Forum Discussion
Share synced library among different windows accounts
I have a pc with onedrive business. It hosts my personal files and a a library shared across the workgroup members. Files are hosted in a certain directory of the "D" disk.
Now the question: I would like to make it possible that a different windows user that belongs to the same sharepoint workgroup can sync the same windows folder on the D disk after logn to windows. My problem is that the file in the library should mantain the same paths even if the windows user changes, so I cannot create a different syncng folder for each windows user (not to mention the waste of space).
Is there a way to achieve this?
2 Replies
OneDrive is designed to keep a separate sync setup per Windows user, so multiple accounts can’t share the same local synced folder. The safe workaround is to let one account handle the sync and then share that folder through Windows file sharing. This avoids conflicts, saves space, and keeps one consistent sync database.
You have multiple Windows accounts use the same locally synced OneDrive for Business folder on the same machine — runs into a hard design limitation in the OneDrive client.
The OneDrive sync client keeps a per-Windows-user configuration.
Each Windows account keeps its own synced copy of the library.
Or, everyone accesses the shared files directly in SharePoint/OneDrive web without syncing.
Or, use a network share (SMB) that points to a server copy of the library (not synced locally by OneDrive on that machine, but hosted somewhere else that is synced).
There’s no supported way to have two separate Windows accounts using the same physical synced OneDrive/SharePoint folder…so far I know.
If I may recommend
For stability and data safety, let only one Windows account run OneDrive sync to that folder, then share the folder via Windows file sharing to other accounts on the same PC (or over the network).
This preserves:
Single sync database (no conflict fights).
Same physical copy of files.
Same folder path on disk.
No wasted space from duplicate local copies.
Hope this helps you a little
