[German]OneDrive users have been suffering for months from the fact that integrated folders are suddenly only displayed as shortcuts. It's probably a bug, as I found out. Now a person affected has told me that the shortcut has been turned back into a folder. I would be interested to know whether this observation can be confirmed by other readers.
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OneDrive and the shortcut bug
I have received an email from German blog reader Volker dated February 26, 2025, in which he complains about a change to OneDrive. He had previously included the My photos folder of a family member in his own OneDrive account in order to access certain photos directly.
On February 24, 2025, he found out, that the folder no longer exists as a directory. The screenshot above shows that only a link xxxx Eigene Aufnahmen (stands for My Photos in a German Windows) to the external OneDrive directory is shown and the link will opens a browser windows.
Bug confirmed by blog readers and Microsoft
I had reported this observation in my German blog post Verschiedene OneDrive-Probleme und Änderungen, and various German blog readers confirmed this observation in the comments (see). When I did some research, I came across a thread on Microsoft Answers where the problem has been reported since June 2024 – supposedly Microsoft is aware of the bug, but nothing is happening.
On March 6, 2025, German blogger Martin Geuß had addressed the problem also in this German post on Dr. Windows. There is now even a support article Add shortcuts to shared folders in OneDrive, in which Microsoft confirms the problem (see screenshot below) and wanted to solve the whole thing at some point.
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Hans Brender had contacted Martin Geuß and explained the problem with a backend migration. There were problems with synchronization for some users. Microsoft is doing what it can to fix the problem. When the accounts are migrated, there is an automatic logic that ensures "that they return to a synchronized folder within a few days", he said
Has the link bug been fixed?
German blog reader Volker has now contacted me again by email on March 9, 2025 (thanks for that) and wrote to me that the problem has now been solved automatically for him. The link in OneDrive had been converted back into a folder.
He sent me the screenshot above, where "Eigene Aufnahmen" (My Photos) is now displayed as a folder with a link icon (but no longer with the link arrow as with "Personal vault". When selected, the folder in question is now opened and no longer the web page.
So the problem is solved for the reader. Now I don't know whether the fix will work immediately for all OneDrive users or whether those affected will simply have to wait a few days until the Microsoft fix synchronizes the OneDrive account again and fixes the whole thing. Question: Can other affected users also confirm that the fix has been applied?
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