Microsoft 365 | Which users are storing music or video files on OneDrive?
Schools and other organizations may adopt document storage policies in Microsoft 365 that prohibit students from storing certain types of files on their OneDrive.
One way to query for banned content is with Azure Active Directory Cloud App Discovery in Microsoft 365. It can be found in the Cloud App Security portal. Note that this requires a Premium license.
Another option is to script in PowerShell, if you have loads of time. Here’s an article with a script to find and export files to CSV based on an extension. If you want to get your answer faster and without running the risk of having to re-authenticate because the the volume is so big, keep reading. I’ll show you in the following sections how easy it is to find files using sapio365. And you will even be able to take action (deleting or renaming files) instead of resorting to more complicated PowerShell scripts!
Another caveat using the portal is that you cannot combine filters as an ‘OR’ query, as shown in the image below. It is therefore impossible to search for files that match various types of music or video extensions for example.
Scheduling a recurrent search in sapio365
sapio365 extends your access as the admin of your MS 365 content, and gives you the means to query that content, even while you sleep!
Find the ready-to-run automated job that will search users’ OneDrives for any documents matching a name or file type, and then run it. Or you can schedule it to run every week in the off hours if you don’t want to tie up your machine during the day. Note that the same job exists for both group/Teams and SharePoint site libraries. And if the extension type you need to search for is not in the list, you can add it to the query.
Dealing with these prohibited files
Once the files are found, you can then notify the OneDrive owners, or delete the files directly in sapio365.
sapio365 gives you a 360-degree view of all the content in your organization, whether it’s on OneDrive or in a site document library. And, since you also have the tools needed to add or remove files directly in sapio365, document management is a breeze! Try it for yourself today.
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