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
    2025-03-04T18:45:59+00:00

    I would guess that they are rolling out an update and are midway and we will just have to wait until they finish. Another interesting fact in my case is that when the problem happened, the computers that had the "search" version are physically located in the USA while the ones with the other version are physically located in Europe. We travel a lot. Furthermore, the MS accounts for those in Europe might have a European MS account, where the others are US. So, could be some geographic aspect to the rollout? Just guessing!

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  2. Anonymous
    2025-03-04T18:45:56+00:00

    This is genius! I do have that issue, indeed.

    Does this happen because one account is the "main" one, paying for it, and the others are guests? When you say half and half, do you have more than one account with "Search" instead of "Restore your OneDrive" at the bottom? I only see my main one with it.

    I tried using a "family" group and to reshare folders but it did not work, the shares happen via link instead of other "family members" showing up.

    What's even weirder is that after all this removing and readding the folders are showing on the "what to synchronize" but OneDrive is still performing the basic synchronization of the owned folders, didn't get to process the others. The fact I see no url link yet might mean perhaps all this removing and readding might work?

    We should surely have an unlinked backup of all files somewhere, it was very un nice of MS to remove our local files without asking first.

    Good opportunity to shake us up and remind us to have more layers of backup, anyways. We sometimes take things for granted.

    They have very expensive upgrades with 5 and 10 TB that didn't exist before. I wonder if all this mess is happening as an indirect way to force people to upgrade to their 50 dollar per month 5TB for a single account subscription.

    Nice it's now possible but the price is too high for personal use.

    I'll shop around but I personally might change the way I organize my files. Not sure how to use more than one OneDrive account at the same time on the same computer. I have a feeling it's possible since I saw an "add account" option that didn't exist before on their Windows App. Did anybody ever use that? Does it work well?

    That also does not solve the issue when family members or friends share folders with us. We'll be unable to synchronize and work on them properly like before, if they are on the "wrong server".

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  3. Anonymous
    2025-03-04T18:32:44+00:00

    The issues resolved itself for me today, against all odds the folder got synced normaly again when turning on the PC this evenig.

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  4. Anonymous
    2025-03-04T18:28:37+00:00

    We have MS 365 with a family group. All of the people who have the same "version" of the online OneDrive (see below) can properly share folders. All folder sharing between two different versions of the online OneDrive result in shared folders being url links.

    I saw another poster ask about the same version of the online OneDrive. I never realized there could be different online version of OneDrive. From what have seen, the way to tell the different versions is:

    1. Log onto the web version of OneDrive.
    2. Click the gear icon in the upper right.
    3. click the "options".

    4a. If your last option listed on the right of the window says "Search" then you have one version of OneDrive online.

    4b. If your last option listed on the right of the window says "Restore your OneDrive" then you have another version of the online OneDrive.

    This is what the issue is for me and my family. Two of us are on the "Search" OneDrive online version as the bottom of the options page, and 3 of us are on "Restore you OneDrive" version of OneDrive online. If we share between different online versions of OneDrive, it doesn't matter what version of the OneDrive client we are running on windows or Mac, we have the url issue instead of the linked folder. As soon as we share across the same online version of OneDrive, there is not longer an issue.

    The big bummer for us is almost half of us are one way and half the other. Now searching on how to force an update to the "Search" version of OneDrive online. If anyone finds that, please add it here as it will help everyone is this situation.

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