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
    2025-03-11T03:32:21+00:00

    This is strange... one folder that was previously a URL (and always been since its creation) changed to a standard folder and one folder that was always been a regular folder suddenly changed to an URL... this is very disturbing...

    This likely happened because one or two of your accounts had a "server migration", or so that's what it seems to us all, at this point, until we learn more about it.

    I personally disabled my shares between 3 accounts from my family unit and each is holding its own content only. I synchronized everything and I am doing lots of backup around my drives (almost 2 TB total).

    Will keep two accounts "unseen" by my main account and hope I don't need to work on those files. Reallocate critical things around if necessary.

    I'll also keep an eye in the conversation to see how this goes. 😵‍💫

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  2. Anonymous
    2025-03-10T22:37:10+00:00

    There is a "sort-of" workaround if you happen to have a Synology NAS. (Using Synology Drive, and Synology Cloud Sync.)

    It's a bit of an effort to set up, but it can allow you to sync multiple users to the same OneDrive "Shared" Directory in a way that the sync happens in each of their personal OneDrive directories.

    1. Set up a Shared Folder in your Synology NAS and assign users and access rights to it. (Eg "Family Share")
    2. In each users OneDrive create a directory that you want to share (Eg "Family Share")
    3. In the Synology NAS, open Cloud Sync and create a bidirectional OneDrive Cloud Sync for each user between the OneDrive directory and the NAS Shared Folder. (You will need to authenticate for each Microsoft account)

    If you want unidirectional or read-only modify the rights and sync type accordingly. (Note: Do not enable encryption as this will encrypt the files on OneDrive)

    Unfortunately this method will not lock the file or allow concurrent M365 editing on the same file, so there is a risk of sync conflicts if two or more users access the file and modify it.

    Alternatively, and somewhat obviously, I could just use Synology Drive instead, but I like to have both Public Cloud and Private Cloud backups of my data.

    This is my "workaround" for now for my wife and I whilst I wait (in vain maybe!) for a Microsoft Solution.

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  3. Anonymous
    2025-03-10T22:01:23+00:00

    This is strange... one folder that was previously a URL (and always been since its creation) changed to a standard folder and one folder that was always been a regular folder suddenly changed to an URL... this is very disturbing...

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  4. Anonymous
    2025-03-10T21:41:17+00:00

    I got hit with this problem today, too. I've tried all the uninstalling, reinstalling, relinking, resharing, and updating suggestions to no avail. It is MASSIVELY impacting my workflows. Microsoft PLEASE work on a resolution to this!

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