sharing a onedrive personal account (the shared folder that has no user login, has no search bar ! ??)

Question

sharing a onedrive personal account (the shared folder that has no user login, has no search bar ! ??)

Mark King 0

sharing a onedrive personal account (the shared folder that has no login, has no search bar ! ??)

I can see the search on the web if i sign into my onedrive account.

but if i was to share the same folder (or any folder for that matter) a user that has no account, the searched folder is missing a search box at the top ?

How do i get the search box to appear for the shared user on the web with no login ?

1 answer

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Answer 1

Jayden-P 4,195 Microsoft External Staff Moderator

Hi @Mark King

Thank you for posting your question in the Microsoft Q&A forum.

Based on the information you have provided, looks like you are missing the log in panel and search bar.

May I know if you choose Anyone option when sharing?

If yes, this doesn't require a Microsoft account. So, users won't have access to all OneDrive features such as Log in and Search bar.

User's image

I have tested and my outcome similar with yours. User's image If you want them to have search bar and log in panel. Please choose other options that require a Microsoft account. These features will appear again.

I hope this information helps.

If the answer is helpful, please click "Accept Answer" and kindly upvote it. If you have extra questions about this answer, please click "Comment".

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Mark King 0 Reputation points

2025-06-20T18:43:21.84+00:00

I have tried sharing to another microsoft account, that the search bar shows, but its only searching the files in that onedrive NOT THE SHARED DRIVE - POINTLESS !

Basically you are unable to search shared folders at all, unless its the main account holder !
That is very poorly designed.
Jayden-P 4,195 Reputation points Microsoft External Staff Moderator

2025-06-23T07:20:33.4233333+00:00

Hi @Mark King

I am so sorry about this inconvenience, and I totally understand your frustration.

Microsoft has made an announcement for this known issue.

You can read more at Fixes or workarounds for recent issues in OneDrive - Microsoft Support

While our dev team is detecting the root cause and looking for solutions, you can try this workaround.

Add a shared folder to your OneDrive

Create a shortcut of the shared folder to My files, it will sync the shared folders to OneDrive Desktop, then you can use search in File Explorer to search for shared folders.

Once again, I apologize for any inconvenience this might cause you. This is one of the most basic features, we will try our best to resolve this known issue.

Thank you for your understanding
Jayden-P 4,195 Reputation points Microsoft External Staff Moderator

2025-06-25T07:53:08.89+00:00

Hi @Mark King

May I know if you have got any chance to check my answer?

If you think my answer helped you partially, please mark it as accepted answer.

This helps others in the community facing similar problems.

Thanks for your understanding.

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sharing a onedrive personal account (the shared folder that has no user login, has no search bar ! ??)

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