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

Anonymous
2024-06-08T04:53:55+00:00

Hi. I had some folders shared from different users in my OneDrive account. I had added the folders to my OneDrive with Add Shortcut to OneDrive button from Shared folders in cloud. The account is logged into a windows pc and every files including the folders shared with my were syncing fine until yesterday. Yesterday night the shared folders were completely removed from the Windows pc and folders are replaced with internet shortcut. This is such a big mess. I have tried unlinking the account and linking it back, changing the location of OneDrive on my windows pc and tried to get a new folder shared to my account and adding it to OneDrive. Nothing works so far. OneDrive has a big part in my daily activities. Please help me resolve this.

Microsoft 365 and Office | OneDrive | For home | Windows

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Anonymous
2025-03-13T06:07:22+00:00

Here is the statement from the Microsoft OneDrive product group (Redmond USA) about the OneDrive Personal problem:

***This is related to a backend migration we are doing and unfortunately, we don’t fully support syncing shared folders in the case where one user has migrated and the other has not. We’re doing everything possible to accelerate things so that it can be resolved as soon as possible for users of the feature. When the accounts are migrated, there is automated logic that makes them go back to a syncing folder within several days.***I have heard, that shared Folder issue is gone.
The best thing is: WAIT and do nothing

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  1. Anonymous
    2024-10-04T15:57:37+00:00

    Version of OneDrive Client maybe ?

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  2. Anonymous
    2024-10-05T10:05:45+00:00

    Yesterday I started using OneDrive and when I want to access a shared folder through the shortcut created in my OneDrive folder, instead of opening the folder in the file explorer, as it has always happened, it takes me to my browser.

    It really bothers me, because in that shared folder there is almost 1GB of data, much of it including scripts that need to be run from the computer directly.

    How has this CRITICAL defect not been resolved after 4 months of this issue being raised? Microsoft needs to hire better software engineers..

    This was extremely difficult and frustrating to deal with but I finally managed to figure out a workaround:

    • Remove the shortcut from 'My files' and delete any references to it locally and online (just to be safe because god forbid anything Microsoft makes actually works).
    • Before linking your account in the OneDrive desktop app (if you already linked it then unlink it) get the other person to share the folder with you, and if they already did then just start from scratch and get them to create another folder to share (because apparantly unsharing folder/files is too complicated to implement for Microsoft),
    • Then while still on the webapp go to 'Shared' -> Click the ellipsis button (...) for the shared folder -> Click 'Add shortcut to My files'.
    • Then finally go back to OneDrive desktop app and link your account.

    This made the Shared Folder on File Explorer have the Type as 'File folder' instead of 'Internet Shortcut'. Now, rinse and repeat for any future folders that get shared with your account.

    Basically if you 'Add shortcut to My files' after already linking your OneDrive account to your desktop then it will have the Type be shown as Internet Shortcut, whereas if you do it before linking your account to the desktop app it will behave as a File folder.

    After spending countless hours banging my head on the keyboard deleting/creating the same Shared Folder, and not to mention that my family member did not even recieve the 1TB storage because they were using a gmail account instead of an outlook/hotmail account (even though they still let me send the invite without any warnings or anything that only outlook/hotmail accounts can utilize family benifits), I wanted to post this to potentially help others and to mainly rant about Microsoft's incompetence and extremely poor quality of service!

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  3. Anonymous
    2024-10-05T15:24:26+00:00

    This issue is still present. Please fix it.

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  4. Anonymous
    2024-10-05T21:11:18+00:00

    is there a fix yet?

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