Sharepoint/Onedrive Folder Discrepancy

Question

Good morning all,

Help me understand what is going with this. An end user was working with files under what appears to be his personal sharepoint. But these files only show up in Excel, Word, Powerpoint. You can't browse to them online in sharepoint nor in explorer. When I right click on any of the files in powerpoint and click on Show in explorer, I'm taken to a location that I can't find normally. Now when I copy the URL and paste it into a browser, I get re-directed to Onedrive for some reason. So I'm not sure if they're being saved somewhere in sharepoint or somewhere in onedrive. Either way, I can't find them through normal means but I know they exist somewhere since I'm able to get to them through powerpoint. I would attach screenshots but they include sensitive information.

Here are the steps to replicate this:

1. Open powerpoint
2. Go to recent files
3. Right click on any file
4. Click on show in explorer
5. A window opens taking you the location of the file
6. In the top bar, the path that shows is: https://companyname-my.sharepoint.com/personal/username\_companyname\_com/Documents
7. Copy the URL and put in a browser but get taken to Onedrive, notice some folders/files match up but some are missing
8. Go to office.com and sign in
9. Open sharepoint online and try to find his documents folder. Find no trace of folders/files
10. Navigate around file explorer but can't find the folders/files

Answer 1

Dear Cybz

Good day!

We can't access the files/folders normally.

What do you mean you can't access folders? Is there an error message?

The files/folders that he was working with don't show up in Onedrive. The thing I'm confused about is why does it point to a sharepoint site when none of the files/folders are actually there when you go into sharepoint?

You should be referring to OneDrive's sync folder. Therefore, I want to make sure that you have synchronized the document library. Because suppose you want to upload documents to SharePoint through a synchronized folder, you need to sync the document library locally first：Sync SharePoint and Teams files with your computer - Microsoft Support

If you've already synchronized, try going to SharePoint. I want to make sure I see the following options on the left. If so, click Document to see if you can find the file:

We look forward to your reply. Thanks for your cooperation.

Sincerely,

Tin | Microsoft Community Moderator

Answer 2

Thanks for the response Tin!

1. We can't access the files/folders normally, so we can't move/copy/upload the files. Only way we can access them is through some Office program like powerpoint, excel, word, etc.
2. The files/folders that he was working with don't show up in Onedrive. The thing I'm confused about is why does it point to a sharepoint site when none of the files/folders are actually there when you go into sharepoint?

Thanks

Answer 3

Dear Cybz,

Good day! Thank you for posting to Microsoft Community. We are happy to help you

The first thing you need to say is that you want the file to appear in the SharePoint document library. You need to upload files to the document library, or you can create files directly in the document library.

I noticed that you mentioned that the path to save seems to navigate to OneDrive, so I would like to confirm if the file appears in OneDrive for this user?If this is the case, try downloading the file directly to your local location and then following the steps in the following documentation to upload to SharePoint: Upload files and folders to a library - Microsoft Support

We look forward to your reply. Thanks for your cooperation.

Sincerely,

Tin | Microsoft Community Moderator