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
    2025-03-19T20:31:58+00:00

    I had a similar experience a couple of days ago: Shared folders are finally working again after 8+ months! I suspect that restarting the PC would have avoided the need to remove and re-add the links online, but whatever; it looks like things are finally getting better (though for many people, they'll get worse, first). As others have said, if you can wait, the best solution is to do nothing. If waiting not possible, there are several workarounds discussed within this chat:

    1. Open documents on the web - works for MS Office documents and allows full simultaneous access by multiple people
    2. Open documents through the web page, but select "Open in App", which will launch the appropriate desktop MS Office program. Again, works only for MS Office but allows full simultaneous access.
    3. Get a URL to the shared folder and mount it as a drive on your computer. (I didn't do this, so you'll have to find the detailed instructions elsewhere in this chat). Disadvantages: Doesn't allow simultaneous sharing of Office documents, doesn't work when offline, shared folders don't show up as subfolders in your OneDrive directory, and can be slow.
    4. Use a third-party program like Mountain Duck to get this functionality. Disadvantages: Costs money and doesn't allow simultaneous editing of Office documents. People who've done this report good results, but some reported a lag with very large folders.
    5. Abandon OneDrive for some other cloud storage service.

    Given that MS itself has acknowledged that one account migrating while another has not is the trigger for the problem, it's unconscionable that they don't migrate family accounts together, since I'm sure that's where a lot of sharing occurs. Even better would be to follow the network of shares, migrating closely tied accounts as close to simultaneously as possible.

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  2. Anonymous
    2025-03-19T20:35:21+00:00

    In order to attract some attention at Microsoft .. I have posted the following at LinkedIn.

    https://www.linkedin.com/posts/edwin-van-etten_redirecting-activity-7308220441276379136-bBLt?utm_source=share&utm_medium=member_desktop&rcm=ACoAAAEE-RABFQISPSwjx92eYgAAp827kP5EtL8Please share/repost as much as possible (at least on LinkedIn)

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  4. Anonymous
    2025-03-20T01:20:14+00:00

    I don't believe this is a bug, but that Microsoft did this intentionally to remove this feature. I lost all my shares and lost two days of work trying to fix this. This has been happening since June 2024, but it only happened to me this week. I have a 3-year subscription because I bought it trusting the service and adopted One Drive as the default for my use, and now this happens.

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