OneDrive shared folders showing up as URL links and not actual folders

I see the problem persists. I don't know if it's going to help but I want to share my findings.

We, 36 employees, are using the Office 365 in the same workplace. While some of shared folders (from specific people) can be explored on the computer, some others appear as URL. I made an Excel, listing some factors that might affect the situation. I checked the OS language, OneDrive Web Display Language, etc. of the users. The only difference that seems to be in correlation with this issue is the notification e-mail sent by OneDrive upon sharing a file with me. We are in Türkiye and the files of the owners whose notification e-mail is in English (eg., "coworker shared the folder "Folder" with you) have shortcuts as files in my computer (that can be explored locally) and the files of the owners whose notification e-mail is in Turkish (arkadaşınız sizinle "Dosya" klasörünü paylaştı) have URL shortcuts. This is the only consistent difference between coworkers who shared their files with me.

I don’t know the reason behind the language of e-mails. That's why i couldn't find a solution. I have checked the OneDrive web display language, Office Apps language, OS language, even the time/regional formats. None of them shows any type of consistency with the e-mail language.

I hope this adds a new perspective.

The fact the Microsoft gives no updates about this is crazy .... I am looking up to switch to Dropbox or Google Drive today or tomorrow.

This issue has been known since June 24 and is significantly impacting all of my shared folders and group activities, making it impossible to work. It’s disappointing that Microsoft has not dedicated the time and attention to resolving this, seemingly considering it a minor issue. However, this is a critical problem that must be addressed as soon as possible.

It would also be much appreciated if you communicated such problems transparently upfront when offering your services. I purchased Microsoft 365 licenses with the expectation of being able to reliably share my folders and use OneDrive effectively, but that has not been the case. As a result, I will likely need to consider alternative backup and file-sharing services, such as Google Drive or others, which is unfortunate.

You are 100% correct. I have noticed this as well. the two Onedrive platforms that look the same can share folders between each other and the direct access feature works, however when shared between the different ones then the folders appear as links.

Noticed this happening yesterday 2/19/2025 [Windows 11 Version 24H2 for x64-based Systems with 2025-02 Cumulative Update installed on ‎2/‎13/‎2025]

Regards,

John

A co-worker's PC here at the office was fine up until this afternoon. It now has the same problem where folders in "Personal" have changed to url's. 2/21/2025

Regards,

John

There's another thread regarding the same issue with at least 10 pages of posts from other users.

Regards,

John