---
title: "SharePoint's Relationship with Teams"
canonical: "https://help.nnu.edu/space/TMR/30310416/SharePoint's%20Relationship%20with%20Teams"
format: markdown
---
**Quick Summary: **Teams is a front-end to SharePoint. Teams does not store any files. Every team in Teams has an associated SharePoint site. Group chats in Teams do not create SharePoint sites.
As part of our migration from Google, IT Services has created Microsoft Teams and associated SharePoint sites for each department and committee/commission to share files. All Google Shared Drives that were properly claimed were migrated to your department and committee/commission SharePoint sites. You can add files and create folders to organize files within your teams so coworkers can collaborate in real time. Any files and folders added to Teams are stored in SharePoint. Teams acts as a window into SharePoint. When you move, open, rename, etc., these files, you manipulate them inside SharePoint.
> ℹ️ Program coordinators, administrative assistants, and committee leads were set as the default owners in Teams and are responsible for adding all team members. Visit [Managing Member Permissions in SharePoint](https://nnuitservices.atlassian.net/wiki/spaces/TMR/blog/2024/03/26/19759120) for more information. A lowercase “team” is a group within the uppercase “Teams” application.
### What does this look like?
Below is an example of a team, the accompanying SharePoint site, and how it’s all connected.
> ℹ️ These steps are written out as instructions to explain the link between the two services. No action is required when following this guide. For an official Microsoft explanation visit [Teams and SharePoint integration](https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/SharePoint/teams-connected-sites).
Within your team, there is a **General** channel. These sub-team groups are called “channels”. Channels are how you segment smaller groups of teams within your departments (i.e., department leadership channel, sub-department channel, special project channel, etc.). The below “General” channel is created with every team. Click on the **Files** tab. Click on **New** and then **Folder** to make a folder and keep files organized.
Now, drag and drop some files into this window.
The files are now backed up. You can see and edit them by clicking on them here. Coworkers added to this team can also see and edit these files.
Next, click on **Open in SharePoint** to demonstrate the connection to SharePoint. *This is not required during daily use.*
This button opens a web browser and leads to the exact folder you were looking at in Teams. This interface is very similar to Teams. Click on **Documents** to back out to the top level of the SharePoint site.
Now, the entire SharePoint site that was created in tandem with the team is visible.
However, there are two sections in the Document Library. One is labeled **In channels,** and the other is labeled **In site library**.
To emphasize this distinction, head back to Teams and create a second channel. Call it “New Channel”. Like the **General** channel, this new channel can hold folders and files. Files added to **New Channel** are separated from the files in **General**.
Now, look back at the SharePoint website and see the newly created channel in the **In channels** section along with “General”.
Go back to Teams and click on “New Channel”. Then click on the **Files **tab at the top. Drag and drop a PDF into the Teams window to add the PDF to the list of files in the channel.
> ℹ️ Remember, this guide only switches back and forth between Teams and SharePoint for this walkthrough. Daily, you will not be switching back and forth.
Now, return to the web browser to view the SharePoint site. Look at the section below the two channel folders. The **In site library** section is where you will find *every* file and folder on SharePoint. Here you can see the two channel folders included in the list. If you open the “New Channel”** **folder in the **In site library **section you will see the same PDF as you do in the “New Channel”** **folder shown in the **In channels** section. They are the same folder shown in two places. Think of them as two shortcuts leading to the same directory.
Adding a file to the “New Channel” folder using the SharePoint website will also appear in the Teams App as if you drag-and-dropped it into the Teams App itself.
> 📝 Note: Because these folders are duplicate shortcuts, the **In channels** section will often be collapsed, as shown below. Click on the caret to expand the section if needed.
### In site library
Now that you know these are two shortcuts leading to the same folder, this guide will move on to the next feature. Click on **New** and create a new folder called **Purchase Orders**. This time, create the folder from the SharePoint website, not within Teams.
This **Purchase Orders** folder lives in the SharePoint site but is not within a Teams channel. If you open Teams, you will not see **Purchase Orders **right away. This folder is relevant to the department, but you don’t want it associated with either of the channels. Like you, coworkers can see and edit this folder if they open the SharePoint website but do not see it right away from within Teams.
To view this folder from within Teams, click on the **Files** tab. In the top row, you will see **Documents > General**. This shows you the folder structure; click on **Documents** to see the whole “In site library” dataset.
You will be unable to delete these channel folders. These folders act as repositories for files shared in the team, and therefore, you must delete the channel if you wish to delete this folder.
### In Summary
- The **Files** tab in Microsoft Teams acts as a window into the SharePoint site created for the team.
- All the files added to a team are stored in SharePoint and can be accessed at the SharePoint website. Teams itself does not store any files.
- When creating new channels in a team, new folders are created in the SharePoint site to keep files separate from other channels.
- Files added to the SharePoint website will appear in Teams as if added to Teams directly.
- Folders can be created on the SharePoint website that will be slightly hidden in Teams.
- Files added to Teams share the benefits of files added directly to SharePoint: recycle bin, version history, etc.
For more information about Teams and Channels, view these Microsoft articles:
[First things to know about channels in Microsoft Teams - Microsoft Support](https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/office/first-things-to-know-about-channels-in-microsoft-teams-8e7b8f6f-0f0d-41c2-9883-3dc0bd5d4cda)
[Overview of teams and channels in Microsoft Teams - Microsoft Teams | Microsoft Learn](https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoftteams/teams-channels-overview)