   EDIT: Seems like for some reason Microsoft didn't add the file picker to outlook. I can go to office apps and share attach from there. And they are not attached as one drive links but actual attachments.
  • You can, use the office hub however imo your better off sharing OneDrive links.
  • Personally i prefer to share my content through OnDrive link, I do it from when OneDrive was called Live Folder
  • You may prefer to do that but many of my clients prefer the actual file attached to the email, not a link. If you've ever used email for work you should know the reasons for this and the reason why we are all extremely disappointed that this feature is still not available...
  • I always use email for work, i'm an engeneer and i exchange costantly technical reports, dwg, render, and many other documentations with my colleagues, and they really love how easy it is to get updated versions of the files, they love Word or Excell collaboration, and how easy is reshare with tens of other colleagues and without re-upload the files, esplecally when you have to re send tens or hundreds of MB, they don't have the email blocked a for long time because you have to donwload hundreds MB of attachments, and is very very easy update a single file that must be shared between tens of colleagues, you don't have to resend the file to everyone. They also love OneNote notebooks, that i share through OneDrive, for coordinating and revisioning. So also, and perhaps especially, for work OneDrive (and similar service) are greet tools. You are right and surely there are some situations and some scenarios where a service like OneDrive is not applicable, but you can't say because it is for work else  is better attach the files. Is better because in your scenario (no matter whether at work or at home) there are some reason that make it better
  • I guess my argument all along has been: for how simple a feature this is to add, why is it not there? As I stated, in MY case it is much more important and useful to attach the actual file. In your stated case, there are definitely reasons why you want to use a link - and I can think of several other reasons for using a link as well. But to NOT INCLUDE this functionality is completely beyond me. I can't think of a SINGLE reasonable case that someone could've made to say that this functionality is pointless and shouldn't be included. Really frustrating...
  • O
    It's a shame we haven't gotten that as of yet.. Smh at Microsoft.
  • Wow...how do you do that? I really need this feature maybe I can use your method for the mean time.
  • Yes the email client don't support the file picker, but a third party app can make an email, through the built-in client, with every attachment that you want even using the file picker to select the attachments. So the question are two: or the built-in client don't support yet the file picker; or Microsoft want make the developers happy :)
  • OneDrive allows multiple documents to be attached to emails, yes.
  • Check my instruction on how to do that in wp8.1 dev prev forum section
  • What's the thread topic?
  • Looks like this feature has been removed, but it's available on WP8
  • Yessss
  • Wp 8.1 = epic fail. :D
    Two steps forward 10 steps back :P
    Yeah for more features and its integrated oh wait ! :D
  • Are you high??
  • We want a GD 1st party file manager.
  • Only morons need the kind of file manager you're whining about.
  • That's rich, coming from a product of incest.
  • If heaps of costumers are asking for it, why not provide it? The most common complaint I've heard from WP users and former WP users is that they felt that WP limited them. One user said it felt as if "Microsoft knows better than I do."  The attitude that "you don't really need what you're asking for" is why a fair number of people have left WP, even if they were initially excited about the platform. One close friend of mine loved the UX of WP, but felt so limited by the OS and the app selection that he left for iOS. He loves the app selection and overall reliability of the Apple device. But, he does look at my 520 (running 8.1) which I use on occasion and says that he wishes WP were better because he'd switch from iOS if WP could do all that iOS does. MS is getting closer to that scenario as they polish 8.1. It's still not quite there yet. I still use my Symbian 808 90% of the time because things like responding to an email and not being able to attach Office documents is just needlessly annoying.  There must be some sort of philosophical reluctance to add such simple functionality to a mail client, especially since you can already attach photos to an email. You just have to change the permitted file types and browsing on the phone/OneDrive to enable it. For the past year, Microsoft has answered on UserVoice that essentially they don't want users to do the things that users are requesting.  This attitude seems to be changing with 8.1 and the new CEO.  It needs to change completely and fast for WP to thrive.  I hope it does, because I truly like the WP platform's UX.  I want to like WP.  I just need MS to provide the basic features so that I can. Sorry for the rant.
  • Exactly. This is my major complaint about WP. This is not a business device at all. Android email and Office third party apps offer all of the business functionality that WP lacks.   And I have an ATIV SE.
  • If you only think to Sharepoint, Exchange, Office 365, is hard to say that WP is not a business device...
  • Those are nice apps. I think the concern is that the "do it the Microsoft way, instead of the user's way" is why WP seems not to be friendly to business users. For example, you should be able to open an email from a colleague and reply with an attachment of any file type. Currenly, you need to go to the app that deals with the file type and share the file from there. That's backwards from how the email user's workflow works.  It requires the user to start a new email thread and then manually include everybody on the original email distribution list.  Not all those recipients may be in the user's contact list, so it's likely that the user would inadvertently omit a recipient. It's great to have Office etc. on WP. It's the workflow that Microsoft demands that isn't business friendly. The WP system is great if you want to share web sites, tweets, or other data with your contacts.  I like that a lot. But WP needs to handle the traditional workflow as well.
  • This!
  • Is that supposed to be "good"? Was it that difficult to type? Christ.
  • No! are you ? O.O
  • Lol
  • If he's sober, then something is definitely wrong. LoL
  • Don't be that guy dude :D
  • Quick get a feminist to make you a sandwich while we fix this! Lol
  • You miss Windows Mobile 6.5?
  • Who doesn't?
  • Huh ? Was that for me ?
  • Wpcentral app
    Your worst nightmare :/
  • Yes
  • You fail to comprehend the greater scheme of things
  • What you smoking?
  • More drugs dude
  • What the hell are you talking about?
  • GTFO damned troll.
  • Troll score = 25, not bad
  • Ah, but can you save videos to your device? That's something I thought was possible in Windows Phone 8.1.   AAAAAAAAAAAND I just checked and you still can't. But I do like the new media-view.
  • Saving videos to the device or OneDrive, I want the ability to reshare those videos to apps. Like 6tag/instagram, 6snap/snapchat etc. I just checked OneDrive and you can share videos to Facebook... which makes me wonder. Is the sharing to an app, an app/api limitation or OneDrive limitation? If its an app limitation I'd like to see Rudy update his 6snap and 6tag apps to support video sharing via OneDrive/Cloudsix :)
  • The "sharing" option in OneDrive app is not the same than the sharing option in the OS. Onedrive allow to share folders and files/documents with people, it is not a "share" with apps because the OneDrive information is not local. The share in OS is for information stored in the phone, for sharing with apps- Onedrive-> share->people O.S.->share->apps
  • If that's true explain how I can share videos from OneDrive to Facebook?
  • Every apps can pick contents from every apps that the developer want to make a file picker provider (as OneDrive is now). When 6tag will be update with the support of the file picker it will pick file directly from OneDrive or Facebook, or Dropbox, and so on
  • Hopefully this will stop the "can't upload to OneDrive" threads at the forum.   Although I expected Music to be updated first.
  • Previously you could log in into another Microsoft account. Now (apparently) you can only access the Microsoft account of the phone. Or did I miss something?
  • Central login now, these apps pull the login credentials from your phone's account.
  • Yes, that's how it works now. Was quite handy to be able to open another account in the app, though.
  • Agree, now I can't manage my organization's Drive through my Windows Phone
  • You can use a third party app.
  • Version 3.5 -> 4.1? What happened to 4.0?
  • Not all versions are released externally. This is quite common in software.
  • Why do you care?
  • Man I love auto update...
  • Would this make again available the option to share photos of onedrive in Whatsapp or I getting it wrong?
  • You need to save your picture to phone
  • nice
  • I've felt the SkyDrive/OneDrive app on Windows Phone has long been excellent.  I just with the one on Windows 8 were nearly as good.  For one BIG thing, the version on the PC doesn't support folders shared WITH you, whereas the one on WP does.  I coordinate a LOT of functions with our home and our church using the cloud, so shared access to folders is critical...except on the PC you have to open up outlook.com and flip to OneDrive THERE in order to see Shared items.  That's a huge foul.
  • Agree with you there ScubaDog.  We got the KIA with Windows 8 (even after the Skydrive update to Onedrive with Windows 8.1).  Hopefully that comes with the next update.  Big let down.
  • Yup
  • Sweet !
  • Does anyone know if you can upload the Nokia Lumia 1020 high res photos?
  • On WP8.1, the phone automatically upload high res photos with no option to upload the low res ones.
  • Is this something just with the 1020? I still can choose upload quality under Photos app settings.
  • Best upload quality just means the phone will upload the original photos without downsizing them. On 1020, there are 2 original photos, one with 5MP and one with 38MP. In WP8.0, the photo app uploads the 5MP but on WP8.1, the photo app uploads the 38MP.
  • My auto-uploaded photos do not have "_HighRes" in the filename.
  • They are still the HighRes photos. Just check the dimensions of the photos (5360 x7136 in my case).
  • There is either a bug (still with this update) or on the Nokia camera app or firmware when running 8.1 that on the good side of things seems to have caused the photos it does upload to be a much higher quality on the best setting (in settings under Photos)..in the vicinity of 8 to 10 meg as opposed to the previous 1.5 to 2 meg. This is actually great as from what I can see it makes a difference in quality of the photos. The downside..and I am hoping this is just a temporary bug..is that when you reframe and crop on the phone...even though it shows it reframed on the phone....the uploaded photo is just an exact dup of the original..no reframing. This only happens on the best settings...on other settings the reframed photo is also uploaded...but all photos then are uploaded at substantially reduced quality...anyone else experiencing?
  • That's because it is uploading the 38MP photos instead of the resampled 5MP pixel photos. The 38MP photos never change.
  • illidanx - thanks . I don't think they are the full highrez 38 MP because they do not have the highrez tag and are more like 8 to 10 MP when uploaded..so there is definitely an increase in the size that is being loaded in 8.1 but either way..when I reframe and crop..it should upload the reframed and cropped photo and it is not..at least that's what it did in 8.0 and is expected behavior..otherwise there is no automatic way of having that image backed up to OneDrive. Hoping all this is sorted outbor at least explained
  • I think you are probably confusing between the dimension (in MegaPixels) and the file size (in MegaBytes). A 38 MP photo has the size of 8 to 10 MB. A 5 MP photo has the size of about 2 MB.
  • Ah..okay yes sorry that makes sense..so great we get upload of full resolution photos but not so great we can't reframe and get the subsequent 5MP reframed version uploaded. Hoping this may be worked out with a camera app update or Nokia firmware update (whenever the ATT gods allow)
  • Yeah, it auto updated and notified me in the notification centre :D
  • This is great, but what about a WP client for "One Drive for Business"? Our company is transitioning to this service. iOS client is available but not yet for WP?
  • Just enter your sharepoint address into the Office Hub. its built in.  
  • My access hasn't been enabled as of yet, but I'll give that a try once it is. Thanks for the tip!
  • So glad these updates are trickling down! Shows me there's determination at MSFT...
  • This is a very welcome update.  Now we just need a transparent live tile option for Windows Phone 8.1 :-)
  • Microsoft, I love you.
  • Just a shame the dev @ Transparency tiles hasn't got hold of it yet.......
  • It still won't let you download whatever files you want, it seems you can only download pictures?   What If I want to download documents or music/video files to my phone?
  • Does for me with Word files. Open from OneDrive and chose save, then change the location to Phone or leave it as OneDrive. It may depend on the file type or client app.
  • Now to update Office on WP.
  • Finally!OneDrive for WP is better than the IOS version :)
  • Aaaand it still resizes photos (other than those in camera roll folder) when downloading them, even if my settings tell it to download original.
  • Why can't they just add a transparent live tile?
  • Branding perhaps?
  • They can. Submit your feedback to have an option for transparent tile for those that want one. Some people prefer the brand colour.
  • Yeah I can upload tunes alright but I can't seem to download them to my phone!!
  • Exactly. OneDrive is still not reaching its potential if you're limited to the direction of file transfer and the file type. I want to download OneDrive music files to my phone, too.
  • How do you upload multiple photos at once? Or is that feature only for those with 8.1 preview?
  • Ich will das Update für die Musik App!
  • Still waiting for that and the Whatsapp update too
  • I know! Where's the ducking (if you get it, you got it) Xbox Music update! :-(
  • Yay
  • I really like OneDrive but box gave me 50 free gbs of storage so I use it instead
  • We still can't download videos from onedrive???
  • Well transparent tile option would be welcome too :)
  • Still there is one thing missing, the ability to set the background on one drive black.. I hate the white background.. Or even better, to set a background wallpaper on the app, or automatically set wallpaper from favorite photos..
  • ¿Y Xbox Music? ¿Para cuando papa?
  • How can I make the app background black?
  • You can't.
  • I still just want to be able to access (well, empty) the OneDrive Recycle Bin from the apps.
  • Does this somehow improve the OneDrive photo album experience?
  • Time stamp of photos is off by 3 hours in the app for me, anyone else notice this?
  • The timestamp of my photos is off too by 5 hours. The timestamp on the actual photos is correct and when I look at them on OneDrive from my PC it displays correctly as well. This only seems to occur on WP.   Anyone else experiencing this?
  • We want file manager in one drive
  • The one thing I don't get is....MS made it possible to use transparency but......why do they not follow there own concept and create transparent tiles
  • OneDrive is a brand... they sell space, and usage. Trying to make sure there is still brand recognition. There will be plenty of other's (probably facebok twitter, etc) will do the same things.
  • Finally multiple images thank god...
  • I appreciate the changes, but the app just looks very ugly to me I'm sorry its just bad compared to the iOS app. :-\
  • We have a "open with" option, but open with what? It doesn't let me choose app.
  • Can anyone post screenshot of how does it look like on 1520 ??
  • Microsoft get your shit together!!! After update, my phone rebooted twice when uploading photos. Shame on you, bugcrosoft.
  • Umm wtf... This is a BETA.... There is obviously going to be bugs, and for a preview this is really solid. Go downgrade if you can't take the minor bugs.
  • Yeah, restarting phone and no ability to upload photos to onedrive is a minor bug for you, then I feel sorry for you
  • Don't feel sorry for me.  No one else is complaining about this, so it's obviously specific to your account or device.  Rather than telling a company to 'get their s together' during a PREVIEW and where no one else is having issues with it, why not troubleshoot or ask the community forums? 
  • I'm sure I'm not the only one with this issue. Previous version worked fine, so it's not specific to my account or device
  • I'm trying really hard not to use google play music, for my music, since i use spotify for streaming and i have on onedrive my purchased music. i was hoping really hard that a new version of onedrive app would allow me to dowload and make my music available offline, but apparently no. So damn obvious. Damn. Fingers crossed for Rudy's cloudsix onedrive support.
  • This!  I hope the upcoming Music app will let you play music directly from your OneDrive. I'd also like to download music files from OneDrive to my phone. I've been doing this on Symbian for years, for Pete's sake.
  • Wait, so when you go to Add > Phone ... is that a hidden File Explorer or part of OneDrive? Gotta love those fast animations.
  • Same file picker we can use to upload files via IE11.
  • That is the UI of the file picker contracts
  • OneDrive is working great for me. I just uploaded a zip file a doc file a PDF and pictures with no issues. I have a 1520 with wp8.1 with everything being uploaded from scCard. Thanks MS
  • Grr why isn't the file manager in this??? I was hoping we'd get the universal app. I guess it's not ready yet. :-(
  • Now when will WhatsApp update for 8.1 so I can use one drive for attaching pics.
  • Noy you can upload music to OneDrive :)
  • hmmm.. do this update let you upload in ORIGINAL QUALITY?
  • It has allowed to upload in original quality long time ago. Go into settings and change it
  • I don't see the option of uploading in original quality at all even before the update. how about uploading in more than 4 or 6MB file size cause I can't remember uploading those files successfully?
  • What's your phone and phone company? Some phone companies have blocked that feature - don't know why.
  • I'm on Nokia Lumia 920. My network is Three UK.
  • I couldn't find any UK user with this issue. Is your WIFI on? It needs WIFI.
  • Maybe you're referring to the auto upload in Photos Hub. I know about that. My concern is the OneDrive app, it doesn't let you upload files larger than approx 6MB but I haven't tested that as of now. Also inside the app there's no option of uploading in original quality.
  • Which immersive view are you talking about sir? I don't see any difference while viewing and managing photos
  • Me neither.
  • I don't either
  • Is support for making files available offline available now? I looked and can't find it.
  • I was kind of hoping that they would add in file download support with the new file picker, so that if I want to save a specific file from my Onedrive onto the phone's local storage (and make use of that currently absolutely useless 'Downloads' folder) I could do so.  Obviously that is too much to hope for though.
  • Happy to have Sort By options! This was killing me before. My camera roll was right in the middle of 50-some folders.
  • Finally you can send
    More than on doc in an email
  • Was really hoping for a transparent tile in this update
  • I can only find version 3.2 of OneDrive in the Store!
  • Windows Phone 8.1?  Force the search for updates in settings. If you can't find the new version after that, go to the store and search for OneDrive, at the bottom, there is a button called "View", select and then open OneDrive app, then press back to return to the apps menu and back again to return to the store, now, the "View" button will say "Update".
  • No, Windows Phone 7.8!
  • But still no passlock. What a joke.
  • Can anyone please tell me when exchange accounts will let you view and edit office files in one drive on Windows Phone.
  • Still can't download videos locally to the phone from OneDrive
  • Well, you can use Pocket File Manager, you can copy anything from and to Onedrive.
     
  • In Windows Phone 8.0 Black, its updated to only version 3.6 which brings the above features plz note this point Daniel. Only Windows Phone 8.1 are receiving the Updated version 4.1 :) :)
  • Hm. Then where is the multiple upload option?
    From the picture hub when I press share it doesn't offer OneDrive option.
    I can 'save to SkyDrive'  after selecting multiple images but then I can't choose the directory for them... They will go to 'mobile uploads' or whatever. Howere some of the new features are implemented in version 3.6
  • Excellent. Hopefully it still plays nicely with boxcryptor.  
  • Tried uploading multiple pictures while battery saver was on and my 820 froze and restarted.
  • How do I comment photos?
  • why is it that i can't put a password to logon to OneDrive on the phone, i think there my be on option to request a password each time i logon to OneDrive on the phone. Right now anyone who touches my phone can access my OneDrive thru my phone right away without a password
  • Cant open folder after this update in phone ?
  • Anyone else try launching OneDrive from within Photos->Albums under the Online section.  It's messed up, it's duplicated some of my folders, and dropped most of the others.  I have picture folders for every year from 2003.  But here I only see 2003, 2004 and 2008... If I launch the OneDrive app, then I see everything fine.
  • How do u assign into other OneDrive accounts from app?