Folders Shared with me are syncing as internet shortcut in OneDrive on Windows PC

Oh, mighty Microsoft, the supreme overlord of cloud storage and digital dominion! The humble OneDrive users, mere lowly beings in the grand hierarchy of technology, must bow in reverence to the all-powerful entity that bestows upon them the privilege of storing their meager files.

Without Microsoft's benevolent grace, we would be lost in the abyss of disorganization, scrambling for USB drives like primitives.

I have heard, that shared Folder issue is gone. (Gone on for too long)
The best thing is: WAITand do nothing

It seems like you're experiencing a frustrating issue where shared folders in OneDrive are syncing as internet shortcuts instead of actual folders. This problem might be related to syncing issues or a problem with how the OneDrive desktop client is handling your shared folders. Here are some steps you can take to troubleshoot and resolve this issue:

Check OneDrive Storage and Syncing Status

• Storage Space: Ensure you have enough available space in your OneDrive storage and on your local drive. If you're running out of space, OneDrive may not sync files correctly.
• Sync Status: Check the OneDrive sync status by clicking on the OneDrive icon in the taskbar. If there are any sync issues, the icon will show a red X or a yellow triangle. You may see an error message that provides more details about what's happening.

Check Folder Availability in the Cloud

• Go to the OneDrive web interface (https://onedrive.live.com/) and check if the shared folders still appear there as expected. If they do, it confirms that the issue is local to your PC.
• If the folders are missing or corrupted in the cloud, you may need to re-add them using the "Add shortcut to OneDrive" option again.

Clear the OneDrive Cache

Sometimes OneDrive may get stuck with syncing problems due to cached data. You can try clearing the cache to resolve this:

1. Close OneDrive:
   • Right-click the OneDrive icon in the taskbar and click Close OneDrive.
2. Clear OneDrive Cache:
   • Press Win + R to open the Run dialog.
   • Type %localappdata%\Microsoft\OneDrive\ and hit Enter.
   • In this folder, delete the "cache" folder.
3. Restart OneDrive:
   • Open OneDrive again from the Start menu and let it sync the folders properly.

Check OneDrive File On-Demand Settings

File On-Demand allows you to access files without having them fully synced to your PC. However, it can sometimes cause issues with shared folders if it's not set up correctly. Here’s how to ensure File On-Demand is configured properly:

1. Open OneDrive Settings:
   • Right-click on the OneDrive icon in the taskbar and choose Settings.
2. Enable/Disable File On-Demand:
   • In the Settings tab, look for the Files On-Demand section. You can try toggling this setting off and on to see if it resolves the issue.
3. Re-sync Shared Folders:
   • After changing the setting, you may need to unlink and relink your OneDrive account or re-add the shared folders to force a fresh sync.

Re-link OneDrive Account

If syncing continues to fail, you can try unlinking and relinking your OneDrive account:

1. Unlink OneDrive:
   • Right-click the OneDrive icon and choose Settings > Account > Unlink this PC.
2. Re-link OneDrive:
   • After unlinking, sign back into OneDrive and let it sync your files again.

Check for Windows and OneDrive Updates

Ensure that your Windows PC and OneDrive are fully updated, as bugs and syncing issues are often resolved with updates.

• Check for Windows Updates:
  • Go to Settings > Update & Security > Windows Update and click Check for updates.
• Update OneDrive:
  • Ensure that OneDrive is running the latest version. You can check for OneDrive updates by clicking on the OneDrive icon in the taskbar, then going to Help & Settings > Settings > About.

Contact Microsoft Support

If none of the above solutions work, it might be time to contact Microsoft support. They can dive deeper into the issue and help resolve it directly.

Trying to help is nice, but here you reintroduce wrong clues and might make a lot of people lose their valuable time.

There is an ongoing migration, MS is handling that like a 2 people company and doesn't bother keeping its customer informed, so users have to wait and wait again (or leave), period.

There is NOTHING people can do to change that.

pCloud lifetime subscription looks interesting, if you want to / can leave.

Anyway I'm out of this thread, fed up of seeing people intervene without bothering to check the 5 latest answers or so.

Good luck everyone.

What steps did you take for this to change? I've uninstalled and reinstalled my onedrive. I've opened that personal vault. I really need this for work. It's taking all my time. I need the shared folder in my File Explorer access. Any tips is much appreciated. Thank you.

You can create a network drive.

First log in to onedrive.live.com via a web browser. Select any Office document in the root directory of the folder shared with you and click on the three dots - Open - Open in application.

In the open Office application, click on File - Start.

The shared file that you have just opened is displayed under Recently used.

Right-click on it and select “Copy path to clipboard”.

Open Windows Explorer, search for “This PC” on the left-hand side, right-click on it and select “Add network location”.

In the “Add Network Wizard”, click “Next” and then “Select custom network address”.

Paste the copied file path into the input field and delete the part of the file name (e.g. if the copied path is https://d.docs.live.net/xxx/xxx/ABC.xlsx, you should delete ABC.xlsx and keep the previous part).

Then enter the username and password of your OneDrive account in the pop-up window, specify a name for your folder and click Next to complete the creation.

You can now access your shared folder directly in File Explorer under “This PC”.

OneDrive Freigegebener Ordner wird im Explorer nur noch als - Microsoft Community

Microsoft has ignored this issues for over a year now. At first, the problem was that **from** certain accounts, shared folders couldn't be "added to shortcuts" at all. Then... sometime mid this year, they resolved that with the "Internet Shortcut" solution. So now, sharing *from* some accounts works (you can Add To Shortcuts and it creates a local copy and things sync fine) and from the others... Internet Shortcut which is useless.

I've logged two support requests with MS and both simply reply with "yeah, we know and engineering is working on it". It's been months.

Back to DropBox or Google Drive because, well, they just work as advertised. Meanwhile, if you go to the OneDrive blog you can easily see that the Product Managers are touting AI, etc. Who cares? Get the fundamental features working first then, maybe, add the fluff.

It's also worth mentioning that the "Hide from Shared" is also broken. There's no way to get it back from "My Files"...