Sharepoint duplications

Question

Hi! I am an Operations Assistant with an organization, and we recently noticed that some (not all) files are being duplicated. You can see the duplicated files circled in red (-1, -2, -3) in the photo below.

You'll also notice that "Re" (me) is the modifier of the original versions and "Jim" is the modifier of the duplicates. However, Jim hasn't actually modified these. I'm unsure if he's even opened these files, to be honest. That being said, I do know that Jim has these files (and all other Sharepoint files) synced with his OneDrive. He and another admin user typically create and modify documents offline, whereas I do all of my modifications on the web application.

Main question: What is causing these duplications, and how can we fix it?

I have searched quite a bit and found very little information on this exact predicament. However, I'm hoping that someone here is familiar with the problem and can offer advice on how to resolve. Any and all information will be appreciated - thank you!

Answer 1

Hi Rebecca,

This should be an expected behavior if user Jim always edit his document Offline.

So let's say both you and Jim are editing a file called A.xlsx, and you are editing this file with OneDrive synced correctly.

And Jim is doing it offline (OneDrive is not syncing his changes to the SharePoint Library), so, next time, if Jim's OneDrive is online, it will detect that there is a conflict for this file version stored in SharePoint and Jim's local copy. And it should ask Jim if he want to save it as another copy, which result into this kind of duplicates.

You may also check the Created by column in the SharePoint Library, it should also be Jim.

Regards,

Alex Chen

Answer 2

Hi Alex, and thanks for your quick feedback.

I completely understand your answer, and it makes sense. However, Jim is not working in the file, so I do not think he is re-saving the file as a copy (I will confirm this with him). Can this happen even when the user isn't saving the file? For example, is there a scenario where Jim's OneDrive is online and auto-creates copies of documents that were modified while his OneDrive was offline?

What do you think is the best solution for this kind of issue? Obviously, if Jim is choosing "yes" to create a new copy, we can advise him to stop doing this. But if he's not being given this option, and file copies are being auto-created (which is my understanding of the situation), what is the best option to ensure this stops happening?

Looking forward to your reply, and thanks again for your help!

Answer 3

Hi Rebecca,

Sorry about the late reply.

Regarding to the scenario you mentioned:

"For example, is there a scenario where Jim's OneDrive is online and auto-creates copies of documents that were modified while his OneDrive was offline?"

Not likely, when there is a conflict between his local copy and the file in SharePoint. His OneDrive sync should be paused. And he can click on the OneDrive icon on his tray, there should be an alert called resolve conflict.

In fact, in SharePoint, there are some other reasons that might cause file duplicating. Like Power Automate flow for example.

In my last reply, I suggested you checking whether the duplicated files' creator is Jim, so we can know if he is the person who created the duplicates.

I would also suggest you to let Jim stay offline for a period, and see if the files are still duplicating, so we can narrow down this issue root cause.

Regards,

Alex Chen

Answer 4

Hi Alex,

Thanks again for your help. I did check and see that it shows Jim as the creator of these files - at least the specific ones I am looking at (there could be more we haven't yet found). According to Jim, he hasn't been creating a new copy (like choosing this option to "resolve the conflict"). Is there a way that he's duplicating the files unknowingly?

I also did check my Power Automations. I had some that didn't seem to be connected, but I removed those automations just in case that was having some effect.

Thanks for your continued support!

Answer 5

Dear Rebecca,

Thanks for your updates.

I'm following up on this thread. Thanks for confirming that the flow scenario is excluded in this issue in your environment.

As the file creator is Jim, the possible root cause for such issue may be the conflict between offline editing and online editing and some Office credential issues like Alex mentioned in the previous replies.

First, to get rid of data loss, I suggest you open the files in SharePoint Online and save the latest edition versions, make a backup of the latest edition versions of the files and remove the additional edition versions. Then let Jim go to the OneDrive sync client, reset the OneDrive sync client, reset Microsoft 365 Apps for enterprise activation state if you are using Microsoft 365 Apps for enterprise, restart the computers and then do a test again to see if the issue disappears in your environment.

Thanks for your effort and time.

Cliff