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

Anonymous
2025-01-22T06:31:59+00:00

Hi,

When will this problem be fixed? It has been unresolved for nearly two months now.

Issue

Some OneDrive shared folders shortcuts located in your My Files folder may show up as .url internet shortcuts instead of actual folders.

If I try to open the folder shortcut, it opens as a webpage instead of a folder.

Best Regards ,

Blanchi Dabre

*****************************************

Microsoft 365 and Office | OneDrive | For home | Windows

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  1. Anonymous
    2025-03-06T08:43:01+00:00

    sent off a report regarding the issue just now. I don't know what to do, I need the files locally so that the programs I use can work with them. They're useless on the browser. The folders are huge to download as a whole, and when I re-upload after I've done my daily work, I risk overwriting other teammembers' progress.

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  2. Anonymous
    2025-03-05T17:46:04+00:00

    So I've been investigating this issue today, and it's affecting both myself and clients.
    Here's what I've found:

    1. The accounts that have been "broken" actually seem to be on a different platform of onedrive (best way I can describe it), maybe newer. You can tell by the share box which looks like this on "newer" platform:

    As compared to the older style which looks like this on "older" platform: 2. It seems that two OneDrive accounts that appear to be on different "platforms" are experiencing broken sharing and you can tell if they have different share boxes.
    3. Accounts where this sharing box matches each other, and therefore appear to be on the same "platform" can share folders without a problem. For instance, shares from my wife's account are showing up as links, and her account shows the "old" share box. However another account that was "broken" also has the same sharing box as I do, and I can infact share folders between the accounts properly.
    4. Creating a new account only solves this issue for a bit, because it seems the newly created account is created on the "old" platform and not the new one, but is randomly migrated at some point which breaks it again from sharing with the older style of account.

    If you are having this issue, please check the shared from and shared to accounts, click on the share button for a folder, and see if the share boxes are different between the accounts. I only have limited accounts to test this from, so maybe more people can see if they are seeing the same thing as I am.

    Wow! This kind of solves my problem. So when i tried the methods you have mentioned. The older Share UI is for those who has Microsoft's domain email id, the one you mentioned as new is for those with other domain email ids. I created a new account with outlook and the shared folder works now. Can someone else confirm that whether the cross domain sharing causes this issue? (Microsoft domain: xxx@outlook/live.com, Other Domains: xyzx@gmail./com)

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  3. Anonymous
    2025-03-05T17:19:51+00:00

    So I've been investigating this issue today, and it's affecting both myself and clients.
    Here's what I've found:

    1. The accounts that have been "broken" actually seem to be on a different platform of onedrive (best way I can describe it), maybe newer. You can tell by the share box which looks like this on "newer" platform:

    As compared to the older style which looks like this on "older" platform:

    1. It seems that two OneDrive accounts that appear to be on different "platforms" are experiencing broken sharing and you can tell if they have different share boxes.
    2. Accounts where this sharing box matches each other, and therefore appear to be on the same "platform" can share folders without a problem. For instance, shares from my wife's account are showing up as links, and her account shows the "old" share box. However another account that was "broken" also has the same sharing box as I do, and I can infact share folders between the accounts properly.
    3. Creating a new account only solves this issue for a bit, because it seems the newly created account is created on the "old" platform and not the new one, but is randomly migrated at some point which breaks it again from sharing with the older style of account.

    If you are having this issue, please check the shared from and shared to accounts, click on the share button for a folder, and see if the share boxes are different between the accounts. I only have limited accounts to test this from, so maybe more people can see if they are seeing the same thing as I am.

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  4. Anonymous
    2025-03-01T18:34:55+00:00

    Hey Mia,

    Can you ask engineers when it will be fixed or are they deploying fix to users on backend?

    Users are noticing that they are 2 versions of user's OneDrive Web...When flle is shared from the old and the receiver is on the newer account it sees LINKS (URLS) instead of folder. Does MS upgrade the accounts so the is more users affected , because the change is in progress?

    Can you confirm that?

    Why your response is so shallow....

    It would be nice to ask OneDrive team for a statement in this case? Like they could say: We are deploying the account and there is a problem, We know that the fix will be until May or something.

    The worst thing is that you cannot search for files (Online) when they are shared. I can see folders online but i cannot search in them.

    This is 2 BUGS...so how we can use Online version if it crippled also.

    Why they cannot tell more about the problem?

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  5. Anonymous
    2025-03-01T00:59:16+00:00

    I am having the same issue now. All shared folders show up as links instead of folders. Microsoft needs to fix this quickly. Major loss of functionality and productivity.

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