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
    2025-05-09T06:51:38+00:00

    Back in mid-February, I had reported this same disruptive sudden loss of OneDrive syncing of our master shared folder into our local PCs folder structure. We are a Strata Condo council with one central PC containing our database of folders and files under it's OneDrive Documents folder. Myself (Treasurer) and 2 other councilors had the master database of folders shared and linked into our own local PC OneDrive folder tree. Suddenly, in mid-February, we all lost the OneDrive syncing. I opened a Microsoft Support ticket about this OneDrive failure and got a friendly reply that a Microsoft support person would phone me soon. However, before I got any phone call from Microsoft Support, suddenly within a week, the syncing on my PC was working again, but not on our Secretary's PC. It has taken about 3 months on the Secretary's PC for OneDrive to suddenly start syncing again.

    Thus, as Philip42h and others have reported, this OneDrive failure probably has to do with some kind of Microsoft backend migration of OneDrive accounts to a new platform.

    Just one other tip I've learned from researching this problem. Our councilors all have generic gmail addresses, like "******@gmail.com", just used for email conversations, but these addresses are NOT the email addresses for their Microsoft accounts. In order for the receiving user to link a shared folder shortcut into their local OneDrive folder tree, the user sharing the folder must share to the email address of the receiver's Microsoft account.

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  2. Anonymous
    2025-05-08T02:49:55+00:00

    My shared folders are working again in my Desktop OneDrive. Don't know what the issue was, but after a few Windows update, one day it started to work again.

    Perhaps can try to remove the shared folder from "Files" in OD and create shortcut again from "Shared". Then download the shared folder.

    All the best!

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  3. Anonymous
    2025-05-07T16:46:34+00:00

    if micro$oft have this faclity in business account, for what they are waiting to fix this problem in personal folder. we bought window 365 based on this commitment specially and if micro$oft can not fix, what is the use.

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  4. 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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