SkyDrive on Xbox One will bring your pictures and videos to life

By Sam Sabri
last updated

Whatever Microsoft ends up calling SkyDrive won’t matter to use too much. The service is easily one of our favorite cloud storage solutions, but does so much more if you’re inside the Microsoft ecosystem. From syncing your PC apps and settings across your devices on Windows 8.1 to automagically saving your Windows Phone images, SkyDrive is awesome. And it’s about to get a lot better for folks using the service on the Xbox One.

SkyDrive on Xbox One

Did you pre-order an Xbox One? Do you already have a ton of videos and photos on SkyDrive? Then you’re going to dig the interaction between the two products in a ten and a half days. SkyDrive on Xbox One will be available when you pick up your console on November 22nd. You’ll be able to enjoy your photos and videos that you own or those shared with you via SkyDrive.

Check out the Channel 9 video above with Jenn Henshaw. He’s principal group product manager for the Xbox One and gives us a walkthrough of some of the SkyDrive features on Xbox One.

Your photos really look good on your big screen in the living room. Using the SkyDrive app on Xbox One you can zoom, pan and enhance images. Full screen images at 1080p are downloaded as the thumbnail for images, but a higher resolution downloads when you interact with an image. For example, you can use the right stick on the Xbox One controller to zoom in.

We can’t wait to see our photos and videos come to life on our television sets with Xbox One. What about you?

Source: Xbox Wire (opens in new tab)

77 Comments
  • I'm so excited for the midnight launch to get my XBOX! :D
  • Day one it is
  • But why can't I download music from the SkyDrive to my FUCKING PHONE!!!??? That really pisses me off... Android phones can do it when I share a link.
  • Sure is annoying.
  • Not to mention half the time I try to stream music from SkyDrive it just says that the file is not supported on my phone - when I just played it fine the other day
  • yeah you are right, it's really annoying
  • Why use SkyDrive to listen to music on your WP? My music is connected to my Xbox music app on windows 8.1 and I can stream it all from my music on Xbox music on my Lumia 920. I didn't have to download or sync anything.
  • Nice feature. But games is more important.
  • They have games done, it's all the extras that make it worth buying over the PS4. Personally I have a day one edition ordered almost entirely for the extra bits. Sure it will probably take the place over my pc for gaming (although no illegal downloading on an xbox, so that remains to be seen). I want it for skype and home media. Although the one main thing I want it for, it stil hasn't been confirmed if it can do or not. I currently use a jailbroken apple tv running XBMC to watch movies I have stored on my network drive. I still don't know if it can do that or not. lol
  • It's been confirmed that Xbox One supports DLNA. So in theory, if your network media server supports DLNA also, then its on.
  • Thats good then, they confirmed the PS4 won't be DLNA compliant didn't they?
  • I can now confirm after starting an xbox help chat at 19:50, that now at 00:00, they have confirmed it CANNOT do it. You cannot stream from a pc, you cannot stream from a NAS, you cannot play from a memory chip (even though they originally suggested that as an option, they then said you actually can't do it). Sigh. Enabling Playto is an option in the xbox settings, but they said it doesn't work.
  • She was wrong! PlayTo does work, I managed to get it going. But the other options dont. I guess I can make do with this limited functionality for now. Better than nothing. Or could just go back to using XBMC on the ATV2
  • This really is a stupid argument. Even if games are most important to you, don't you use your TV for other things? So by saying you don't want the Xbox to have all these new features, you're basically saying when you're watching TV it's more important to you.   The PS4 isn't going to be able to tell you when your friends are putting a party together, or send you game invites while you're watching broadcast or cable TV, or streaming your media over DLNA, or watching video over mass media storage.   Which console is more for gamers, the one that brings gaming to the centre of everything you do? Or the one that makes gaming a seperate activity off to the side of everything else you do?
  • That has to be one of the best posts ive seen for explaing how the xbox one works as the centre of your entertament. I cant wait to get my xbox one a week on friday. Loving my WiiU at the moment but the xbox one looks impressive.
  • And what would the SkyDrive team do exactly, start making games? This doesn't hinder game developers whatsoever. :) 
  • To you they are. Those other features are more important to me.  Besides the Xbox One can play games just fine.
  • Now thats what PS4 doesnt have :D
  • But who cares really? I have my surface, phone, laptop, desktop PC for viewing pics and personal vids. This feature is the new "lets bring out the photo album"...
  • My father bought a 360 for his grandchildren to play and use it to show his photo albums to the family. Point being, why people think their opinion is the only one that matters ? The line "who cares" is silly.
  • Uh huh...so my point was valid.
  • Yes, your point of being a kid who wants a gaming box for his bed room, which is ok, but self entitled. #dealwithit or buy a ps4 to play "da indies".
  • Ha. I did preorder a ps4. And not for bedroom, I have a multimedia room with 4 hdtvs, zoning for both gaming and watching movies, two 360's, two ps3's...#iamawesome
  • Your mother is calling you for dinner. No reasonable adult talks like that. "lol".
  • #youwishyouwereme
  • Usually parents gives their kids a lot of toys so that they don't have to speak to them. Most of these poor kids don't even have real friends either. Most of the time when they're bragging on the internet they are actually calling out for help. #iamawesome could also be hiding the fact that #iamlonely.
  • Hey, fuck face, I am 36 years old and have friends. This issue came from the slayerspecial sad cause his dads bought a Xbox just to show his pics, and I made fun of people like that.
  • 4 hdtvs in a single room. do you have attention deficit disorder?
  • Yep, dude its a basement. Not a room. Wtf
  • I'll stick to 1080P lol
  • Haha.... Glad I'm getting one (ps4) that is.....
  • +1
  • Congratulations on your purchase.
  • Better be a folder filter. Some pics need to stay in the vault not on the big screen
  • Lol. I was thinking the same
  • This!
  • Why don't they call it SkypeDrive?
  • Cause this has nothing to do with Skype is my guess.
  • My hope is that they officiall name it "Microsoft SkyDrive" and then we can keep calling it SkyDrive (I love that name), just as they did with Excel.
  • Windows in The sky With Diamonds...
  • Hahahaha!
  • maybe some gamers will kill me for that but what if i would love to have all the entertainment and tv features from xbox one just without the gaming stuff? at a much cheaper pricepoint of course...i'm not considering things like that for myself but for example my mum would really love that
  • Don't worry, you aren't alone wondering where the game features are.
  • It was rumoured for quite a while. We probably would have bought that instead; I enjoy the occasional game but if we were talking about $200 or more cheaper it wouldn't be a question that my 3 hours a month of gaming wouldn't be worth it.
  • An Xbox Lite would be fantastic as a second TV option. I don't need gaming on every TV, or the expense of it, but would love a unified system and the same UI on every screen.
  • Microsoft is the only company without a smart tv device. While I think the xbox one will get more services and features through software updates to compete against apple tv, google tv, Samsung. Etc. It would be nice if Microsoft created a small device that worked like apple tv, but more robust with SkyDrive and a stripped down windows experience for $50 to $100. Have it work with miracast, connect to your Microsoft account and sync with your windows 8/RT Windows phone, Xbox one etc. One can dream. Essentially an Xbox one without the gaming.
  • I agree. Looking at the new Xbox One, I'm in love with all the media features, but I'm not a gamer and it's too expensive for me in its current form (I'm still broke from my Lumia 1020 and Surface Pro 2 purchases). I'd personally love a striped down version that only kept media support, Kinect could potentially be sold separately (for those who'd still want voice recognition, facial recognition, etc.). Sounds awesome, I'd be willing to pay up to $300, maybe $350 for such a thing. However, $150-$200 would be much better, but I can't ask for the world. Anyways, it'd be awesome. I'm drooling over the Xbox One media features, but I don't need the gaming baggage it carries with it, including the price.
  • ^^ this
  • Watching this I can't help to think how amazing Xbox as a device and platform could be if this was the only thing Microsoft focused on. The fact they've achieved this while splitting their resources on gaming and all other products Microsoft works on is a testament to the ability of their employees.
  • I just preordered mine. Dells preorders just opened up today.
  • You wont get it until 2014 though. :-/
  • My order states delivered by nov 29
  • Mine will arrive on the 23.
  • I want a pin for apps, especially this. I don't care if family or friends use my xbl for games but free access to my important files is an issue.
  • Umm. Create separate profiles for them, then assign it a pass code to your account. If you allow them to sign in as you, that's your fault. Asking for a user enter a password for every app they start is just out of the question.
  • I guess you don't get my issue. Netflix, Hulu games, all quasi shared. No desire for separate Xbox accounts, just a pin for one app.
  • That's your choice then for forcing your family to share one account. Xbox One lets you share your gold membership over multiple accounts, so you don't have to pay multiple times. You can't complain that your family can touch your stuff and mess with your settings if you refuse to give them their own accounts.   Why not just give them each an account, let them set them up how they want, and then log netflix and hulu into all of them?
  • I didn't know that? So if my wife who has a WP uses that account she could play online with gold too? The real issue though is the kids just jumping into certain apps. Wish W8 and Xbone had a kids corner.
  • How about you create one account for your family, and one just for you? Seems kinda iffy letting your whole family access all your stuff without a PIN... couldn't they rack up charges buying stuff without you knowing?
  • Attention: Fellas, if you got pics on your sky drive that you dont want your wife/girlfriend to see.  It is now time to delete them.  I hope this is optional.   Edit:  Its optional 
  • Sweet!
  • Woot!
  • Damn, i don't want to buy an Xbox One. LOL
  • Love the Xbox one
  • While the experience is not as nice, you have some of these features on XBox360 today by installing the SkyDrive app. http://support.xbox.com/en-US/apps/skydrive/skydrive-setup
  • Yeah, I've used SkyDrive on my 360 and the experience was pretty lousy. Navigation and image loading was incredibly slow; video playback was really slow and stuttery (this is true for me on PC as well). I really hope they've done some serious infrastructure upgrades.
  • In my Steve Ballmer voice... PORN PORN PORNPORNPORNPORN
  • No music? Gee that would of been great!
  • Can't you view skydrive photos on your 360. I thought thats always been possible.  
  • Yep and videos.
  • Hmmm this means Microsoft finally has broaden the download bandwith per user for Skydrive, assuming the Skydrive videos run smooth without buffering on the xbox one. This is awesome. Cause up until now, whenever I stream my vacation videos from skydrive, it's ALWAYS buffering. No matter what device i'm on (desktop PC, Windows Phone, Surface Pro 2, all with heaps o download internet speeds). Lets hope the buffering finally stops! Can't wait to have my Xbox One sometime 'early 2014'! Still no release date for the Netherlands......
  • Yet another reason we need the ability to password protect folders within SkyDrive.
  • Agreed - and/or to be able to mark folders for exclusion from previewing on live tiles.
  • I agree that this, coupled with the auto-uploading of photos by my Windows Phone to SkyDrive, is pretty cool.  However, this is an even stronger argument for a feature I already wish existed - the ability to 'opt-out' certain photos from auto-uploading which might not be the sort of thing you want anyone who happens to be in your living room to see...
  • Lol
  • Interesting if the App Channels is a way that notifications may work for WP8.1
  • Ms fucked up with skydrive in windows 8.1