Edit Photos in OneDrive: A Complete Guide
In the world of online backup services, editing photos directly within them has always been a challenge. Users were required to download the pictures first and then edit them in a third-party app or service. However, Microsoft's OneDrive has come to the rescue by introducing photo editing features within the platform. Now, you can easily crop, rotate, adjust colors, add a white border to photos and much more directly in OneDrive.
How to Edit Pictures in OneDrive
Currently, there are certain limitations when it comes to editing photos in OneDrive. The photo editing features are available only on the OneDrive Android app and web version. The desktop app is not supported at the moment. Additionally, these features are only available for personal accounts and not for Work or Student accounts. Lastly, OneDrive supports editing of JPEG and PNG image formats.
How to Enable Editing in OneDrive
To edit a picture on the OneDrive web version, simply open the photo and click on the Edit button at the top. Similarly, on the OneDrive Android app, open the photo and tap on the Edit button. You will find all the image editing features inside the Edit option.
Crop Photo in OneDrive
When you click on the Edit button, OneDrive will automatically open the Crop tool. You can freely crop the picture or choose from standard sizes such as 16:9, 4:5, 9:16, etc. To crop freely, drag the white image border to adjust the picture size according to your requirement. To choose from any standard size, click on the Free button at the bottom and select an image size of your choice.
Straighten Pictures in OneDrive
Inside the Crop tool, you will find a slider at the bottom that can be used to straighten and change the perspective of photos.
Rotate and Flip Photos in OneDrive
Rotate and Flip tools are also available inside the Crop tool. You will find the Rotate icons on the bottom-left side and Flip icons on the bottom-right side. Simply click or tap on the tool you want to use. OneDrive even supports horizontal and vertical flip tools.
Adjust Light and Color
Right next to the Crop tab, you have the Adjustment tab. In the web version, it is located at the top. Click on it, and a number of light and color adjustment tools will appear, such as brightness, contrast, shadows, saturation, etc. Use the sliders to adjust the value of the available options. In the Android app, you can find the Adjustment tab at the bottom. Tap on it, select a tool, and adjust it using the slider that appears.
View Original Image
At any point during the editing process, you can compare the edited photo with the original version. This allows you to understand the extent of the changes you have made. On the web, simply press the Spacebar key or keep the left mouse button pressed to view the original photo. On mobile, touch and hold anywhere on the picture to view the original image.
Revert to Original Image
If you feel that the original image was better while editing a picture, you don't need to manually revert all the changes. OneDrive provides a convenient option to reset your image with just one click. Click on the Reset button at the top to remove all the changes you have made to your picture.
Save Edited Photos in OneDrive
OneDrive offers two ways to save your edited pictures. You can either overwrite the original image or save the edited photo as a separate copy. By using the latter option, the original copy remains untouched, and you can share or use both versions. When you choose to overwrite the image, you will only have access to the edited photo. However, even if you overwrite the photo, you can still revert to the original image (more on that below). To save edited photos in OneDrive, click on the Save button at the top and choose the desired option from the menu – Save or Save as copy.
How to Recover Original Image From Edit Photo
Even if you overwrite the original picture by using the Save option instead of Save as copy, you can easily recover it in OneDrive. Simply open the edited photo on the OneDrive website and click on the Version history option at the top. A window will slide open, displaying various versions of the photo. Click on the three-dot icon next to the version you want to revert to and choose Restore.
Open in Another App (Mobile Only)
If you prefer using a different photo-editing app, you can directly open the photos in that app on your phone. To do so, open the photo in the OneDrive app, tap on the three-dot icon at the top, and choose Open in another app from the menu.
Edit Photos Perfectly
These are the amazing photo-editing features available in the OneDrive web and mobile app. With these features, OneDrive becomes a strong competitor to Google Photos. If you want to learn more about how OneDrive fares against Google Photos, check out our detailed post on the topic. And if you're interested, you can also easily transfer your Google Drive data to OneDrive.

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