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
    2025-06-10T19:46:41+00:00

    As a data point, my folders and those I use or maintain for work are now synching properly. Though I'm very grateful to have this vital tool back in my arsenal, I do wish there'd been updates on this thread or through customer support about the process of researching/fixing the issue. For something like OneDrive, reliability of existing features is vastly more important to me than the addition of new features.

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  2. Anonymous
    2025-05-26T09:18:18+00:00

    I agree, seems to be incremental fixes that spanned a lot of Microsoft missteps.

    To check if fully restored, be sure to delete all old shortcuts. Then go to "Shared with you" files in the online listing and recreated shortcuts.

    Mine had a different problem in that in my "Shared with you" files and folders the folders that I knew for certain were shared with me (I did the shares and confirmed them) were NOT visible. I had to get a share link and open those while online then ask for the recreate link.

    Still lots of bugs!

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  3. Anonymous
    2025-05-24T13:18:33+00:00

    So now even the link has been deleted from File Explorer.

    Oh wonderful, when I re-add the folder on the website it recreates the real folder in Explorer. Only 93GB to download.

    So now I must have been converted in the same way as the shared user.

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  4. Anonymous
    2025-05-16T11:20:22+00:00

    Only partially solved. Out of the 3 folders that were shared with me, 2 have returned to normal and are shared as folders, but the third is still a link. I have tried to delete the link, and tried "add this folder as a shortcut to my files" option from "Shared->With You" section on onedrive.com, tried several times but this one folder is still a link.

    Very frustrating, as I do a lot of interactions and collaborative work on that third folder. If anyone knows a way to help this along, please share.

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