OneDrive or SharePoint for team-owned documents after staff turnover

If a document must stay usable as a team asset after its author leaves, put the approved working copy in a SharePoint team site. Use OneDrive for a person’s draft while that person is accountable for it. A shared OneDrive link gives access to a file in an individual’s library; it does not make the team its owner. Microsoft describes OneDrive as an individual library where new files are private by default, and SharePoint as a shared library for team collaboration. Microsoft: file collaboration

If the document is…	Working location	Stewardship decision
An early draft one person is still shaping	OneDrive	Name the author and a date to decide whether it becomes a team document.
A procedure, client deliverable, or approved template that colleagues must maintain	SharePoint team site	Name a primary and backup owner; use the site copy as the authoritative version.
A file briefly shared for comment	OneDrive, until accepted	Do not treat the review link as the permanent team address.

Consider a six-person operations team. One coordinator drafts a client onboarding checklist in OneDrive and asks two analysts to comment. A reviewer approves the wording; an account manager and a backup coordinator need to use it every week. At approval, the coordinator places the approved working copy in the team’s SharePoint document library, records its location in the procedure index, and marks the personal draft as superseded. The team assigns the reviewer as content owner and the backup coordinator as deputy. A Microsoft 365 group or Teams team creates an associated SharePoint team site, and group membership can be used to manage site access. Microsoft: file storage and sharing Microsoft: file collaboration

Now suppose the original coordinator leaves three months later. Colleagues who bookmarked the OneDrive review link might still reach an old draft, or discover that its permissions no longer support their work. Either outcome is a handoff failure if they cannot identify the approved site copy. Update the procedure index and recurring work instructions to point to SharePoint, check access through another team member’s account, and have the deputy take over the next revision.

Microsoft Purview says SharePoint content created by a departing employee is unaffected by that departure. For OneDrive, files subject to a retention policy or label remain under the configured settings for the specified retention period, with sharing access continuing during that time. That conditional rule does not mean every OneDrive file automatically survives departure. Microsoft Purview: SharePoint and OneDrive retention

Before changing the team’s routine, run a handoff pilot with one harmless checklist. Have the author draft it privately, solicit comments, approve it, and publish the working copy to the team site. Then remove the author from the pilot workflow and ask the five other members to follow only the procedure index. Pass if each opens the approved copy, the deputy can edit it, and nobody needs the author’s OneDrive link. Record the owner, deputy, site location, approval date, and any failed permission or stale-link path; fix those paths before moving more documents.

Verify external recipients separately: organization and site sharing settings affect who can collaborate outside the company, so a team location alone does not establish partner access. Verify the actual retention settings and backup or recovery arrangements separately, too. The choice of library does not establish those safeguards. Microsoft: file collaboration Microsoft Purview: SharePoint and OneDrive retention