Gmail addon to share files from, send files to SkyDrive

Martin Brinkmann
Sep 10, 2012
Updated • Jan 29, 2015
Email, Gmail
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Microsoft in preparation of the Windows 8 launch has evaluated all of its products to sort out some and focus on others.

One of the products that the company has moved into focus is SkyDrive, its cloud hosting service, file synchronization and document management service.

Microsoft has linked the service directly with Microsoft Accounts and the Windows 8 operating system. Windows 8 users who log in with a Microsoft Account can synchronize account data with SkyDrive to use the same settings and data on any Winodws 8 PC they log in.

SkyDrive has also been integrated into the redesigned Hotmail.com / Outlook.com email service to manage files more effectively.

Update: Attachments.me is no longer available. The service has been discontinued. We suggest you check out IFTTT instead which offers similar functionality.

Microsoft's latest addition to SkyDrive is an add-on for Gmail. This may sound strange at first considering that Gmail is operated by Google. The reasoning here may be to provide existing SkyDrive customers who are also using Gmail with options to use the storage on Gmail, and to win new Gmail customers for SkyDrive.

Microsoft has teamed up with Attachments.me to create browser add-ons for Chrome and Firefox that integrate SkyDrive functionality into Gmail. I had troubles installing the add-on in Firefox Nightly or Aurora, but the Chrome installation worked as intended.

When you open the Google Mail homepage for the first time after installation, you will see a prompt to complete the setup. Here you need to link the SkyDrive, or Dropbox, Box or Google Drive account, with Gmail. A click on link your account opens a new page where you need to authorize the service to access contents and information of your SkyDrive account.

gmail skydrive integration

Once that is out of the way you see two new options on the compose email page:

  • Share from SkyDrive to pick a file hosted on SkyDrive and add it as a link to the email. This is different from sending the file as an attachment and usually preferred by many users as it is making emails smaller and less likely to bounce.
  • Send file to SkyDrive and share allows you to select files from your local computer to host it on SkyDrive and share it with the email recipients.

gmail skydrive

Attachments that you receive can be uploaded manually or automatically to SkyDrive. You need to click on the attachment icon at the top of the Gmail interface next to the profile name and select automatic filing rules from the context menu for that.

Rules can be fairly complex. Not only can you select specific file types but also filters when you want attachments to be saved automatically. You could for instance configure a rule to automatically save all documents from a contact, or one that saves code files if the subject contains a certain phrase.

attachments

Attachments are automatically saved even if Gmail is not open at the time.

The SkyDrive Gmail add-on may be useful to users of the service who use the Gmail web interface. It may also be an option for Gmail users who want to use Microsoft's service to host their files online, especially if they plan to use a PC with Windows 8 in the future.

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Comments

  1. JMGG said on January 19, 2012 at 8:25 am
    Reply

    You said that Outlook isn’t your main email client, so which is your main one?

    1. BalaC said on January 19, 2012 at 9:42 am
      Reply

      I think its thunderbird

    2. Martin Brinkmann said on January 19, 2012 at 10:15 am
      Reply

      It is Mozilla Thunderbird.

  2. Salaam said on September 24, 2012 at 9:52 pm
    Reply

    Awesome! This actually solved my problem… what a stupid bug.

  3. Claud said on December 19, 2012 at 2:08 am
    Reply

    If this is the same bug that I’ve encountered, there may be another fix: (1) hover over open Outlook item in Taskbar, cursor up to hover over Outlook window item, and right-click; (2) this should give you Restore / Move / Size / Minimize / Maximize — choose Move or Size; (3) use your cursor keys, going arbitrarily N/S/E/W, to try to move or size the Outlook window back into view. Basically, the app behaves as though it were open in a 0x0 window, or at a location that’s offscreen, and this will frequently work to resize and/or move the window. Don’t forget to close while resized/moved, so that Outlook remembers the size/position for next time.

    1. Lynda said on February 12, 2013 at 3:37 pm
      Reply

      THANK YOU Claude!!! I could get the main window to launch but could not get any other message window to show on the desktop. You are my hero!!!!

    2. Chad said on November 20, 2018 at 4:24 pm
      Reply

      Solved my issue! 6 years later and this is still problem…

    3. Ivan X said on January 21, 2021 at 4:50 pm
      Reply

      Fantastic. Thank you. Size did the trick.

  4. Andrew said on October 26, 2013 at 7:06 am
    Reply

    This solved my Outlook problem, too. Thank you. :)

  5. Charles said on December 7, 2013 at 7:23 pm
    Reply

    Thank you so much, this started happening to me today and was causing big problems. You are a life saver, I hope I can help you in some way some day.

  6. garth said on November 7, 2014 at 7:13 pm
    Reply

    You are a god – thank you!

  7. Faisal said on February 9, 2015 at 10:09 am
    Reply

    thanks a lot…. work like charm.. :-)

  8. Simon said on March 24, 2015 at 11:36 pm
    Reply

    Yah…thanks Claude. I’ve been having the same problem and tried all the suggestions…your solution was the answer. It had resized itself to a 0/0 box. Cheers

  9. Olu said on April 14, 2015 at 1:35 pm
    Reply

    Excellent post. This had me baffled even trying to accurately describe the problem. This fixed it for me.
    Thank you

  10. Coenig said on July 23, 2015 at 7:36 am
    Reply

    Thanks a lot for the article. Don’t know why it happenend, don’t know how it got fixed, but it was really annoying and now it works :-)

  11. Fali said on January 20, 2016 at 4:19 pm
    Reply

    Thanks a lot. I was facing this issue from past 3 week. I tried everything but no resolution. The issue was happening intermittently and mainly when I was changing the display of screen ( as i use 2 monitors). The only option i had was to do system restore. But thanks to you.

    1. MIki said on January 10, 2019 at 11:54 am
      Reply

      I’ve been tried to sole this problem for 12hours. Your comment about changing the display of screen helped me a lot!! Thanks!!

  12. Christina said on January 20, 2016 at 6:14 pm
    Reply

    Thank you…don’t know why this happened but your instructions helped me fix it. Running Windows 10 and office pro 2007

  13. Oz said on July 22, 2016 at 3:20 pm
    Reply

    Great tip! Thanks!

  14. Tracy said on September 1, 2016 at 4:48 pm
    Reply

    Worked for me, too – thank you!!!

  15. shawn said on September 9, 2016 at 10:25 am
    Reply

    It’s Worked for me, too
    thank you very much!

  16. Jari said on October 31, 2016 at 11:53 am
    Reply

    I had a similar issue with Outlook 2013 on Windows 10 and this helped me to fix it. Thank you very much!

  17. Michel H said on November 30, 2016 at 11:08 pm
    Reply

    Thank you so much. Solved!
    Considering you published this in 2012, incredible not been debugged by Microsoft.
    Thank you again. M

  18. Ziad Bitar said on January 9, 2017 at 2:00 am
    Reply

    This problem was faced by only one user logging to TS 2008 r2 using outlook 2010.The issue was resolved.

    Thanks.

  19. Anonymous said on February 15, 2017 at 5:24 pm
    Reply

    Great tip. Thank you!!!! If it helps, I had to use the Control Key and the arrow keys at the same time to bring my window back into view. Worked like a charm.

  20. Rochelle said on March 6, 2017 at 11:59 am
    Reply

    Thank you, this worked !!!!

  21. anom1234 said on May 20, 2018 at 11:20 pm
    Reply

    Man, you are a fucking god. Thanks a lot, what an annoying bug!!

  22. JC said on October 12, 2020 at 2:14 pm
    Reply

    Awesome, this post solved the issue. Many thanks!

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