Accessing SharePoint through File Explorer

Question

Some users are having issues accessing File Explorer to access SharePoint and are getting the error below.

Anybody else aware of this or know what would be causing this please?

Answer 1

Dear Tim,

Thanks for providing the further information helping us further confirm the scenario in your environment.

May I know whether the users experiencing the issue in both Outlook Web App and the Outlook desktop clients in their environments? If they encounter the issue when using the Outlook desktop clients currently, I suggest you let them try Outlok Web App to do a test and let us know the result.

May I know whether they can go the the SharePoint Online libraries where the attachments are saved and open and edit the attachments normally. If yes, the permission factor can be excluded for this issue. If it is convenient, I suggest you let them use the OneDrive sync clients to sync the attchments and click on Browse this computer>select the local sync folder to attach teh files in an email in the Outlook desktp clients to see and let us know the outcome as well.

Meanhilw, please check whether they are using the same version number of the Outlook desktop clients as the users who aren't experiencing the issue and upload a full screenshot of the Account page in the Outlook desktop clients they are using for our reference.

Note: Remove any private information before uploading the screenshots.

Thanks for your effort and time.

Cliff

Answer 2

When I go to attach a file to an email in Outlook and File Explorer opens I then have the ability to copy and paste the top level SharePoint site URL into the address bar, this will then access the SharePoint site and I am able to navigate to a specific document library.

When some users are trying this they are getting the error I attached originally.

What I do not understand is why in some cases, for some users this works okay and others are getting the error message, there does not seem to any rhyme or reason as to why this is happening.

But you are saying that the OneDrive sync should be used rather than trying to access a URL directly into a SharePoint site using File Explorer?

Answer 3

Dear Tim,

Thanks for your updates.

Based on the issue "Some users are having issues accessing File Explorer to access SharePoint and are getting the error" and that the issue happens when you try to add an attachment from SharePoint in Outlook, I guess that the affected users have synced the files from SharePoint Online with the OneDrive sync client in advance and then add the files as attachments from the local sync folder in Outlook.

Could you confirm whether the situation is correct in your environment? If yes, I suggest you check whether the files are successfully synced to your local sync folder on your computer. If yes, I suggest you let the affected users reset OneDrive, restart the computer and then open the OneDrive sync client and Outlook again to do a test to see the result.

ore uploading the screenshots.

If the situation is different, please list the reproducing steps of the situation and upload some related screenshots for our confirmation.

Note: Remove any private information before uploading the screenshots.

Thanks for your effort and time.

Cliff

Answer 4

One of the instances when this issue occurs is trying to attach a document to an email in Outlook from SharePoint, it works for some of our users, but not others which seems a bit strange.

Map SharePoint sites as network drives is not being used.

Answer 5

Dear Tim,

Welcome to the forum here.

What feature do you use to access SharePoint via File Explorer, Open in File Exploreer, Map SharePoint sites as a network drive or sync the files with the OneDrive sync client?

If you are using the Map SharePoint sites as a network drive feature, the drive may become invalid after some time and you may re-map it again to see the result.

Meanwhile, as the feature may cause some issues, I suggest you use the OneDrive File On-Demand feature to move forward.

Best Regards,

Cliff