A shared folder in one drive, cannot be synced to explorer. Option no longer available

This is complete garbage, Microsoft.

I have a paid OneDrive service through a Microsoft 365 Family subscription. We're supposed to get 1TB each for 5 people and I had shared folders set up between two of my Microsoft accounts (two laptops) and my wife's account (her laptop). We had shared folders that we could transfer photos and such between us, just by looking in the shared folders in File Explorer and cut/pasting files that would sync between the machines. Then, like many, I noticed today that a few weeks ago (?) it suddenly converted these shared sync folders with files to web links that just open the OneDrive web view to access the shared folders and files remotely (and VERY inconveniently).

While that was SUPER ANNOYING and not what I paid for, whatever change they made also DELETED the previously syncronised shared files and folders on my C drive in the OneDrive file tree under c:\users[username]\OneDrive path, replacing the folders with web link shortcuts. This is Microsoft DELETING data on MY local disk WITHOUT MY PERMISSION. Absolutely outragious.

I don't care what Microsoft says about whether it wants to continue to provide folder sync services as part of the service I PAID for, deleting MY data without MY PERMISSION on MY disk has to be illegal.

Hi there,

Same issue here since 2025-07-06. Premium users shares are still syncing, so the problem seems not to be purely technical, but might even be a licensing "feature"(!).

Microsofts resources are moved towards GenAI and bread-and-butter features are starving. Unfortunately, this will be the future of IT.

Having the same issue here. Come one Micro$oft, do something about it!

adding on to this thread...

desktop will not show the added shared folder. This folder was originally in the list of Choose folders to sync with desktop, but after some minutes, this folder disappeared and no longer shows up in the list to check/uncheck.

OneDrive online does show the shared folder in my list of folders, however attempts to move files into this shared folder with Write access fails. I am able to create the "tets" folder in this shared folder which shows i have Write access, but the Move here button is greyed out.

You do not see shared folders in Account - Choose folders, you only see your local folders you want to be backed up by OneDrive.

When a folder is shared with you, the folder will initially show up in your online view of your OneDrive folders under "Shared With You". Traditionally, to merge the Shared folder into your OneDrive local files, you would click the menu item "Add shortcut to My Files".

Then OneDrive would merge all the folders and files in the Shared drive down to your local PC OneDrive folder tree. All of these shared folders and files would have the little check mark and mini person icon indicating a shared file on the File Manager list. See the snip below:

I have always set the OneDrive advanced option "Files On-Demand" to OFF, so that all the shared files and folders are also fully resident on my local PC. In the snip above the shared PDF file "Treasurer Financial Report 2025-02-27.pdf is a file shared with me from our master server. Any changes I make to that file would be reflected back on the server and also on all other peoples local PCs having the same share defined.

If you look at the properties of the "Treasurer Financial Report" pdf file, you'll see it listed as "This item is shared" as below:

So, something happened a week ago, on February 22nd, that removed all these shared folders and files on the local drive. The shared folder tree became only visible in the On-Line OneDrive view. Then about a week later, on March 3rd, OneDrive Sync and Backup returned to its traditional operation with all the shared folders and files again synced down to my both of my local PCs.

I cannot explain why OneDrive stopped working on February 22nd, but for me on March 3rd, OneDrive suddenly started working again with all the shared folders and files resident on my local PCs.