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
    2025-03-05T17:47:43+00:00

    This seems pointless.

    Not only Onedrive turned shared folders to links, it completly WIPED OUT all the data from disk on family member account computer, where Files on Demand option was turned off and all files were synced.

    This is some pathetic joke.

    Yes. I had about 1 TB of data gone without warning or a chance to make a copy.

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  2. Anonymous
    2025-03-05T17:43:41+00:00

    the only way is create a new account and create shotcuts again ,

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  3. Anonymous
    2025-03-05T17:39:03+00:00

    No, i am using windows 11 from more than a year. it's working fine. I can access order share folders in windows OneDrive app but new sharing folders are opening in browser.

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  4. Anonymous
    2025-03-05T17:26:07+00:00

    Here is what I’ve found about this issue and what I’ve done to get past this issue for me and my family.

    I need to first give credit to AndyWarner1 for pointing me in this direction. AndyWarner1’s post below clued me in to what is going on first:

    “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.”

    I found this is the root of 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 your 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 no longer an issue. 

    I tried several things to try to force the online version to update, but no joy (including upgrading a sub account to paid). 

    To resolve:

    I created new OneDrive accounts with emails not used before with OneDrive for those accounts on the older “Restore your OneDrive” version. All the newly created accounts are on the “Search” version. I then moved files from the old “Restore your OneDrive” online version to the new accounts. I then reshared the files between accounts and added the shared folders as a shortcut to My files on the accounts and all are working as they used to work. 

    I choose to go through this work as it appears Microsoft has committed to the new version as all new accounts are on it and I don’t trust their speed of roll outs. Hope this is helpful for those in the same situation.

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