Your company is on Microsoft 365. The documents live in SharePoint. You're on a Mac. Microsoft, as ever, treats Mac as a second-class platform when it comes to SharePoint integration — there's no "SharePoint for Mac" app the way there's an Outlook for Mac or a Word for Mac. So how do you actually work with SharePoint files on a Mac without spending your whole day in a browser tab?
There are five answers, each with a specific fit. This post walks through them with honest pros and cons. We make one of them, so call this opinionated — but the framing covers every option you'd realistically pick.
1. The SharePoint web UI
The default. Open sharepoint.com (or your tenant's URL), log in, see your sites.
Pros. Everything is there. New SharePoint features ship to the web first. Permissions work as expected. Microsoft maintains it.
Cons. Painful for routine file work. The browser viewer is slow on large Word docs. You can't grep across the content of a folder of PDFs. Opening a file in a native Mac app means downloading a copy to ~/Downloads, editing, then uploading back — and forgetting that uploaded copy on your desktop forever. No drag-and-drop into a Finder window. No Spotlight search.
Use when you need a feature only the web UI has (sharing dialogs, version history UI, SharePoint admin), you're occasionally opening a single file, or you're on a borrowed machine where you can't install a client.
2. The OneDrive sync client
Microsoft's official Mac client for OneDrive and SharePoint document libraries. Download from microsoft.com, sign in with your Microsoft 365 account, click "Sync" on a SharePoint library in the web UI, and it appears as a local folder.
Pros. Free, Microsoft-maintained, works offline (files are local), good integration with Office for Mac.
Cons. It's a sync client. Disk usage scales with the synced subset — a 500 GB SharePoint library either consumes 500 GB locally or requires you to manage selective sync folder-by-folder. The Mac OneDrive sync client has historically been the buggier sibling of the Windows version; many threads on r/sysadmin chronicle the issues. Doesn't gracefully handle multiple SharePoint tenants or many sites at once — you can sync libraries from up to a few sites, but the management UI is awkward past that.
Use when you want native Office for Mac integration, you need offline access to specific SharePoint files, and your library fits on your laptop disk.
3. WebDAV
In theory, SharePoint exposes a WebDAV endpoint, and macOS Finder has built-in WebDAV support (Cmd-K → Connect to Server → https://...). In practice this is broken on modern Microsoft 365 tenants and has been for years.
Pros. Theoretical zero-install.
Cons. Modern SharePoint Online doesn't support WebDAV cleanly with the authentication modes Microsoft 365 requires (modern auth, MFA, conditional access). It will partially work for read on the simplest tenants and fall over completely on anything with security configured. Plus the WebDAV interface is read-write but doesn't support sharing dialogs, permissions edits, or any of the SharePoint-specific operations.
Use when never, basically. Skip this option unless you're on legacy on-prem SharePoint with no MFA. The Microsoft docs that recommend WebDAV are out of date.
4. Microsoft Document Connection (historical)
Worth a footnote because users searching "SharePoint on Mac" sometimes find old documentation about it. Microsoft Document Connection was a small Mac app bundled with Office for Mac 2011 that opened SharePoint document libraries directly. It was deprecated when Office for Mac 2016 shipped and the SharePoint integration was moved inside the Office apps themselves. Don't go looking for it; it doesn't run on modern macOS.
5. Mount-as-drive via ExpanDrive
The Mac SharePoint client we make. Mount any SharePoint site, subsite, or document library as a Finder volume — every Mac app sees it as a regular drive.
Pros. Files-On-Demand semantics (no disk usage at rest, files stream in on open). Connects via Microsoft Graph API; respects your existing SSO, MFA, and Conditional Access. Handles multiple SharePoint tenants in one client. Supports subsite-level and document-library-level mount granularity. Same client and config across Mac, Windows, and Linux for mixed-OS teams.
Cons. No offline mode by default (mount semantics require network). Bandwidth-bound for opening large files over slow connections. Paid licenses required for organizations over 10 users — free for individuals and smaller teams.
Use when you want Finder integration without the disk-cost of full sync, you have large SharePoint libraries you can't fit locally, you work across multiple Microsoft 365 tenants, or you're on a mixed-OS team and want one tool everyone uses identically.
We have a separate post that goes deep on the mount setup: mount SharePoint as a drive on Mac, Windows, and Linux. If you're on Linux specifically, OneDrive and SharePoint on Linux covers the four real Linux options. This post is the higher-level "which approach should I use" survey; those go deeper on the specific approach.
Which option fits which situation
A quick decision tree for SharePoint on Mac:
- Just need to read one file occasionally? Use the web UI. Don't install anything.
- Have a small SharePoint library that fits on your laptop AND need offline access? Use OneDrive sync. Microsoft-maintained, free, gets out of the way.
- Library is too big to sync, or you want native Finder integration, or you work across multiple tenants? Mount-as-drive via ExpanDrive. Download free for individuals and teams under 10 users.
- Tempted by WebDAV? Don't. It's broken on modern SharePoint.
- Looking for Microsoft Document Connection? Doesn't exist anymore. Pick one of the above.
Why "SharePoint for Mac" isn't a Microsoft product
Brief context for anyone wondering why this post is needed at all. Microsoft has never shipped a standalone "SharePoint for Mac" app. They built SharePoint as a web property with companion sync clients (OneDrive on Mac/Windows, the Mobile apps). The Mac SharePoint integration is therefore split across the OneDrive sync app (for syncing libraries) and Office for Mac (for opening documents). There's no single Mac app that gives you the full SharePoint browse-and-edit experience.
That gap is what third-party tools like ExpanDrive fill — a real desktop client on Mac that treats SharePoint document libraries as a native filesystem rather than a thing you sync or a thing you open in a browser.
Try ExpanDrive for SharePoint on Mac
Download ExpanDrive. Free for individuals and teams under 10 users — no trial cliff, no credit card. Connect a SharePoint account in about 90 seconds and your SharePoint sites mount as Finder volumes the same minute. Cross-platform consistency (Mac / Windows / Linux), Microsoft Graph API direct, SSO and MFA respected, multi-tenant support included. If you've been wrestling SharePoint from a Mac and want one tool that handles it like a regular drive, this is the answer.