SharePoint Online: What's New? A Collection of Updates
Posted Date: March 23, 2017
Microsoft Teams on by default
Microsoft Teams is a new feature available in Office 365. It went GA on March 14, 2017. This feature is on by default in your Office 365 tenant. Teams is also available for your mobile (download from your app store). If you wish to turn this feature off until your organization is ready, your Global Administrator can disable it in the Office 365 admin center: Settings > Services and Add-ins > Microsoft Teams.
Learn more about what Microsoft Teams can do by viewing the recorded LIVE stream announcement: https://blogs.office.com/2017/03/14/microsoft-teams-rolls-out-to-office-365-customers-worldwide/ (recording is 2:07 hours long).
Posted Date: March 23, 2017
SharePoint home page update
The SharePoint home page ("SharePoint" tile in Office 365) is getting an update. Currently the SharePoint home page shows you sites you visit frequently, sites the system suggests for you, links featured (managed by your SharePoint Service Administrator) for your organization, your followed links (sites) and recent sites you've visited. Coming soon will be a news feed from all your active team sites. You can see the activities happening in sites that you work in.
For an example, go to this Office Support article, click on "What you'll see on the SharePoint home page" section at the bottom of the article:
If you are using the SharePoint app, this new update will also be available.
Posted Date: March 13, 2017
Anonymous Links Update
For both SharePoint Online and OneDrive for Business, the way anonymous links are registered in the system will be changing on March 30, 2017.
Links created and haven't been used since May 2016 will cease to work. The owner will need to recreate a new anonymous link. Links created and used since May 2016 will continue to work.
If you are not sure, just try the anonymous link before March 30, 2017 to ensure your recipient(s) can still access the link.
Posted Date: March 13, 2017
Visio has gone Online!
We have enjoyed the use of Word Online, Excel Online and PowerPoint Online. It is convenient and faster than launching the corresponding Office application (e.g. Word) to view a document or to make a quick change to it.
Visio has joined the party. It's not quite the same as the Visio application yet. You have the ability to view a Visio file (vsdx) in the browser and also in the Preview Pane (Modern UI only) for SharePoint Online and OneDrive for Business in Office 365.
Visio Online FAQ: https://support.office.com/en-us/article/Visio-Online-Frequently-Asked-Questions-e6647040-2fca-42ec-9fa5-d16a4e39e0ee?ui=en-US&rs=en-CA&ad=CA
Posted Date: March 13, 2017
SharePoint Framework in GA
Back in May 2016 at the "Future of SharePoint" announcement, developers were introduced to a new framework for development. A developer preview was available in August 2016. The SharePoint Framework is now globally available to all developers!
The SharePoint Framework helps developers build web parts using client-side scripting technology. Similar to SharePoint apps, your SharePoint Administrator can deploy these custom solutions to the app catalog so SharePoint site owners can add/use them in their sites.
https://dev.office.com/sharepoint/docs/spfx/sharepoint-framework-overview
Posted Date: February 22, 2017
Modern Libraries New Feature
You might have heard, the modern library UX provides a copy/move files feature from within the library or to/form ODFB and SPO.. Microsoft will be increasing the file size supported to 500 MB files (used to be 50 MB file size limit). You can move files from your ODFB to SharePoint (and vice versa) without having to download to your computer.
Posted Date: February 22, 2017
"Pages" shows up in my Quick Launch?
SharePoint Team Sites' quick launch navigation will include a link to the "Pages" library. This will allow quick and easy access to create and publish pages. If you have started to explore the new team sites, you would have noticed an ability to publish news. The news for the team site is a page stored in Pages. Also, on the SharePoint app (FREE! Don't have it yet? Go to your mobile's app store and get it) it refers to news pages created for the team site as the landing page highlights. If you don't want "Pages" in your Quick Launch, you can just remove it like any other link in the Quick Launch area.
Posted Date: February 8, 2017
Site Mailboxes going away in SPO
Starting in March 2017, new SharePoint Online organizations will no longer be able to use the Site Mailbox feature. Existing SharePoint Online organizations will no longer be able to create new Site Mailboxes. Site Mailboxes provisioned prior to March 2017 will continue to work.
Site Mailboxes was a common way for a team to work together and to ensure all email correspondences reach team members and the emails are stored in the same mailbox. With the advent of Office 365 Groups (and Microsoft Teams!), you're encourage to use the latest technology platform with similar/better functionality as site mailboxes.
In September 2017, Microsoft will have a process in place to allow the transition of Site Mailboxes to Office 365 Groups.
Posted Date: January 23, 2017
Conditional Access Policy by Network Location (SPO)
You can now restrict the location on where users access SharePoint and ODFB.
As announced in 2016, the enhancement to SharePoint conditional access policies allows whitelisting by network location. You can use the SharePoint Online admin center to specify approved network ranges. Once this policy is configured, all access to SharePoint Online and OneDrive for Business, from unknown locations outside the scope of the whitelisted ranges, will be blocked.
More Information: https://techcommunity.microsoft.com/t5/SharePoint-Blog/Introducing-Conditional-Access-by-Network-Location-for/ba-p/39274
Posted Date: January 23, 2017
IE9 and IE10 not supported
Users of Internet Explorer will start to lose critical functionality when working in SharePoint Online if they are using IE9 or IE10. Users and organizations are asked to update their browsers so modern browsers (IE11 or Edge) are used.
If your organization is encountering a problem accessing SharePoint Online, one of the first (easy) checks is to see what version of IE is used. And if the issue disappears when using Chrome (for example) then it is likely related to the requirement of modern browsers.
Posted Date: January 23, 2017
OneDrive for Business admin center
It is now easier for system administrators to manage OneDrive for Business in their Office 365 organization. A new admin center is available to First Release customers.
Rollout of the new admin center is expected to be completed by the end of February 2017.
You can access it directly with this link: https://admin.onedrive.com/
(Global Admin and SharePoint Admin role are granted access to the ODFB admin center)
In time, access to the ODFB admin center will be incorporated into the O365 admin center.
What are the things you can do in the ODFB admin center?
- Control Sharing to ensure that company policies are enforced when it comes to sharing (internal and external users)
- Control Sync policy, for example allow sync to work only for PCs that are joined to the domain.
- Control Storage/Retention, for example limit the default storage to 500MB and if the user requires more you can manually change their ODFB storage limit. You can also change the number of days a deleted user's ODFB is purged (default is 30 days)
- Control device access and mobile management, for example allow access only from specific IP address locations, block various actions from being performed
- Control compliance (auditing, DLP, Retention, eDiscovery and alerts [user does something and you want to be notified])
- Control notifications, if someone shares a folder with you with unlimited access, allow the owner to be notified if the unlimited access user shares files out to someone else.
Posted Date: December 6, 2016
Team News is rolling out!
Team news is a complimentary feature being added to Team sites. You might notice a new entry in your site's Quick Launch called "News".
Team news allows posting of news, events, and updates pertinent to your team site. Team news uses a similar publishing platform as the new Personal site (Delve) blogs.
If you have the SharePoint app on your mobile device, team news can be experienced on the go!
More information about Team news: https://blogs.office.com/2016/09/26/enriching-the-mobile-and-intelligent-intranet-with-team-news-apps-for-android-and-windows-and-more/
Posted Date: December 6, 2016
New Feature in SharePoint Online, SmartFilters for lists and libraries
First Release customers will begin to see a new feature for lists and libraries, using the Modern UX. SmartFilters allow you to quickly filter the list/library (similar to search results in SharePoint). The 3 default filters are Modified, People and Type.
Modified allows you to use a slider to set the timeframe on when the file was modified.
People allows you to select which user modified the list item/file.
Type allows you to select the document type, e.g. Word, Excel.
The SmartFilters is based on the content displayed. For example, if there are no Excel documents you won't see Excel in the Type filter.
Worldwide roll out of this new feature is expected to be completed by the end of January 2017.
See Microsoft Support article for more information: https://support.office.com/en-us/article/Use-smart-filters-to-find-your-file-or-list-item-293561ed-fb2e-4fb2-9a9f-8a21e299e323?ui=en-US&rs=en-CA&ad=CA
Posted Date: November 19, 2016
By popular demand, you can now download multiple files at once in OneDrive for Business
If you use OneDrive (Personal), you might have used the feature whereby you select multiple files and can download them all at once. The ZIP file you download contains all files you selected for downloading.
OneDrive for Business and SharePoint Online will be getting this feature!
A nice shortcut when you're in a folder with no files selected, clicking on "Download" and the ZIP file will include all files in that folder.
First Release tenants will start seeing this feature in mid-November. By the end of the year all tenants will get it.
Known limitations are:
1) Users cannot download OneNote notebooks. If users download a folder that has a OneNote notebook, the Zip file will contain an error message in the form of a Text File.
2) The Download button may sometimes disappear if user refreshes the web page while looking at a folder. To work around this, users can go up one level in the folder directory and come back OR close the tab and navigate to the folder again.
Post Date: November 2, 2016
SharePoint mobile app for Windows 10 Mobile and Android users
Announced October 19, 2016, mobile users using Windows 10 Mobile and Android can now join iOS mobile users to stay connected and collaborate with the new SharePoint app!
The SharePoint app is available now in your mobile app store.
Google Play: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.microsoft.sharepoint
Windows: https://www.microsoft.com/en-ca/store/p/sharepoint/9nblggh510hb
iOS: https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/microsoft-sharepoint/id1091505266?ls=1&mt=8
Post Date: November 2, 2016
SharePoint Online team news
Announced on October 17, 2016, a new feature is coming to SharePoint Online: Team news.
Team news allow you to quickly create posts to showcase your team site home page. With the recent SharePoint home page (select "SharePoint" from the Office 365 app launcher), there is an ability to create a team site. From the team site home page, click on "+ Add" to create a news article page and make it as fancy as you like.
If you're using the SharePoint app, you can experience the team news as well on the go!
More information: https://blogs.office.com/2016/09/26/enriching-the-mobile-and-intelligent-intranet-with-team-news-apps-for-android-and-windows-and-more/
This feature is available NOW to First Release customers. General availability is expected by the end of November 2016.
Post Date: November 2, 2016
SharePoint Online URL will be renamed
If you were a BPOS customer, this update might apply to you. Any site collections using "microsoftonline.com" URL will be renamed to "sharepoint.com".
Microsoft will be making this change starting January 1, 2017 and expect the change to be completed by June 2017.
More information available in kb article 3053838: https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/kb/3053838
Post Date: November 2, 2016
Mobile Push Notifications for ODFB and SharePoint
A new feature is being released for mobile users using the OneDrive app. The rollout is expected to be completed by December 31, 2016. The new feature allows mobile app users to receive notifications when other people share files with you. This feature is enabled by default. If there are concerns with mobile data usage and you wish to disable this feature, ask your tenant admin to go to SharePoint admin center and change the setting under Site Settings.
Post Date: November 2, 2016
Copy files and folders from ODFB to SharePoint
Coming to First Release customers, a new OneDrive for Business (ODFB) feature will allow you to copy files and folders to SharePoint Online and Office 365 Groups. There is a limit of copying up to 50 MB in total at once. This limit will be increased in upcoming updates in 2017.
Post Date: October 16, 2016
Site Collection can now be set with 25 TB of storage
New site collection limit:
As more and more teams embrace the breadth of capabilities offered in SharePoint Online across team sites, Office 365 Video and portal sites, their content storage requirements are growing. To address this, Microsoft is going to increase the SharePoint Online site collection storage limit in the coming weeks from 1 TB to 25 TB.
See O365 Roadmap: http://fasttrack.microsoft.com/roadmap#R-59014
This increased limit will be immediately reflected in the official SharePoint Online boundaries and limits article: