OneDrive is a cloud storage service by Microsoft. It’s an excellent place to store your personal data and has all the features you need to organize your files.
Microsoft regularly adds new features to OneDrive to keep up with its competitors. It even added a handy photo editor to OneDrive, which lets you make basic edits to your saved photos. However, it isn’t a full-featured image editor like Photoshop.
Let’s explore how you can edit photos in OneDrive.
How to Edit Images in OneDrive for Web
To edit a photo in OneDrive from your web browser, first head to OneDrive and sign in to your account.
Then, open any image and click on Edit. The first two options you’ll see in the editing preview window are Crop and Adjustments. Let’s discuss them briefly.
Cropping and Rotating an Image
Select the Crop tab to crop your picture. By clicking on the Free icon, located at the bottom-middle of the crop preview window, you can crop your photo using preset sizes. Among them are square, 9:16, 16:9, 4:5, 5:4, 3:4, 2:3, 3:2, 1:2, and 2:1.
Alternatively, you can choose the Free option to remove unwanted areas without getting restricted by preset sizes. When finished, hit Done.
You can also rotate and flip the image using the options on the bottom-right and bottom-left sides of the crop preview window. Using the slider located right below your image, you can change the alignment of the photo by a certain degree. This comes in handy for straightening a tilted picture.
Adjusting Your Image
Right next to the Crop tab, you’ll see the Adjustment option. Here, you can make color and lighting adjustments to your photos.
You can adjust the brightness, exposure, color contrast, highlights, and shadows to make the image more appealing. You can also adjust the image’s saturation, warmth, and tint.
Previewing and Resetting the Original Image
Once you are done editing the photo, you can compare it with the original one. To do that, press and hold the left mouse button on your image for few seconds.
If you don’t like the edited photo for some reason, you can immediately revert the changes by clicking the Reset button at the top-right of the editing window. By doing so, you will revert all of the edits you have made.
Saving the Edited Photo
After making the final edits to your photo, you have two options for saving it: Save and Save as copy. The first option overwrites the existing picture in your OneDrive account. The second allows you to save it as a copy while keeping the original image intact.
If you accidentally choose the first option and overwrite the original file, you can still recover it. To do this, open the edited photo and click on the three horizontal dots in the OneDrive photo editor window (not in the edit preview window). From there, go to Version History.
This will open a list of all the saved versions of this photo. To restore the version of the photo you are looking for, click on Restore and save it either as a copy or overwrite the previously saved version.
How to Edit Images in OneDrive on Android
The way in which you preview your original photos is the only difference when it comes to editing files in OneDrive’s Android app. When making edits to a photo on the app, you can view the original by long-pressing anywhere on the photo. The rest of the options are similar.
Compared to the web version, the OneDrive mobile app has a slightly different interface for photo editing. However, you can still edit photos in nearly the same way using the same number of options you find on the web.
Here is a quick overview of editing photos in the OneDrive mobile app:
- Open the photo in the OneDrive app.
- To preview the photo editing window, click Edit.
- Crop the photo to the desired size and adjust the light and color.
- Long-press anywhere on the photo to compare it with the original.
- When you are satisfied, save it separately or overwrite the original.
Download: Microsoft OneDrive for Android | iOS (Free, subscription available)
What to Expect From the OneDrive Photo Editor in the Future
In the future, Microsoft intends to introduce a feature that automatically saves photos in separate folders if they’re taken from different sources.
For example, if you download photos from WhatsApp, they’d go directly into a WhatsApp folder in OneDrive. Meanwhile, the photos taken by your phone’s camera would go into a separate folder as well.
How Secure Is Editing Photos in OneDrive?
The photo editor is a built-in feature in OneDrive, meaning it doesn’t require third-party APIs. Microsoft also claims not to scan your photos or files without your permission, so you can feel safe while using the editor.
Limitations for Editing Pictures in OneDrive
OneDrive’s photo editor is great for quick edits, but it does have some limitations:
- At this time of writing, the photo editor is only available in the OneDrive Android app and the web version. You won’t find it in the OneDrive desktop app or on the iOS OneDrive app.
- It only supports two image formats: JPEG and PNG.
- It’s not available for student or work accounts.
- There are a limited number of preset ratios available to crop images in OneDrive.
Eventually, OneDrive’s photo editor will probably support more devices and image formats. However, you still won’t be able to make full-fledged edits like you would with dedicated photo editing software.
Conveniently Edit Your Photos in OneDrive
OneDrive’s photo editor streamlines the process of editing photos. Before sharing your pictures with others, you can easily make the final tweaks without downloading the files to your computer.
Just keep in mind that you might have to use more advanced editing software to get the look you want.