Using OneDrive as an External Drive

You don’t need the app or its features to use OneDrive storage.

In a previous article, I described how you can use OneDrive without running the OneDrive app (by visiting the OneDrive.com website).

In another article, I showed how you can use OneDrive as a dumb hard drive, again without needing the app.

I’ve discovered a command line tool that is the best of both worlds, and I’ve started using it extensively: rclone. It allows you to access your OneDrive online storage without the OneDrive app, and without needing to visit OneDrive.com. In fact, it makes your OneDrive online storage “look like” just another external drive.

The OneDrive app

You do not need to run the OneDrive app on your computer. You can disable it, uninstall it, or sign out of it. Any of these prevent the OneDrive app from trying to synchronize or otherwise manipulate any files on your computer. Without the OneDrive app in use, there won’t be any confusing manipulation behind the scenes.

However, that doesn’t mean you can’t benefit from using OneDrive. Using a program called rclone, you can copy to and from your OneDrive storage, and even treat your OneDrive storage as if it were connected as another disk drive.

Downloading rclone

Download rclone.exe from https://rclone.org/downloads. You’ll get a .zip file. Open that and copy “rclone.exe” to a folder. While frowned upon, I suppose, I dropped it in c:\Windows\System32, since that automatically makes it available in the command prompt without any additional fiddling.

Configuring rclone

To use rclone, first you must configure your connection to a remote service like OneDrive. After that, you can use that connection transparently.

In Windows Command Prompt, run rclone config followed by Enter.

2025/01/29 16:31:38 NOTICE: Config file "C:\\Users\\askle\\AppData\\Roaming\\rclone\\rclone.conf" not found - using defaults
No remotes found, make a new one?
n) New remote
s) Set configuration password
q) Quit config
n/s/q>

Since this is the first time rclone has been run, it’ll notify you of the new configuration file and give you the option to create a new “remote” (the term for a remote connection).

Enter n followed by Enter.

Enter name for new remote:
name>

This allows you to identify this connection should you use rclone to make additional connections in the future. Be aware that rclone is case-sensitive, meaning that “OneDrive” and “onedrive” are not seen as the same.

Enter onedrive followed by Enter.

You’ll be presented with a long list of possible remote storage providers. Scroll through that list using the Command Prompt scroll bars (or mouse wheel) to locate Microsoft OneDrive.

...
35 / Microsoft Azure Files
\ (azurefiles)
36 / Microsoft OneDrive
\ (onedrive)
37 / OpenDrive
\ (opendrive)
...
Storage>

In my case, it’s entry #36. (The list is sorted alphabetically.) Enter 36 followed by Enter. (The list may change, so make sure you enter the correct number for Microsoft OneDrive.)

You’ll then get a series of prompts that you can leave blank, or for which Enter will select the correct default. Just press Enter to move on for each.

client_id>
client_secret>
region>
tenant>
Edit advanced config?

Next, we begin the authorization process.

Use web browser to automatically authenticate rclone with remote?
* Say Y if the machine running rclone has a web browser you can use
* Say N if running rclone on a (remote) machine without web browser access
If not sure try Y. If Y failed, try N.

y) Yes (default)
n) No
y/n>

We will use your web browser to authenticate, so press Enter.

Your web browser will open and you’ll be asked to sign in to the Microsoft account for the OneDrive you want to use. This may involve username, password, two-factor authentication, or other steps as configured for your account. If you’ve previously signed into your Microsoft account, it may involve no steps at all.

When complete, you’ll get a confirmation message in the browser.

Back at the Windows Command prompt, respond to new prompts with Enter.

config_type>
config_driveid>

And then:

Found drive "root" of type "personal"
URL: https://onedrive.live.com/?cid=ec7a51ef52142c03

y) Yes (default)
n) No
y/n>

Assuming you see something similar, press Enter again. You’ll be presented with a summary.

Configuration complete.
Options:
- type: onedrive
- token: {"access_token":"a-very-long-random-string","expiry":"2025-01-29T17:46:18.7596568-08:00"}
- drive_id: ec7a51ef52142c03
- drive_type: personal
Keep this "onedrive" remote?
y) Yes this is OK (default)
e) Edit this remote
d) Delete this remote
y/e/d>

Press Enter, and you’re done.

You can then enter q followed by Enter to exit the configuration.

The most complicated part is over. You can now use rclone as if your OneDrive is an external drive.

Rclone commands

The commands below are only the tip of the iceberg. I encourage you to run “rclone” with no arguments for a list of commands. You can then get additional help on each as needed.

To list every file in your OneDrive, enter the following in the Windows Command Prompt:

rclone ls onedrive:

where:

• rclone is the program
• ls (lower case L followed by an S) is the “list” command, the common equivalent to the DIR command in Windows
• onedrive: is the name of your remote storage. The colon is required.

To list all the directories (folders) in your OneDrive, type:

rclone lsd onedrive:

To copy a file to OneDrive:

rclone copy copy.txt onedrive:Transfer

This example copies the file “copy.txt” to the “Transfer” folder within my OneDrive online.

To examine the contents of that folder:

rclone ls onedrive:Transfer

The results list the files in that specific folder; in my case:

3388054 InternetSafety-v6-Free.pdf
2004 copy.txt
213780 example.xlsx
15602 list.txt
59 t.txt

This matches what we see when we visit OneDrive.com online and examine the same folder.

Copying files from OneDrive to your local computer uses a similar command.

rclone copy onedrive:Transfer\InternetSafety-v6-Free.pdf .

Note that you must specify a destination. In the example above, the destination is “.”, which signifies the current folder. This example copies the file InternetSafety-v6-Free.pdf from the Transfer folder in my OneDrive to Command Prompt’s current folder.

Rclone mount

One command merits special attention: the “mount” command. Mount creates a persistent connection that makes your OneDrive cloud storage appear as if it were another disk drive.

In order to use rclone mount, you will first need to install “winfsp” from https://winfsp.dev. It’s a simple download and install.

Once you’ve done so, you can then run:

rclone mount onedrive: o: --vfs-cache-mode writes

The “o:” is an available drive letter you’ve selected. (“–vfs-cache-mode” is an obscure setting dealing with how data transfers are or are not cached. It’ll work if you omit this, but it’ll complain.)

Note that this command doesn’t complete. It’ll keep running until you type CTRL+C. It mounts the remote as if it were a disk drive, so while it’s running you can access your OneDrive by the drive letter you’ve selected.

You can now access, copy, paste, and otherwise manipulate the contents of your OneDrive online just as if it were a local external drive. The only real difference is that you’re limited in speed of access by the speed of your internet connection.

Return to the Windows Command Prompt and type CTRL+C to terminate rclone and unmount the drive.

This is similar to what we did in a previous article using a tool called Mountain Duck. I’m finding rclone to be faster and have switched to using it for most of my remote connections.