Sync a folder that is "Shared with me" to PC via OneDrive for Business (Office 365)

Question

I am trying to set up a group collaboration folder via OneDrive for Business. My organization uses Office 365, so I want to create one folder in my OneDrive account, and share it with my team so that they can add to it, edit it, etc. This is incredibly easy to do in Dropbox, and I am already doing this for other teams. The article See files shared with you in OneDrive provides an overview of what you can do to see a folder that is shared with you, but you can only see it in the browser. It will not sync to your PC.

The same article shows you how you can "Add to OneDrive" in OneDrive personal (and thus allow the folder to sync to your PC), but the same functionality is not available in OneDrive for Business (or, at least, is not explained, and is certainly not obvious from the options available from within OneDrive). Basically, to have true collaboration, everyone would have to be collaborating in their browser, which is functionally useless.

Am I missing something simple, here, or is this just a limitation of OneDrive for Business?

If it is, in fact, a limitation, perhaps someone from Microsoft can explain why? This seems like a really basic thing to have available...

Answer 1

Hi Aaron,

Yes, I understand your requirement in your post, you want to know how the users can sync the folder in Shared with me to their local OneDrive synced folder (PC).

The steps I provided above is not in the OneDrive personal, I will explain the steps more clearly.

1. Assume you have shared a folder to your users, then in their OneDrive for Business, they can click Shared with me to see the folder.
2. They need to click the folder to open it. Then they can see Sync button on the top of the folder, click the button to sync this folder to their OneDrive synced folder(PC).

Regards,

Tisky

Answer 2

Ah, yes, that is clear. The result is that the folder is not listed under my OneDrive - [Organization Name] folder, but rather under a separate [Organization Name] - Shared Folder folder. Thanks!

Answer 3

Hi Aaron,

Based on your description, you want to know how to sync the files in Shared with me to your local location.

To synced the Shared with me to local location, you need to put the files you want to share into a folder, then share the folder to your users. In their Shared with me, they can open the folder and then sync the folder to  their OneDrive synced folder.

Regarding your second question, since OneDrive personal is different from OneDrive for Business, so in OneDrive personal you need to click Add to OneDrive first then sync the file to your local synced folder.

Regards,

Tisky

This is the exact opposite of the problem. I already know how to share a folder with someone. I wanted to know how they can add that shared folder to their OneDrive in OneDrive for Business, not OneDrive Personal (as per the second paragraph of my question).

Answer 4

Hi Aaron,

Based on your description, you want to know how to sync the files in Shared with me to your local location.

To synced the Shared with me to local location, you need to put the files you want to share into a folder, then share the folder to your users. In their Shared with me, they can open the folder and then sync the folder to  their OneDrive synced folder.

Regarding your second question, since OneDrive personal is different from OneDrive for Business, so in OneDrive personal you need to click Add to OneDrive first then sync the file to your local synced folder.

Regards,

Tisky