"Family" SkyDrive?

[Bleser]

Hello,

I'm fairly new to SkyDrive but love the concept and integration with Windows 8.1, WP8, etc. So far, I have a live.com account where I've moved my commonly used Documents, Photos and Music.

Now, I'm about to get my wife WP8, and she has her own live.com account. Questions:

• What is the best way to share our common data? Do I simply pick one as the 'master' account (which will be mind as I'm going to be paying for extra storage) and then share the folders with my wife's account?
• If I do this, and the data size goes beyond the free 7 GB, is that a problem or will she have to pay for more storage too?
• When my wife logs in to our 8.1 PC, will it try and download all of the shared content locally, basically duplicating files on our computer? Haven't set that side up yet.

Just want to be sure I understand all the concepts and the best way to set this up. Effectively I want to have a family documents/photos/music on the cloud that we both can see and edit on both our Windows Phones and PC logins.

Thanks!

 

[Blkacesvf41]

On the WP8 phone you can set it to only send what you want automatically to SkyDrive or you can do it manually. Videos you have to do manually since you have to be on WiFi. Also, you can always buy more SkyDrive storage, prices are reasonable. Just opening your SkyDrive app on your PC doesn't download anything locally, again this is something that has to be done manually.

 

[SwimSwim]

As for the two accounts, you can create a folder, Share it with her SkyDrive, and then you both can collectively add, edit, and remove from the shared folder. Just be careful to share it with just her account, to avoid a link being leaked and letting others get in to the shared folder. The odds of the latter are unlikely, but safety first.

 

[Coreldan]

I use the Group-system that WP8 has (not sure what's the exact name in english). On phones it allows us to share a group chat and calendars etc, but also a shared SkyDrive folder.

All the family members would still need an MS-account though.

 

[Bleser]

So the only way to share a folder with my wife is to send it to her email? That seems odd. I was hoping to just be able to lync her SkyDrive account directly, not via email. Seems scary. But like you said, as long as we use the link and then destroy the email, I guess that's the intent.

Will the devices she uses try to create and download the contents to our PCs?
Also, I noticed we now have two SkyDrive folders on the PC since we have two folders...and it's hard to tell them apart. I guess MS recommends keeping the SkyDrive folder in the \Users folder, but I didn't want to do this since I want it on my larger, backed up D:\ drive. Weird to see two with the same name.

 

[SwimSwim]

So the only way to share a folder with my wife is to send it to her email? That seems odd. I was hoping to just be able to lync her SkyDrive account directly, not via email. Seems scary. But like you said, as long as we use the link and then destroy the email, I guess that's the intent.

Will the devices she uses try to create and download the contents to our PCs?
Also, I noticed we now have two SkyDrive folders on the PC since we have two folders...and it's hard to tell them apart. I guess MS recommends keeping the SkyDrive folder in the \Users folder, but I didn't want to do this since I want it on my larger, backed up D:\ drive. Weird to see two with the same name.

No no no, you just right-click on the folder in SkyDrive, select "Share," and then chose a specific user. Type in her Microsoft account email, and it'll share with her. You can optionally send her an email to notify her it's been shared, but once you share it, it should appear in her SkyDrive.

 

[Bleser]

Ok, I think I'm getting there. I've shared some basic folder with her, and they show up in her "Shared" section of her SkyDrive account.

HOWEVER, I cannot see any of the shared folders in the Windows 8 SkyDrive app - just her local files (which right now there are zero).

Is the ONLY place you can see shared content on SkyDrive.com? That's going to foil my entire plan if so.

 

[Microsoftjunkie]

I'm kinda confused, you can't make a "Room" so that you can share pics, calendar, etc? Or your need is completely different? The only thing you can't automatically share is office files, but a separate folder might not be so bad.

 

[SwimSwim]

Ok, I think I'm getting there. I've shared some basic folder with her, and they show up in her "Shared" section of her SkyDrive account.

HOWEVER, I cannot see any of the shared folders in the Windows 8 SkyDrive app - just her local files (which right now there are zero).

Is the ONLY place you can see shared content on SkyDrive.com? That's going to foil my entire plan if so.

Easy, on the SkyDrive app, just scroll over to "Shared," where it'll display anything you've shared with someone else, or that's been shared with you.

 

[Bleser]

I'm kinda confused, you can't make a "Room" so that you can share pics, calendar, etc? Or your need is completely different? The only thing you can't automatically share is office files, but a separate folder might not be so bad.

The need I think is slightly different. Thanks for bringing this up, though; we're going to create a room and share notes/calendars and I'll see how the photos works. If it is just a manual selection upload to the room then that won't work, but we'll see, and thanks for mentioning it.

Easy, on the SkyDrive app, just scroll over to "Shared," where it'll display anything you've shared with someone else, or that's been shared with you.

Correct, this works beautifully on WP8, but on Windows 8.1 itself, does not. When you open SkyDrive, it is limited to one SkyDrive and I can't for the life of me find Shared content; only on the WP8 app and the skydrive.com site.

 

[SwimSwim]

Correct, this works beautifully on WP8, but on Windows 8.1 itself, does not. When you open SkyDrive, it is limited to one SkyDrive and I can't for the life of me find Shared content; only on the WP8 app and the skydrive.com site.

Oh, I wouldn't know, I've not used Windows 8 that much except for a limited period of time with the Consumer Preview, back in 2012. It like it, but seeing as I lack any touch input devices, aside from my phone and an old iPad I'm bored of, upgrading has been rather pointless.

However, I'm getting my Surface Pro 2 this Tuesday evening, and I plan on moving my family over to Office 365 (and by extension, SkyDrive). I'll explore sharing select files without full access to someone elses account in an easy, effective manner, and report back then. I'll see what I can do.

 

[Bleser]

Nice, appreciate the feed back all.

So I have my family room setup - wouldn't have even thought of that without this thread - and have some questions:

1. I've added photos to the family room photo album, and they are all in folders. I can see them on SkyDrive apps, and the WP8 photo albums, but not the family room itself. I guess it only supports showing "root" photos? That is a bummer if so.
2. When photos are added to the family room SkyDrive - whos space quota is being used? The family room owners? That's what I'm thiking but would like to confirm.
3. Is there a way to have family "documents"? I assum I could just create a documents folder on SkyDrive and access it via SkyDrive. But, there doesn't seem to be much advantage to this beyond what I'm doing now, which is just sharing my documents folder directly with my wife.

Thanks again for everyone's time and responses.

 

[Bleser]

Anyone with thoughts on my last three questions? Maybe I reached my quota.

 

[SwimSwim]

Still investigating, I've not yet forgotten your plight. However, I think that the ability to view Shared content natively from Windows 8.1 won't be available until the SkyDrive revamp, that brings along with it many other features as well. I believe it was supposed to launch in January, but I also heard it was to launch along side Windows Phone 8.1. With WP8.1 being delayed, it's possible this could've been delayed also. Then again, they're separate development teams, so it's hard to say for sure.

I'll keep digging around, though.

 

[Bleser]

Thanks for the feedback. Appreciate it.