Forum Discussion
Creating a shared folder - what's the "official" method?
Hello fellow admins,
I recently embarked on trying to move our organization to a standard cloud file-hosting solution. I'd like to create several shared folders available to employees, although the process seems more complicated that it could be. I'm wondering if there's supposed to be an "official" way to create a shared folder for an organization, emphasizing that the folder is not owned or controlled by any one particular member?
Here's what I've done so far:
- Create a Sharepoint site for the files if one is not ready
- Open the site contents view, and open the Documents folder
- If everything is configured as it should be, there will be a Sync button in the toolbar. Clicking this will begin syncing the contents of that folder to your computer.
A few drawbacks/complaints I have about this is that you can't really provision folders for users or groups - as far as I can tell, the syncing must be manually initiated on the machines of users who will be using the folder. It would also be really great if the sharing could be setup and configured in one place separate of SharePoint sites, perhaps in the OneDrive admin center?
Am I doing this whole process wrong, or are there better ways other people use?
Thank you!
- No, your doing it the only way you can do it through the standard SharePoint / OneDrive UI. The automating of joining to shared folders is something the OneDrive team is looking at but nothing can be done out of box. I believe their might be a few 3rd party solutions that can manage the automation as well.
10 Replies
stsm_glen wrote:Hello fellow admins,
I recently embarked on trying to move our organization to a standard cloud file-hosting solution. I'd like to create several shared folders available to employees, although the process seems more complicated that it could be. I'm wondering if there's supposed to be an "official" way to create a shared folder for an organization, emphasizing that the folder is not owned or controlled by any one particular member?
[...]
Am I doing this whole process wrong, or are there better ways other people use?
I wouldn't say that you are "doing it wrong" but I want to emphasise that you want to achieve something with a specific outcome in your mind.
You are talking about "a standard cloud file-hosting solution". Sharepoint is not a file-hosting solution but can be used as one. After you've created a Sharepoint document library and gave "All user, except external users" the access rights you are all done. Your users can use this document library automatically. If they want to sync the files to their computer they can do it. If they don't want to sync they can skip this part.
I know that many companies want to have exactly one file server where all documents are available in one (huge) folder structure. But be aware that you still have restrictions about how many files can be stored in any one library. The limits have been increased drastically over the last few years but there are still restrictions and recommendations to not store more than 300000 files in a single team site library or sync more than 300000 files across all document libraries.
From this point of view it makes sense to split a (huge) list of files and use more than one document library. Your users can later choose which ones they want to sync and which they don't. This means that you have to educate your users how to do this manually but at the same time you could also show them other features of Sharepoint.
But this would propably change the way how your company works with shared files.
Alex,
I really appreciate the tips and warnings about using Sharepoint for file hosting. I have to admit, I've been a little confused about how Sharepoint and OneDrive (for Business) are intertwined. For example, if I look at my personal OneDrive space online, I have the ability to view files in Sharepoint sites from the same UI. In addition, if I drill down into advanced file permissions, I'm taken to a Sharepoint page for managing said permissions. It makes me wonder if OneDrive is using Sharepoint as some sort of underlying technology, maybe even as the core file storage system?
At any rate though, I'm just happy to have a solution and to have the knowledge you've given me. Many thanks!
Well, yes, it is confusing because the UI is not always as clear as it could be. There is an awful lot of mixup between the old interface and the new one which can be very confusing. It is and will get better over time. ;)
My biggest tip (and warning) is that you should not try to share single files or folders with few users. This can get very confusing in a very short time. Instead use Sharepoint permission groups (or simply use "All users, without external users") in order to share whole document libraries or Sharepoint (sub-)sites with groups of people.
- No, your doing it the only way you can do it through the standard SharePoint / OneDrive UI. The automating of joining to shared folders is something the OneDrive team is looking at but nothing can be done out of box. I believe their might be a few 3rd party solutions that can manage the automation as well.
Hi Chris,
It's definitely not a dealbreaker for me, but at the same time I'll be eagerly awaiting to see what features Microsoft has in store for the future. Thank you for confirming the process!
