Forum Discussion
What is /:f:/r in shared URLs?
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.
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!
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).
I should note the link with the 's' is much shorter than the link with the 'r'.
- And by the way, I think you are having some temporary issues when accessing files...those kind of links should work with no problems
