OneDrive and Microsoft 365 files
Short version: the browser works, and third-party clients cannot sign in at all. The reason is a tenant policy rather than a packaging problem, so it is worth understanding before spending an evening on it.
Short version: the browser works, and third-party clients cannot sign in at all. The reason is a tenant policy rather than a packaging problem, so it is worth understanding before spending an evening on it.
Short version: Microsoft's own client works, and so does the browser. The section below is about the clients that cannot sign in, which is worth reading if you also use a Linux machine.
Official documentation: Zentraler IT Service.
Why third-party clients cannot sign in
Applications that want access to the university's Microsoft 365 tenant must be approved by IT before they can complete sign-in. Open-source OneDrive clients register as exactly such an application.
Approval for abraunegg/onedrive was requested in June 2025 and not granted. Until that changes, the client gets as far as the login screen and then fails. No local configuration can work around a decision made on the server.
Worth knowing so you can recognise the symptom: a sign-in that ends with a message about needing administrator approval is this, not a broken installation.
What works
The web interface at office.com. Open, edit and download individual files. Nothing to install.
For files that need to exist on disk (a build, a script, a backup), network shares are the supported route and need no third-party software.
The web interface at office.com. Open, edit and download individual files. Nothing to install.
For files that need to exist on disk (a build, a script, a backup), network shares are the supported route and need no third-party software.
The official Microsoft OneDrive client works normally. Install it, sign in with your campus account, done. The tenant approves Microsoft's own client.
Verify
There is nothing to check on the machine; the question is whether the tenant policy has changed. Try signing in with the client you want and watch for an approval message.
If a client that previously failed now works, that is a real finding. Please report it, because this page currently tells people not to bother.
Known quirks
Nobody has tried Insync here. It is commercial and may or may not hit the same approval requirement. Untested, so this page cannot say.
Requesting approval is a legitimate route. If enough people ask IT for a specific client, the answer can change. That request goes to support@thi.de, not to this project.