Why can't I drag files from Sharepoint into an Outlook e-mail as an attachment

Question

Just up and running with Sharepoint for all of our data.

Tried to add some files to an e-mail (in Outlook) by dragging - as I would have done from my server/local computer drive. It doesn't seem to work. What am I doing wrong?

If drag/drop is not available, what other methods are? Which is simplest?

Answer 1

I too am having this issue. Now with the Sync option Jazlyn Xu gave for us this didn't work and I wanted to explain because this caused a lot of issues for us. We moved our entire File Server files up to SharePoint so we could stop using internal servers and so our "in the field" users can access everything while outside the office. We originally did the sync of these folders, but what happened was having 40 computers all trying to sync the same SharePoint/OneDrive folders no one could make changes. All changes and deletes got overwritten and put back by the other 39 computers all fighting to sync too. So we had to remove the sync off all 40 computers to stop this from happening. "This was VERY time consuming."

We then started using the SharePoint Web access way of doing things to access our documents and would like to know how to drag and drop a file from SharePoint/OneDrive to Outlook. We can't drag and drop to our desktop either but can drag and drop to SharePoint.

Answer 2

I have MS 365 and have the same problem. I cannot drag anything from SharePoint to Outlook. I need to attach resumes, legal docs, etc.

Please advise. The OneDrive solution is not really a solution for me. Way too cumbersome and did not expect this at all.

Answer 3

I have MS 365 and have the same problem. I cannot drag anything from SharePoint to Outlook. I need to attach resumes, legal docs, etc.

Please advise. The OneDrive solution is not really a solution for me. Way too cumbersome and did not expect this at all.

Attach Word or Excel files to an email.

Open your document in the full Word or Excel application and Click Share at the upper right corner.

Click Share… from the drop-down menu.

Click the 3 dots.

Click Send a copy. 

Click how you want the file sent, Word/Excel or PDF.

Outlook will open with a new email that includes the file you just attached.

Answer 4

Dear Charles,

Good day! Thank you for posting your query in our community.

Based on your description, you want to insert attachments from SharePoint into an Outlook email. However, you can't insert it via dragging in the browser.

You can try to sync your SharePoint files to local via OneDrive sync app. And I tested it on my side, after syncing files to the OneDrive sync folder in File Explorer, I could drag files in it to an Outlook email. Here are some articles about how to sync SharePoint library for your reference:

Sync SharePoint and Teams files with your computer - Microsoft Support

Sync SharePoint files and folders - Microsoft Support

Sincerely,

Jazlyn | Microsoft Community Moderator