Introduction
This article explains how, as a SharePoint Tenant Admin, you can access the "OneDrive for Business" of other users. In general, User’s OneDrive is accessible only by the user or the ones whom it is shared. There could be many scenarios where the SharePoint Support team needs to have Site administrator access to resolve any issues.
In my scenario, the regional settings of the User’s One Drive need to be changed. However, I do not have Site Administrator access to it. So in the below steps, we will get the Site Administrator access of another user's "OneDrive for Business".
Prerequisites
You should be at least the SharePoint Administrator of your Tenant.
Step 1
Go to SharePoint Tenant Admin.
https://TenantName-admin.sharepoint.com/
Step 2
Click on the Highlighted “User Profiles” link in the left navigation to go to the manage user profile service application admin page, as shown below.
Step 3
Click on the “Manage User Profiles” link as highlighted above and the page will be redirected to Profile manager page, as shown below.
Step 4
You can enter the user name for which you need the Site Admin access of OneDrive as highlighted in the "Find Profile" textbox and click on “Find”. Right-click on the Account Name of the user, you will find Context menu appearing as below. In my case, we need to have access to developer1's OneDrive access.
Click on “Manage Personal Site”, and you will get an access denied error. As of now, we do not have access to the Developer1 OneDrive.
Next, we will provide access and then try to access “Manage Personal Site” again.
Step 5
Click on “Manage Site Collection Owners”. A pop-up will appear, as shown below.
Add your name as Site Collections Administrators and click "Ok". Now you should have Site admin access to the User’s OneDrive account.
Step 6
Click on “Managed Personal Site” and this time you will have access to the user’s OneDrive Site settings access.
Now you can do all the Site Settings changes to the User’s OneDrive and help the user with One Drive Support.
Caution
Please remove yourself as Site Administrator once the Support or Issue is resolved of the User’s One Drive, as OneDrive is a Personal site and should remain personal.
Summary
In this article, I have discussed how a SharePoint Tenant admin can get access to someone else OneDrive for Business and manipulate the Site settings. In some cases, the user deleted a large number of files from their OneDrive for Business and wanted the IT Support team to help with file restoration.