My Onedrive files are opening via web and not on my computer directly. How can I solve?

I wonder if this is not going to be a permanent thing that pertains to Onedrive for 365 Personal & Family versions.
It all works perfectly OK on Onedrive 365 Business and with Sharepoint.
Maybe Microsoft are trying to force people to migrate to Office 365 for Business.
The problem has been going on for 3 months and Microsoft should have fixed it by now if it was a software fault.
I think that they are ignoring the problem or have deliberately chosen opening shared files on the internet and not a shared folder on the computer.
What do others think ?

How much longer is this problem going to take to resolve it has become a very taxing situation to work only on the web

Hello, Isabela Prado da Silva

Welcome to Microsoft Community.

This appears to be a known issue currently affecting OneDrive shared folders. Users from different regions have reported the same issue beginning approximately June 2024. We've summarized the main points of our current situation in this issue, you can review them at your convenience:

1-> Impact Summary:

Many customers worldwide have reported that their OneDrive shared folders have become inaccessible as regular file folders in File Explorer and instead appear as internet shortcuts. The reported issues include:

• Shared Folder Visibility - Users can see shared folders in a web browser, but these folders appear as link files (.URL) in File Explorer, which open the OneDrive website rather than displaying the folder contents.
• Synchronization Issues - Shared folders are not syncing properly with OneDrive on the desktop. Attempts to add these folders to "My Files" result in creating internet shortcuts instead of actual folders.
• Access and Sync Problems - Users are unable to sync shared folders with their local devices, resulting in workflow disruptions and inability to access files offline.

2-> Latest Update:

This issue may be due to an internal error affecting data synchronization and handling within the OneDrive service. Microsoft has acknowledged the problem and is actively working on a resolution.

• Efforts are underway to restore proper access to affected shared folders. Initial steps include investigating the issue's root cause and implementing fixes to ensure shared folders appear correctly as file folders in File Explorer.
• A comprehensive analysis is being conducted to determine the exact cause of the issue. Preliminary findings suggest a possible misconfiguration or recent update affecting shared folder handling and synchronization processes.

3- > Current Status:

• Some users have reported temporary workarounds, such as accessing shared folders directly via OneDrive web interface -<onedrive.live.com>
• Microsoft internal engineers are closely monitoring the service and implementing fixes to ensure stability and proper synchronization of shared folders.

The official Microsoft documentation has been updated regarding the issue you are experiencing. Our development team is aware of this issue and plans to fix it gradually in future updates, i.e. Internet shortcuts will be gradually restored to their original files.

We understand that this may have caused you some inconvenience, so we appreciate your patience. We will continue to monitor the progress of this issue and let you know when the fix is complete.

Add and sync shared folders to OneDrive for home - Microsoft Support

We fully understand the inconvenience and disruption caused by this issue. Our team is actively addressing it and working hard to fix it as soon as possible. By June 1^st^, 2024, our community support has posted the bug reports on the feedback platform for internal use. We are committed to resolving this swiftly.

Please let us know if you have any questions or need more help.

Best regards,

Maxine | Microsoft Community Support Specialist

I have the same problem, and it's really irritating. I use OneDrive to sync 4 computers, and when I save to the OneDrive path initially from inside a Microsoft Office application, it first shows the proper windows path, then changes to a path that suggests it's on a connected website of some kind. Please fix ASAP.

I don't think this is related to OneDrive for Business. I'm using Office 2021. If I turn off the Connected Experiences in office, then saving documents locally work's fine. However, turning off Connected Experiences BREAKS syncing in OneNote.

And to clarify, the problem is:

a. Launch Word

b. Open a doc

c. Save as a doc - first time, the path shows path as C:...\OneDrive....

d. Save as a second time (and all subsequent times) - the path changes to web path

I regularly work with templates, and re-use older documents to create new ones. And for most, I need to save-as to PDF for sharing with others. This bug creates an irritating break in my workflow. It's gotten so annoying, I've been experimenting moving backward to other word processors so I don't have to deal with it.