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
    2025-02-28T16:29:11+00:00

    FYSA to all: I did open a ticket and Microsoft Support did call me.

    They repeated the canned response of it being a known issue and they were working with urgency to fix the problem. However, looking back in online discussions, it seems to have been an issue for over a year so I'm not sure what level of urgency is being attributed to it.

    Additionally, the support callback only seemed interested in marketing feedback on features, how we use Microsoft products etc... with no attempt to diagnose or address the problem.,

    I'll be looking for an alternative solution to OneDrive now. We shared and edit documents between 3 different physical locations, any suggestions ?

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  2. Anonymous
    2025-02-28T16:05:00+00:00

    I just messaged Microsoft about this issue, too. It's so frustrating. This is a major productivity issue, like spending an hour reading online articles trying to figure out what the heck is wrong. How is there no customer support besides this forum and reading articles?

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  3. Anonymous
    2025-02-28T15:34:45+00:00

    Solved (partially)!

    I had the same issue and could not find a solution on the internet. It started with one PC (likely after an update) and then propagated to the next PC.

    Copilot described a workaround:

    Instead of using OneDrive sync, you connect to a network address of the underlying onedrive network location**.**

    • First you need to find out the network address of your onedrive folder. Open an office file (e.g. a word file) from the the web version of onedrive (select open in app). Then go to file info and click on "copy path". The path will look something like "https://d.docs.live.net/xxxxxxxxxx/nameofsharedfolder/nameoffile.docx"  discard the filename. The xxxx is a long hex code that is probably unique to the OneDrive of the MS account.
    • In Explorer navigate to My PC and select add network address
    • Paste the URL https://d.docs.live.net/xxxxxxxxxx/nameofsharedfolder
    • Then provide the login details. I used the credentials of the account that shared the folder - not the account that it was shared with
    • Give it a friendly name, e.g. just nameofsharedfolder
    • Now you have this link in My PC and can browse like normal. Office files do open in auto save mode

    Downside: there is no offline synching. You need to be online to access the folders. I had some issues opening the same file on two computers.

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  4. Anonymous
    2025-02-28T15:15:04+00:00

    This is ridiculous, I have already opened 2 tickets with Microsoft. The feeling I'm getting is that this is not a bug, but it is wanted by Microsoft. We've been paying Microsoft 365 for years and this year it even went from 99€ to 129€. If this is not reversed by Microsoft, I'm going to have to switch to Google Drive or Dropbox within 1-2 weeks, it's just impossible to work this way.

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