OneDrive shared folder shortcut stopped working as expected

Anonymous
2025-02-23T05:20:55+00:00

Update #2:

Found another thread that seem to be talking about the same issue: Issue with OneDrive Desktop App - Shared Folders Became Web Links

But none of them seem to provide solution to this problem.

Update:

Looks like there is already a post about this exact same issue; I don't know how I missed it when I was searching for existing issues. Anyway, here is the link: OneDrive shared folders are now a url shortcut (I need to fix it) - Microsoft Community

Found another one: Folders Shared with me are syncing as internet shortcut in OneDrive on - Microsoft Community

Looks like the issue is still active and there hasn't been any solution to it yet.

Hi there,

I have a shared folder from someone that I collaborate with and I use "Add shortcut to My Files" option so add the shortcut so that I can access it from my Explorer. This has been working great until yesterday. Starting yesterday, I stopped seeing the folder completely from my explorer; instead, I see an entry with the same name with type "Internet Shortcut". When I open it, a new browser instance opens and takes me to the OneDrive website. On the web interface, it opens the folder correctly.

Here are some screenshots:

In shared, I see the folder named "1-...", which is the folder that was shared to me. I then click the ... to open the menu and click "Add shortcut to My Files".

The folder is added correctly in My Files but it has the "shortcut" looking icon attached to the folder icon. Click the link takes me to the folder correctly.

In the explorer, however, it's showing up as "Internet Shortcut".

And therefore, I cannot access the content of that folder directly.

This seems to be a behavior change that I cannot rollback. It was very useful to be able to access the shared folder from explorer so I can read/write files directly from the app instead of having to download/download. Is this expected change?

Expected behavior:

A folder is created with name matching the shared folder name. Opening the folder shows the content of the folder.

Files can be read and write as if they were local files.

Actual behavior:

An "Internet shortcut" is created. Opening the shortcut takes me to the OneDrive page.

Files cannot be read and write directly.

Thanks in advance.

Microsoft 365 and Office | OneDrive | For home | Windows

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  1. Anonymous
    2025-02-28T11:43:44+00:00

    Hi,

    Many users here, including myself, are experiencing this OneDrive sync issue, and it’s becoming a major roadblock to our workflow. This is seriously impacting our collaboration and causing significant delays.

    Can we get an update on what’s causing the problem and whether we can expect a fix soon? Should we still rely on OneDrive for our work, or should we start looking into alternatives like Google Drive to avoid these kinds of critical disruptions?

    We really need clear communication on this. Looking forward to your response.

    Thanks.

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  2. Anonymous
    2025-02-28T02:40:28+00:00

    Hi, Koco.

    I sense your anxious concern about this issue, I understand your feelings. The forum community has not received the latest logs from the development team at this time. But I'll keep track of the issue in this reply thread and share the latest progress on the issue as soon as possible. While waiting for a fix, you can temporarily visit OneDrive web as an alternative. And if you are interested in an alternative solution to the issue, you can try the one I sent you in a private message. Looking forward to your results*. I'd be happy to try and find an alternative with you all while waiting for the development team to investigate the fix issue.*

    Best Regards,

    Hannah.Z

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  3. Anonymous
    2025-02-27T18:56:10+00:00

    Any updates on this issue. Has anyone contacted tech support?

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  4. Anonymous
    2025-02-27T18:39:20+00:00

    Are there log files for the sync agent? Perhaps we can supply the log file for further investigation if that helps?

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  5. Anonymous
    2025-02-27T17:21:45+00:00

    This just happed to my other friend who has the same shared folder added as shortcut in My Files. Delete the shortcut and add it again does not work. Next, I am going to ask the owner of the folder to stop sharing and reshare the folder and then add a shortcut to see if that fixes the issue. If that does not work either, then I am out of ideas and might need to look into alternative options.

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