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Christophe Humbert's avatar
Christophe Humbert
Iron Contributor
Aug 20, 2018
Solved

What is /:f:/r in shared URLs?

Hello,

 

When I click on "get a link" on a document, the URL looks like this:

https://orgname.sharepoint.com/:f:/r/sites/[Path to document]

 

What is the purpose of "/:f:/r" in that URL? Most of the time it doesn't make any difference whether I keep it in the URL or not, and sometimes users get "url not found" because of that.

  • Anonymous's avatar
    Anonymous
    Aug 20, 2018
    It's just part of how they are treating links to documents in SharePoint nowadays through their new link system. If you share it with others using invite or anyone link it'll change to :x:/s: instead of r to signify it's a sharing link. But it's something with the link system when access files putting it there.

14 Replies

  • Fred Y's avatar
    Fred Y
    Iron Contributor

    Just a reply on what the letter stands for: 

     

    /:f - designates a folder

     

    :/r - indicates a read-only link

    :/e - edit link

     

    Fred

      • ChrisWebbTech's avatar
        ChrisWebbTech
        MVP
        If I had to guess probably the new "Team" sharing option coming to the new Teams sharing links.
    • jlojones's avatar
      jlojones
      Copper Contributor

      Fred Y  You seem to know stuff -  what does :x: mean in my SharePoint url it comes right after the company name in the url like this:  .sharepoint.com/:x:/r/sites/

      • SteveMorley's avatar
        SteveMorley
        Brass Contributor

        jlojones 

        • :f” means Folder sharing
        • “:w” means Word document sharing
        • “:x” means Excel document sharing
        • “:p” means PowerPoint document sharing
        • “:b” means PDF document sharing
  • Anonymous's avatar
    Anonymous
    It's just part of how they are treating links to documents in SharePoint nowadays through their new link system. If you share it with others using invite or anyone link it'll change to :x:/s: instead of r to signify it's a sharing link. But it's something with the link system when access files putting it there.
    • AWentz's avatar
      AWentz
      Brass Contributor

      We're experiencing this same issue. When created with 'Company Name.Sharepoint.com/:X/r/sites.... we have certain people in our organization (Internal) that cannot access. When the links is created with 'Company Name.Sharepoint.com/:x:/s/.... then they can access. I wanted to understand how the first  link with the r was created so we can prevent creating links that way!

      • AndrewWarland's avatar
        AndrewWarland
        Iron Contributor

        We had a problem with these links late last year (2018), users would click on them and it would take them to a log on screen every time. Very frustrating for everyone and many saw SharePoint as the problem. 

         

        It turned out that the problem was that users with new Windows 10 machines had a problem with their account on those machines. Even though it had their name in the account, that account was not connecting to the logged on person with the same credentials, so any time they clicked on one of those links it didn't recognise them and asked them to log on. The fix was to disconnect the existing account and re-connect it via the same 'Manage your account' - 'Work or school account' settings. I have had to fix at least 200 of these and I know that there are many more (we have 9000 staff). 

    • And by the way, I think you are having some temporary issues when accessing files...those kind of links should work with no problems

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