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

Anonymous
2024-06-17T23:34:45+00:00

Good morning,

I am an experienced IT professional.

I have already confirmed permissions to one drive folders are fine.

And, one drive has been reinstalled etc.

The account in question is just a free outlook.com account.

Issue - You used to be able to see a sync option on the web access for any shared folders.

The folder was shared from another free one drive account.

This is no longer there.

I can add a shortcut, that is all.

And while the user can in indeed click on the shortcut to access files, the access is ONLY web access.

From my reading of other blogs, I assume that Microsoft no longer allow one drive free to sync shared folders to explorer?

And I need to advise my client to move to sharepoint. - or, a 365 business account.

Thank you.

Microsoft 365 and Office | OneDrive | For home | Windows

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  1. Anonymous
    2025-05-06T15:10:20+00:00

    Appreciate the hope! If this really is part of a backend migration to SharePoint or another platform, then Microsoft should’ve been much more transparent about the timeline and impact. For someone like me who rely on shared folder sync every day, this isn’t just a minor inconvenience — it breaks critical workflows.

    Thanks for the input!

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  2. Anonymous
    2025-05-06T21:50:40+00:00

    Dear Microsoft,

    OneDrive and Microsoft 365 is the only thing keeping us using Windows. Me and my wife have shared folders (we're not a business, just family stuff) and she's complaining every day that she cannot access the folders anymore. So, what we are going to do is: 1) buy a NAS, 2) cancel our Microsoft 365 subscription, and 3) migrate to Linux and LibreOffice.

    Thank you very much, Micro$oft.

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  3. Anonymous
    2025-05-07T15:56:13+00:00

    Dear Microsoft,

    OneDrive and Microsoft 365 is the only thing keeping us using Windows. Me and my wife have shared folders (we're not a business, just family stuff) and she's complaining every day that she cannot access the folders anymore. So, what we are going to do is: 1) buy a NAS, 2) cancel our Microsoft 365 subscription, and 3) migrate to Linux and LibreOffice.

    Thank you very much, Micro$oft.

    I think Microsoft heard my threat and decided to solve my problem. Suddenly my shared folders appeared on my wife's Onedrive, and hers on mine, and they're normally accessible as folders on Windows file explorer.

    Hope the other users here are also having their problems solved.

    There is an official notice on Microsoft support site: https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/office/add-shortcuts-to-shared-folders-in-onedrive-d66b1347-99b7-4470-9360-ffc048d35a33

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  4. Anonymous
    2025-05-07T16:28:10+00:00

    ours still not syncing, we may have to move out of microsoft

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  5. Anonymous
    2025-05-07T16:34:35+00:00

    The key phrases from Microsoft state:

    • Some OneDrive shared folders shortcuts located in your My Files folder may show up as .url internet shortcuts instead of actual folders. If you try to open the folder shortcut, it opens as a webpage instead of a folder.
    • This issue is due to some changes we're making to our backend service. The .url internet shortcuts will automatically convert back to a folder when the issue is resolved.

    So, they are aware, and it will get 'fixed' provided that we do nothing and wait long enough!

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