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JWhiteFEI's avatar
JWhiteFEI
Copper Contributor
Oct 02, 2020

Unable to add existing list to Lists in Teams channel

I am having an issue adding an existing list to Lists in Teams. I can add all other lists from this group/site to the desired Teams channel, except this one. I am getting an error: "That link did not work because you either do not have access or it is unsupported."

The channel is private and the list is not hosted on the sub-site for the private channel; rather its hosted on the main site. However, I was able to add other Lists from other sites to this private channel with no issue.

I have verified that the permissions are standard; same as all the other lists. I am an owner with Full Control. I can access and edit the list through SharePoint no problem. Any ideas as to why this may be happening?

  • NHarzic's avatar
    NHarzic
    Mar 15, 2021

    That rings a bell. We created the SharePoint list by exporting from an Excel table. I am sure this is a similar problem, because if I create a new SharePoint list from scratch it is available in Teams Lists. I have found the workaround is to simply use the Website tab and paste in the list URL there. This seems to do exactly the same thing.

    Thank you for your reply, Natalie

     

    joeledvina 

  • NHarzic's avatar
    NHarzic
    Iron Contributor
    I just tried to show a member of staff how to do this and very frustratingly, it would not let me add an existing list. Unfortunately the user lost confidence and now wants to just use an Excel spreadsheet. I have been able to use the feature in other SharePoint Sites/Teams, so it is not clear why it suddenly doesn't work. Is there any update or any way to get this working? Thank you.
    • joeledvina's avatar
      joeledvina
      Copper Contributor
      I think my problem was that I had created the list by exporting a query in Access directly to SharePoint. I got a simple reply somewhere else that adding such a list to Teams was not supported. The only workaround was to download the list to Excel and then upload to SharePoint as a new list, but that meant I had to re-create all of my views.
      • NHarzic's avatar
        NHarzic
        Iron Contributor

        That rings a bell. We created the SharePoint list by exporting from an Excel table. I am sure this is a similar problem, because if I create a new SharePoint list from scratch it is available in Teams Lists. I have found the workaround is to simply use the Website tab and paste in the list URL there. This seems to do exactly the same thing.

        Thank you for your reply, Natalie

         

        joeledvina 

  • Kyle Gonyer's avatar
    Kyle Gonyer
    Copper Contributor

    JWhiteFEI 

    We have the same issues, but it is every sharepoint site. Hopefully MS fixes soon so you can use existing from non-group based SP sites and not just ones created from the app or group based.

  • ingo-aware's avatar
    ingo-aware
    Brass Contributor

    Same problem here with some lists. I have no idea what causes the list to be unsupported.

  • joeledvina's avatar
    joeledvina
    Copper Contributor

    I have the same problem. Only 3 of the 5 lists in my Team site are visible in the "Add an existing list" dialog. If I try to add either of the other two using a SharePoint link, I get this error. I was able to add a list from my organization's SharePoint site, but not a list that exists within my own Team site.

    • joeledvina's avatar
      joeledvina
      Copper Contributor

      I noticed that the two lists I couldn't add to Teams were the two lists that I created by directly exporting from Access to SharePoint. As a test, I tried exporting one of them from Access to Excel, then adding a new list to SharePoint based on the Excel file. That list could indeed be added to a Teams tab in SharePoint. That's a positive step and a clue, but I would much, much rather be able to add the existing list to Teams instead of having to re-create my formatting and views from scratch with a new list from Excel.

       

      There's no "created by" flag on the list itself that I can see, only on records in the list. I can't find anything in the list settings that would make it work. 

  • CM-Ontario's avatar
    CM-Ontario
    Copper Contributor

    JWhiteFEI 

     

    Same here... interestingly, I had added it to a previous Team, same process, worked fine, is still fine, but i cannot add it to this one ...and I created the Team.

     

    ...very frustrating...and no answer here yet 😞 

    • CM-Ontario's avatar
      CM-Ontario
      Copper Contributor
      Figured it out ...DOH! I copied a web page URL and not the actual URL of the list. The correct URL worked perfectly 🙂
  • MTSBob's avatar
    MTSBob
    Steel Contributor
    I've just hit this too. Has anyone gotten this working? In my case, I have a List in Team A, and I want to display it read-only as a List tab in Team B. I've granted Team B's group "Read" permissions to the list but get the same error as others here.
    • joeledvina's avatar
      joeledvina
      Copper Contributor
      Did you try sharing it in a "Website" tab, as Natalie suggested? That's what worked for me, and it works almost exactly like a List tab. If you created the list by exporting it directly from MS Access or MS Excel to SharePoint, adding it to a "List" tab is not supported. If you are able to add it to a "List" tab for Team A but not Team B, then you might have a different problem.
      • MTSBob's avatar
        MTSBob
        Steel Contributor
        Yes, works using the workaround suggested, and also when adding a SharePoint tab. I'd prefer not to use a workaround so I was wondering whether this is truly documented someplace as "unsupported", or a confirmed bug?

        Thanks for your help.
  • SamLee's avatar
    SamLee
    Copper Contributor

    JWhiteFEI 

    Does anyone know what causes this error? Are there certain columns or column type created by the Excel/Access export that cause the error (and that I could delete or reamke instead of remaking the full list?)

    Or any update from Microsoft on whether they're trying to fix this?

  • TheTank78's avatar
    TheTank78
    Copper Contributor
    I had this same issue with a List that was created under a co-worker's account. When I recreated the list in the SharePoint site for the team, I was then able to add it as a tab in the team channel. In fact, I created the tab after creating the list, chose lists, add an existing list, and it found the list on the team's SharePoint website. I had to copy and paste each item (thankfully very few for this one) into the new list from the coworker's list to move the data.
    1. Create the list in SharePoint.
    2. Add the list as a tab in the team channel.
    3. Add data (copy and paste or recreate).

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