Access PC Files Remotely Using OneDrive’s Fetch File Feature

Using OneDrive’s Fetch File Feature You can Now Access Your PC’s Files Remotely

How often does it happen that we leave an important file on our office’s desktop and yearn for it when working at home. Well! If you have OneDrive on your PC, here is OneDrive’s File sharing capability with the help of which you can access files remotely from anywhere.

So, you get one more reason why you would want to choose OneDrive as a cloud storage option on your PC. That’s because you can easily fetch or retrieve files on that PC from any other PC. This can be done by visiting the OneDrive website on the other computer. You can even download copies of remote files and stream videos or view photos.

Before moving on with OneDrive’s “Fetch File” feature and the settings you need to enable, let’s have a glance at some of the prerequisites.

Prerequisites To Remotely Fetch Files From A PC In OneDrive

Here are some prerequisites that you should keep in mind when using the fetch file feature in OneDrive. The third feature is surprisingly exciting though –

• It would help if you had OneDrive on the PC you want to fetch files from, and the required settings should be enabled (That’s what we are here for! We’ll be talking about these settings in depth. So read on!)
• It is important to have a Microsoft account so that you can log in while you are using the PC and when later you log in on the website.
• It is not possible to fetch files that are on a Mac, but a Mac can be used to fetch those files which are there on a PC running Windows
• The feature works on Windows 10 and Windows 7, but surprisingly it doesn’t work on Windows 8.1

Also Read: 7 Useful Tips And Tricks To Master Microsoft OneDrive

Enabling The OneDrive Feature To Fetch Files

First, you will have to enable the feature on the desktop from which you want to access files remotely. Here we will look at the steps using which you will be able to allow the fetch files settings.

1. On the taskbar notification area click on OneDrive represented by a cloud button. Now, if you are unable to see the OneDrive cloud icon, you can click on the Show hidden icons arrow next to the notifications area or search for OneDrive in the search bar next to the Windows key
2. Once you have found and clicked on the OneDrive cloud icon, click on More and then click on Settings

3. Out of the five tabs that you will see, click on the Settings tab
4. Under General which will be the first thing that you will see, check the option Let me use OneDrive to fetch any of my files on this PC

5. Click on OK
6. To complete the setup, right-click on the OneDrive cloud icon and click on Close OneDrive
7. You can again start the app by reaching the Start button and typing OneDrive in the search bar next to the Start button

What If I Don’t Want The OneDrive’s Fetch File Feature

If you don’t want the fetch file feature, all you have to do is uncheck the option. Let me use OneDrive to fetch any of my files on this PC mentioned in Step No. 4 above.

With that out of the way, we will look at how you can easily fetch your PC’s files from the web.

Fetching Files From A PC Via Web

Now once you have enabled the OneDrive feature to fetch files remotely, time to see things into action. The steps are simple, and you’ll be amazed –

1. Sign in into OneDrive using your Microsoft login id and password

2. Click on the hamburger icon (three horizontal lines) just under the app launcher located at the farthest left

3. Click on PCs. Here you will be able to see that your PC is listed here.
4. Now, browse to the folder location from where you wish to download the fetched file
5. You can select one file or several files
6. Click on the Download button towards the top left under the address bar
7. You will now be asked a folder location to save this file. Once you have selected the folder location, click on Save

That’s it! You are all set to work on the file you fetched from a remote PC or any device for that matter.

Did We Help You?

It is indeed a pain when you have to work on a file once again just because it is not available with you and we sincerely hope that this blog post will make your life easy in that respect. For more OneDrive features and other Windows 10 tech-treats, keep reading Systweak Blogs. Also, follow us on all social media platforms.