Forum Discussion
Missing sites under Destinations when I try to move or copy files in modern library
When I try to move a file or folder, the destination dialogue box lists only a subset of sites I have access to under two headings: Following and Recent. How can I choose a site that is in neither of these categories?
Jan Andreas Knudsen I don't believe there is another way except to "Follow" the site prior to the copy / move operations.
Norm
- Jan Andreas Knudsen, I just tried this and it worked for me:
1. Open the destination site (that you want to move things to) through the account that you want to move the items with.
2. Open any of the libraries (I use Documents since it's ubiquitous)
3. Drag a test file into it to "upload" it there.
4. Go back to your source site and try the move operation again. The destination site should now show up under "Recent".
I've been hitting my head against this for a few hours now, and this is the most reliable way that I've been able to find.
Good luck!Y_Svesh Thank you very much for this workaround. It worked for me.
At least now there is a way to get the site into the recent sites.
But for the bigger picture: We are in April of 2022 and this feature is still flawed. You only get a a small sample size of sites you recently worked on. Not even all the sites you are following..
That is very frustrating to say the least. I hope this will get fixed in an future update.
- It's ironic that after all this time, I am having to search for a solution because I am flabberguasted that it is still not. I thought I was just being a stupid user for not seeing the way to do this. I don't get why the list of locations to move a file to isn't a list of all the sites to which the user has access. Seems pretty obvious and straightforward.
Y_Svesh I appreciate the idea but it doesn't work for me. Obviously this is a weakness. I understand the feedback that putting in the URL isn't ideal but for those where this isn't working give us another option. We have multiple sites and the one I cannot access now I even have tagged as a favorite. My only option this is to sync the folders, and move and wait for OneDrive to update them all (not a fast process with a move). Anyone have any hope for an alternative to be able to use the move feature to ensure we can see all the sites we have access to?
DavidBerndt Here we are in June of 2021 and this still doesn't work. This is beyond frustrating. Such a simple thing to do and you can't even choose your destination outside of a list that MS thinks you might want and doesn't even include all the Teams/SharePoint sites you're a member or admin of. No search bar?! Boggles the mind.
- This still does not work for me... 😞
In my instance there are sites that I am following (they even show on my O 365 SharePoint home page on the left side under Following) that are not available in the "Choose a Destination" list.
Yes - I chose "Browse sites" to bring in more options.
Yes - I chose "Show More" under Following.... I did that until it brought back no additional sites
I also tried getting the site to show under Recent and could not get to it that way either.
It would be very useful if we could put in the URL of the destination site since the Browse function clearly has limitations.
Thanks for sharing your experiences.
Jeff Ballard wrote:It would be very useful if we could put in the URL of the destination site since the Browse function clearly has limitations.
That is not very user friendly for the average user. And then you would have to find the URL first. The only solution here is to make ALL sites available in the Save dialog box. A search field is the best solution, in my opinion.
- Is there a solution or workaround to this? It's been a very frustrating experience so far.
Hi Jan Andreas Knudsen did you ever find an answer to this issue? I've come across the same, the destination dialogues box lists almost every Team I've ever been in but not the most recent one I've set up (and I've logged off and left it overnight and tried again). My workaround is to copy all the files to my OneDrive and upload them to the new Team site from there...not ideal. Thanks
- Think I just found a workaround.
Just to make things clear for those downloading and uploading: once you do that you loose versioning. I would not advice to do so.
What I just did was add a shortcut to OneDrive for the doclib. Then, when moving move it as if towards your OneDrive and via the link you get it in the right library.
Hope this helps (and that there will be even better options soon!)- Well that worked for me after wading through all these unhappy people.
If Microsoft don't want to fix it, there's probably a reason. Lack of understanding of their own product? Poor design from the start and too far down the line to make it work? Plans to drop the product, so why fix basic problems?
Who knows! It looks like It's up to us to keep finding workarounds for their designers.
Well done on this workaround.ITHelpdesk140yes, sadly only workaround available for this frustrating issue. 😞
- This is works, thank you!
It is hard to believe that over fours years on, this issue is still an issue and the only solution is to go to the site create or copy a document in the site you want to copy to then go back and try again. Trying to unset and rest 'Following' does not work.
This is cumbersome for someone who is willing to go the extra steps, but I have users who are less technically savvy and this is not the kind of instructions I can ask them to follow. so users end up downloading files and using them locally because it is too much bother to try to move or copy them.
What would be really useful, is a way to search for all sites (Teams-linked or classic) if they do not show up as a 'recent' site. I do hope someone on the SharePoint development team sees this as it would be a really helpful update.
Thank you.
Jan Andreas Knudsen - i solve the issue by doing this step at the destination site: "pin to Quick access" first. AFter that, when i repeat the "move to" action from source sharepoint site, my destination site will appear.
- This works here - but to unpin I had to go to OneDrive. This is such an annoying way to work around this.
Why can't we just search sites themselves? There is a search bar at the top, but it searches for files only. Why would we need to search for files to move files? Why can't Microsoft just add a simple "All Sites" option, or "Search Sites"? CGLow > One of the cumbersome workarounds still needed for this basic Sharepoint issue that appears to remain an issue for the future to come.
- ^^^This worked! Thank you!
- Good day,
It appears that this is "by design". Admins without a license simply do not have this option. If you assign a license with OneDrive feature then you will be able to "pin to quick access" and quick access will show up as destination option.
Spent hours on this and then finally found this tip here:
https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/msoffice/forum/all/quick-access-not-working-on-sharepoint-unable-to/56d72625-4ea2-4b99-97e8-952a91981691?page=1 - Microsoft tried to fix this recently by showing All Team sites, but that excludes SharePoint Group sites that don't have Teams. Please upvote this article: https://techcommunity.microsoft.com/t5/microsoft-365-developer-platform/sharepoint-move-copy-extend-sharepoint-sites-listed-to-include/idi-p/3501153#M1035
BrandonM30 after testing the crap out of different ways.
The only way that works for me is enabling teams for that sharepoint site by going to Teams & Groups, in the Microsoft Admin center, finding the SharePoint group, and selecting 'Add Teams'.
Once the status has been updated and you can see the Teams logo under Teams Status, it'll then show up under 'More places'
This took wayyy too long to find!
If you don't need this to be a Teams site after, I'm not sure if you can take this option back after you enabled it.. but I think it's a good option to enable anyways, the folders will be visible in teams too. Win win.
Goodluck everyone!
Please thumbs up this comment if it helped you.- I know this can be accomplished by either pinning to quick access (which requires a license for OneDrive/Sharepoint) or enabling Teams. (which requires all owners of the group to have Teams licenses)
Is there not a way to do this if your global admin account has no license at all?
Jan Andreas Knudsen I was able to work around this by syncing my account with the OneDrive client but then adding the destination as a OneDrive shortcut which then shows up under My Files when I went to move from the source. Shortcuts show up with the link icon
Jan Andreas Knudsen I don't believe there is another way except to "Follow" the site prior to the copy / move operations.
Norm
- Thanks for replying! That sounds like an incredibly cumbersome workflow for such a simple task.
I understand the frustration but I'm still grateful for the functionality and use it daily. The alternative, for me, was using Sharegate to move files around.
Norm
This is one of the most stupid ideas in the history of SharePoint. And now the list is limited to the recent sites and the teams you belong to...
Mega-idiotic.
Hey pdestefanis ,
Ha! Indeed, the interface/process needs finessing - but you must be relatively new to SP.
In "the good ol' days" (2003/7/10/13/16) there simply wasn't any method to copy/move files around - you had to download to your computer and re-upload to the target library. And delete from source if this was a "move" operation. Or use 3rd party (expensive) tools like ShareGate, etc.
SPO is getting better and better, month by month - new features (and implemented features based on feedback from MS's forum) appear all the time (including this feature we are discussing here) - again, in the old days, we had to wait for IT to schedule in Service Packs to fix old and provide new features. Typically resulting in years-behind-the-latest feature set.
- Still not showing after doing that.
