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Using OneDrive on the Xbox One to create app channels and stream your own media


Steve

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OneDrive is Microsoft's cross-platform cloud storage offering. It has similar features to Dropbox, but there's a couple of things that make OneDrive a little more attractive if you have an Xbox One. Firstly, you get much more free space with OneDrive - 15GB as opposed to 2GB. Secondly, if you have an Office 365 subscription you will soon get unlimited OneDrive space. Thirdly, there's a OneDrive app available on the Xbox One.

 

Why would you want to use OneDrive with the Xbox One?

 

The Xbox One has a decent media player app that can play all kinds of file types from MP3 to AVI to MP4 to MKV and many more. If you store your media up in the cloud via OneDrive, you can access it via the OneDrive app and stream it over the Internet, so you could have a huge media collection stored in the cloud that you could access on your Xbox One and it would take up no space on the local device.

 

Secondly, the Xbox One has a customisable TV guide called the OneGuide. You can add app channels to it, including channels you create via OneDrive. For example, let's say you've got a folder of videos up on OneDrive that's called "90s Hip-Hop Videos". You could add that folder to the OneGuide so it appears as its own channel, then when you're browsing your TV guide looking for something to watch, the channels you've added will be there too.

 

Thirdly, you can sign into anyone's Xbox One and you'll be able to access your media via OneDrive.

 

How do I get a OneDrive account?

 

If you have a Microsoft account already, you've already got one, otherwise you can sign up here: -

 

https://onedrive.live.com

 

How do I upload files?

 

There's 3 main ways to do it: -

 

If you're using Windows 8.x or the Windows 10 preview, OneDrive is built in. You can just drag files and folders into the OneDrive folder and they'll be uploaded automatically. If you right-click on any file or folder that's within the OneDrive folder on your PC, you can change the sync type from "online-only" to "available offline". See below for an explanation of that.

 

If you're using an older version of Windows or a different OS, you can install the OneDrive app available on the OneDrive website.

 

You can also upload files via any web browser. Just go to the OneDrive website, log in, and you'll see an Upload button at the top. You can create folders, rename files and folders etc. via the website too.

 

What's the difference between "online-only" and "available offline"?

 

Let's say that you drag an album of MP3s into your OneDrive folder on your PC. Here's the difference between the 2 states: -

 

Online-only - In this mode, your files are uploaded to OneDrive, but they are not kept in the OneDrive folder on your computer. You will see the folder and files on your computer, but they take up no space. When you click on an MP3 to play it, it will be downloaded from OneDrive on demand.

 

Available offline - In this mode, your files are uploaded to OneDrive, but a local copy of them is kept on the PC as well.

 

You can switch between these states whenever you like, and you can change the states of individual files and folders too. As far as using OneDrive on the Xbox One goes, it doesn't matter which of the states you choose, but I thought I'd explain it anyway as it's one thing that some people find confusing.

 

OneDrive limitation - Pictures or Documents.

 

One current limitation of OneDrive is that when you upload or create a folder, you can only choose from 1 of 2 folder types - Pictures or Documents. In order for your folders to appear on the Xbox One, they must be set to Pictures. Here's how to set that: -

 

Log into OneDrive in a web browser. Open the folder in question. Click the "Details pane" button, top-right. You'll now see "Folder type" listed along with a little "Change" option next to it. If the folder type isn't already set to "Pictures", click "Change" and make the necessary adjustment.

 

Setting your folders to "Pictures" doesn't mean that videos and music won't play on your Xbox One. It's just a silly limitation of the current OneDrive system.

 

Using OneDrive on the Xbox One.

 

Now that you have media uploaded to OneDrive and you've correctly set the folder type to Pictures for the folders you want to see on your console, you can fire up the OneDrive app on the Xbox One. You'll see 3 tabs - Recent, Albums and Shared. Go to Albums and you'll see all of your folders there. Select a folder and press A to open it and see the contents, then select a file and press A to view/play it.

 

Adding folders as app channels in OneGuide.

 

This is easy. Just fire up the OneDrive app on the Xbox One, open the folder you want to add to the OneGuide, and you'll see an "Add to the OneGuide" option above the list of files on the right.

 

Browsing your OneGuide via SmartGlass.

 

SmartGlass is a free app for iOS, Android and Windows Phone. It allows you to control most aspects of the Xbox One, so if you haven't installed it already I would highly recommend that you do. One of the things you can do is view your OneGuide, so you can view your list of channels, including the ones you've created, browse the contents of those channels and select an item to watch. That will then play the content on the console.

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