OneDrive, SharePoint, or Teams: Where Should a File Actually Live?

This is probably the most common question I get, and the confusion causes real problems — lost files, broken sharing, and documents nobody can find after someone leaves. Here's the simple version.

OneDrive = your desk drawer

OneDrive is your space. Drafts, personal working files, things not ready to share. The test: if you left tomorrow, would anyone need this? If no, it can live in OneDrive. If yes, it shouldn't.

SharePoint = the team's filing cabinet

Anything that belongs to a team, project, or the company — official documents, shared resources, records people rely on — lives in SharePoint. It survives people leaving, has proper permissions, and is built for shared ownership.

Teams = the conversation on top of the cabinet

Here's the part that trips people up: files you share in a Teams channel actually live in SharePoint. Teams is the collaboration surface — the chat, the meetings — sitting on top of a SharePoint site. So "saving to Teams" is really saving to SharePoint, with a friendlier front door.