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

Locked Question. This question was migrated from the Microsoft Support Community. You can vote on whether it's helpful, but you can't add comments or replies or follow the question.

0 comments No comments
Answer accepted by question author
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

Was this answer helpful?

200+ people found this answer helpful.
0 comments No comments

3,079 additional answers

Sort by: Most helpful
  1. Anonymous
    2025-03-24T18:17:51+00:00

    I've figured it out. Microsoft doesn't want anyone using this feature who's not on a 365 Business plan, so they are officially still treating this as a bug for now till they slowly roll out the feature away. That is class action-wordy corporate malpractice but I'm no lawyer so good luck. My boss decided to pay for a business plan and create all-new accounts. It was the only way.

    Soon enough they'll say "not enough / only a small percentage of users were benefiting from the feature".

    They did something similar with Outlook.

    Most of us aren't migrating to a business plan, but some will.

    First all companies were fighting for market share together.

    Now, they moved together to the enshitification phase.

    It would be understandable if they weren't increasing profits quarter after quarter and struggling. I guess the ones making decisions are being shorter term biased because of the way they're being compensated.

    Once they start to face bottom line issues it might be too late for them to change compensation policies to prioritize user retention and reliability of service. Their "ex" CEOs will be just fine retired somewhere. Bonus points if they can blame it on a recession or something else when it might have been a result caused by their own management. 🤷🏻‍♂️

    Was this answer helpful?

    1 person found this answer helpful.
    0 comments No comments
  2. Anonymous
    2025-03-24T17:33:48+00:00

    I've figured it out. Microsoft doesn't want anyone using this feature who's not on a 365 Business plan, so they are officially still treating this as a bug for now till they slowly roll out the feature away. That is class action-wordy corporate malpractice but I'm no lawyer so good luck. My boss decided to pay for a business plan and create all-new accounts. It was the only way.

    Was this answer helpful?

    1 person found this answer helpful.
    0 comments No comments
  3. Anonymous
    2025-03-24T08:37:11+00:00

    Wait and do nothing is not even possible, since Onedrive will start copying all the friggin' data that was in the shared folders to your main account, thus causing this account to exceed it's 1 Tb limit, thus causing A LOT of issues for people to work properly with their Onedrive accounts.

    This stupid action of Microsoft has caused me to lose a weeks worth of data and a lot of headaches, THANK YOU VERY MUCH Microsoft!

    This has indeed been a huge wakeup call for me to realize how stupid I was to trust Microsoft with the safety of my important data, I think even an external harddisk is much safer after all...

    Was this answer helpful?

    1 person found this answer helpful.
    0 comments No comments
  4. Anonymous
    2025-03-23T22:18:12+00:00

    Folders in 2 of the 'minor' accounts that had become shortcuts in the 'major' account last night became File Explorer shared folders again without me doing anything. This sounds great, but I have so many shared folders that it just complicates the mess of folder vvs shortcut. I dare not run my local 'backup' that populates my NAS devices for streaming from.

    I have not checked v1 vs v2.

    Whether coincidence or not, the OneDrive Windows app then crashed everye time it was opened so I was forced to do a /reset. As a result, half a day later on a symmetrical gigabit fibre connection it is still validating my 250,000 files.

    Was this answer helpful?

    1 person found this answer helpful.
    0 comments No comments