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Fixing File and Folder Locations in Microsoft Teams - HLS Show Me How

MichaelGannotti's avatar
MichaelGannotti
Icon for Microsoft rankMicrosoft
Nov 06, 2018

Yesterday in a meeting with a customer an issue was brought forward they were looking for help with. It seems that in a number of cases SharePoint power users had gone “under the hood” in Microsoft Teams and created their own folders and added files. Since these folders/files were not located under any existing folders generated at Channel creation time they did not show up and appeared to be orphaned. Luckily there was a quick fix I was able to show them. Furthermore, they saw the value in using the “fix” in other areas where they wanted to move, of copy files/folders from other SharePoint Sites and OneDrive to Microsoft Teams Channels.

In this HLS Show Me How I demonstrate how to easily re-parent files and folders that may have been created directly in the underlying SharePoint Document Library within Microsoft Teams to ensure proper visibility as well as relocate them from other SharePoint sites.

Resources:

Thanks for visiting – Michael Gannotti

Updated Jul 12, 2019
Version 3.0
Microsoft
MicrosoftTeams
office365
SharePoint
  • Fromelard's avatar
    Fromelard
    Steel Contributor
    Nov 06, 2018
    Thanks for that video, That is clearly a quick solution to fix some organization issue into the document dispatch. We had another case, which was associated with the channel name change. If you do that, the folder stay into the "Shared Document" library and we did not find any solution to rename that folder. If you can check if there is any solution to change the folder name without have to delete all the channel and recreate it, it would be perfect Fab
  • MichaelGannotti's avatar
    MichaelGannotti
    Icon for Microsoft rankMicrosoft
    Nov 06, 2018

    Hi Fromelard, 

    I did some poking around and when you create the Channel you are correct you cannot rename the folder. The attribute that drives that does not get changed and if you were to change the folder name directly in SharePoint the Channel will go ahead and re-instantiate the folder with original name. There is no way at present to change the Channel name and then have the underlying folder name change with it. I would recommend submitting that to User Voice as a feature request. Sorry could be of more help on this one.

  • Fromelard's avatar
    Fromelard
    Steel Contributor
    Nov 06, 2018

    Thanks Mike for your confirmation

    I yet voted for that feature :)

     

    Fab

  • David Broussard's avatar
    David Broussard
    Iron Contributor
    Nov 19, 2018

    I recently did a bunch of this when we reorganized about 100 channels into about 10.  I was moving the content from those channels into folders under the new, "master" channels.  Since I was also renaming the folders at the same time I used a different approach.

     

    First I synced the Document Library (Running Win 10 Files On Demand Sync) and then I used Explorer to move the documents from their original location to the new one.  I was worried that it would have to DL the files and then copy them, but it actually didn't  The copying was extremely fast and easy.

  • achishti's avatar
    achishti
    Copper Contributor
    May 30, 2019

    Guys, we were using SLACK for more than 2 year and we made the decision to shift to TEAM. Its a great tool BUT the DOCUMENT LIBRARY issue is KILLING US. 

     

    We need to change several team channels name and it NEVER updates the file folder with new name. If we open it in Sharepoint and rename it gets BROKEN and becomes inaccessible. We need to get this FIXED ASAP

  • David Broussard's avatar
    David Broussard
    Iron Contributor
    Apr 20, 2020

    You cannot rename the underlying folder in SharePoint.  You can rename the Channel name, but not the folder.  If you do that, it will recreate the original folder name and you will think that you lost your files.

     

    DCB

  • yosara's avatar
    yosara
    Copper Contributor
    Apr 05, 2019

    Hi Michael,

    Unfortunately for me, this did not solve my problem. Can we set up a call where I can share my screen? I opened a ticket (Ticket#2019021843001141 — Teams Issue) about this issue back in February and after 2 months there's still no resolution. 

     

    The ticket was escalated to Office 365 support (tier 2). I let Swapna (rep) know that this is not unique to me, so troubleshooting by reinstalling the program won't help since everyone on the team can't see files in the channel. After showing her the issue, she said her team will work on it and keep me posted, she couldn't give an eta. 
    The final word I got was: After testing..."There seems to be no way to restore the "link" between channel and folder. This seems to be a known bug from Microsoft." 
     
    Michael, has this bug been fixed yet?
    Kindly get in touch.
    Thanks!
  • MichaelGannotti's avatar
    MichaelGannotti
    Icon for Microsoft rankMicrosoft
    Apr 05, 2019

    Hi yosara 

    I am sorry to hear that you are experiencing ongoing difficulties around this. It sounds like you have already taken the proper steps in submitting a ticket and working with your Rep. I am tied to several hundred accounts of my own and am unable to field support instances outside of my own area. I would encourage you to continue to work with your support team on this and contact them again. In my role I don't have access to ticket submissions so not even sure as to the problem you are seeing. 

  • yosara's avatar
    yosara
    Copper Contributor
    May 30, 2019

    @achishti that's the same issue we're having. I hope Microsoft will prioritize this voice of customer and fix the disconnect between SharePoint and Teams when we rename channels. They are certainly aware of the broken link