OneDrive shared folders are now links, not folders! How do I fix this?

Anonymous
2025-03-04T11:55:09+00:00

I have a number of folders shared with me by other OneDrive users. I've added these to My Files to appear alongside the folders on my OneDrive account. Up until yesterday, they appeared as folders on my PC, alongside the other folders which belong to my OneDrive account. Now these folders that are shared with me are appearing as shortcut links instead of folders on my PC.

This has happened to 3 different PCs which are all connected to the same OneDrive account. I have uninstalled OneDrive, cleared the cache, etc. and reinstalled on one PC, but the problem remains. I've removed shared folders, had them unshared by the owner, reshared back to me, and then added again to My Files, but this didn't work either.

How do I fix this?

Microsoft 365 and Office | OneDrive | For home | Windows

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  1. Anonymous
    2025-03-06T11:57:23+00:00

    I think that is not a solution nor a workaround...

    I have my family account that contains all our shared stuff (about 500gb) and until this change I've for example a photos folder mapped in my OneDrive and synced on-demand or full based on subfolder that I need... that was very useful and allow rapid access and offline support.

    Now I've a useless shortcut and all my local files are moved in recycle bin... without any notice from onedrive client!

    The worst experience with OneDrive in years IMHO.

    I hope that this feature will be re-added soon or I must migrate to other solutions :(

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  2. Anonymous
    2025-03-10T18:11:03+00:00

    Dear all,

    I have just realized the same "issue" and above steps seem quite complicated, not really user friendly for not IT guys, and compared to very simply how it was before.

    It was very convenient before, now you have just complicated process too much. I hope you will provide soon previous process/version of shared folders/files

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  3. Anonymous
    2025-03-11T10:24:11+00:00

    Dear all, I have the same problem that only occurs on one out of 3 PCs that I shared the folders with. All folders became links to OneDrive browser version, which makes working with files really painful. Could you please sort this problem as soon as possible, because I started paying for OneDrive just because of this possibility to directly share folders with my family.

    Thanks in advance.

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  4. Anonymous
    2025-05-14T17:03:28+00:00

    So discouraging that Microsoft has not resolved this issue -

    I have read so many articles and tried so many steps, just to make this work for people that have large folder sets shared with them and now have to use a process to upload changes to a file that use to simply sync up.

    This has been a problem for over a year, and appears to affect users randomly.

    It would help if there was a useful thread that Microsoft manages to assist us directly to resolve this issue.

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  5. Anonymous
    2025-03-18T08:25:25+00:00

    What?
    Are you serious? A mapped drive webdav-like to solve A GIANT problem like this?

    ARE YOU SERIOUS?!?!??!

    In Onedrive we have life, documents, stories, photos, work... everything. And you are SIMPLY suggesting to map a drive!??!?!

    A problem that you have nearly for one year? Take a look at this

    https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/msoffice/forum/all/one-drive-shared-folder-problem/1e206690-40ea-482f-af60-6ef83b5e580c

    My whole family shares folder each others and NOW ALL IS A MESS!!! Every single ******** folder DUPLICATED with the name of the computer, using the name of THE COMPUTER in which the sync has gone.

    So I have shared a photo-family folder, right?
    now I have

    photo-family-pcx

    photo-family-pcy

    photo-family-notebooka

    photo-family-notebookc

    photo-family-mywife

    photo-family-myson

    THE SAME FOLDER duplicated. Polish this will be a mess!!!!

    How it can be possible?

    How is it possible that in a year you have not solved a problem of this gravity?

    I am seriously thinking of abandoning onedrive and turning to other cloud services that are MUCH more reliable.

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