How to download a csv file which shows third party links from the document library?

Hi @Hannah W
I apologize for any earlier confusion.
I used this VBA to extract .url files, but please note that you must first download the .url files to your local machine. Although this approach takes time, it seems to be the most effective workaround at this time.

Sub ExtractURLsFromURLFiles() 
    Dim folderPath As String 
    Dim fileName As String 
    Dim filePath As String 
    Dim fileContent As String 
    Dim lineText As String 
    Dim url As String 
    Dim rowNum As Long 
    Dim fileNum As Integer 
  
    ' Set your folder path here 
    folderPath = "C:\yourpath"  ' <-- Change this to your actual folder path 
    ' Ensure folder path ends with a backslash 
    If Right(folderPath, 1) <> "\" Then 
        folderPath = folderPath & "\" 
    End If 
  
    ' Get the first .url file in the folder 
    fileName = Dir(folderPath & "*.url") 
    rowNum = 2 
  
    ' Set headers in Excel 
    Cells(1, 1).Value = "File Name" 
    Cells(1, 2).Value = "Extracted URL" 
  
    ' Loop through all .url files 
    Do While fileName <> "" 
        filePath = folderPath & fileName 
        fileNum = FreeFile 
  
        ' Open the .url file and read its content 
        Open filePath For Input As #fileNum 
        Do Until EOF(fileNum) 
            Line Input #fileNum, lineText 
            If InStr(lineText, "URL=") > 0 Then 
                url = Mid(lineText, InStr(lineText, "URL=") + 4) 
                Exit Do 
            End If 
        Loop 
        Close #fileNum 
  
        ' Write results to Excel 
        Cells(rowNum, 1).Value = fileName 
        Cells(rowNum, 2).Value = url 
        rowNum = rowNum + 1 
        url = "" 
  
        ' Get next file 
        fileName = Dir 
    Loop 
  
    MsgBox "URLs extracted successfully!" 
End Sub    

I double-checked your issue and found that SharePoint does not currently offer a built-in feature to automatically extract third-party URLs and populate them into a new column. The most practical solution remains to manually add a custom hyperlink column, as previously suggested.
I hope this helps. 
If you have any further concerns, please feel free to reach me out. 

If you think my answer is helpful to you, don't forget to mark it as your answer. Warm thanks.

Hi Teddy, thanks for replying. I want to clarify some information with you.

You say "Since PowerShell isn’t an option, the only practical workaround is to manually extract the .url files using VBA like you’ve been doing."

As stated in my original post, using this shows the Sharepoint URL, not the external third-party URL so this isn't an option?

Is there a way to find the URLs to the third party and populate a new column instead of more manual work of going into each SharePoint link to find the third-party URL and enter it manually. Thanks

Hi @Hannah W  
Thank you for posting your question in the Microsoft Q&A forum. 
SharePoint uses a feature called “Link to a Document”, which allows users to upload .url files that point to external resources. However, these .url files are stored as documents in SharePoint and when exported to CSV, they often appear as SharePoint-hosted links like: https://[tenant].sharepoint.com/sites/.../filename.url. This behavior is by design and does not expose the actual third-party destination URL directly. 

Since PowerShell isn’t an option, the only practical workaround is to manually extract the .url files using VBA like you’ve been doing. It may take some time, but it’s the most effective method under these constraints. 
To streamline future workflows and avoid this kind of situation again, consider adding a custom hyperlink column to your SharePoint library. You can do this by switching to Grid view, clicking Edit in grid view at the top, and modifying the column settings. This allows you to directly manage links in a way that typical SharePoint views don’t support. 
In modern SharePoint libraries, Microsoft has replaced the library-specific search box with a unified search bar at the top of the page. This bar searches across the entire site or tenant, not just the current library. As a result, it may not return results scoped to your current view or folder. 

To improve search accuracy and filter out incorrect results, go to Library Settings > More library settings > Advanced Settings:

-Set “Allow items to appear in search results” and "Allow non-default views from this list to appear in search results" to Yes. 

-Reindex the library.

Please note that if your library contains a large volume of content, it may take some time for the changes to take full effect.

I hope this helps. 

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