New Stream Web Part - Source > Folder > From Sites > Only shows recent shared libraries

[KatherineS-Q]

The new Stream (on SharePoint) web part just hit my org's tenant. When you add the web part to the SharePoint page, there are several source options: Videos on this site, Folder, and Single Video.

When you select Folder as the source and the Select Folder button, it gives you the option to select Your Organization, OneDrive, Site, and From sites.

Here's the problem I'm running into: When you select From sites, it only allows you to see the Shared (Doc) Libraries you have accessed most recently and is limited to 12. If the Shared (Doc) Library you need is not shown, you have to: 

1. Stop editing the SharePoint page
2. Navigate too and open the Shared (Doc) Library where the video file(s) live
3. Wait a few minutes
4. Go back to the SharePoint page you were editing and hope the Shared (Doc) Library shows up when you select From sites. 

The workaround "works" but it isn't a great experience for the end user. Is there any other way to get the ability to search for the Shared Library? 

[#2]

This hasn't hit my tenant yet. . . so I'm wondering if it works like anything else in SharePoint when you want to select from another site. . . did you happen to have the site favorited before you started? If not, I guess it is only pulling recent site libraries.

[#3]

This is a pain point for us too. Also see this in other parts of SharePoint such as the Move To/Copy To actions. Hopefully Microsoft will fix this issue with the new Stream Webpart and other places.

[#4]

Same issue here. Very frustrating.

[#5]

We are investigating this further. However, an easier way to have that document library always available in the list of sites is to "Pin" that document library to quick access.

[#6]

This is also a problem for my organization. In many cases, the person who is placing a video on a SharePoint page may not even have access to the site in which the video is stored, so there is no possible way for them to get that site through most recent. Was really hoping for the option to add "from a link" like other web parts do.

[#7]

Hello @AnubhavNigam, 

With the Stream web part, pinned document libraries do not show; just Recent and Teams. This means the workaround does not work with the Stream web part. 

Pinned document libraries show when moving files that live on SharePoint/OneDrive like this: 

[#8]

@Tasmania and @KatherineS-Q - help me out with understanding your use cases for why a user might need access to a video to post on a SharePoint page without having access to the location the video is stored? Videos should be stored where they are used. That means that if the video is being displayed on a SharePoint site web page, that video should be in that site's library. That is a SharePoint best practice. Just like any Office or PDF files that you link to on a web page are stored in the Documents library of that site. If they aren't, then the content author normally has access to the files on the other site they are stored on.

I am pretty sure that if you want to get a site to appear in the web part you may need to favorite that site - not pin it. This is a common problem with finding other types of files also. Note though . . . if you do not have access to the site where that video file is stored, then you will never see it to be able to Favorite it or to link to it. SharePoint permissions only allow you to see what you have access to at least view.

[#9]

Hi @karen_dredske. I get the premise of what Microsoft believes; I really, really, do. However, it doesn't work for us. My organization of tens of thousands of employees with hundreds of departments with hundreds of SharePoint sites that are open to all employees is in an extremely highly regulated industry. We have to restrict downloads of videos and their transcripts to prevent IP leakage/theft (it's an incredibly serious problem and we have to take as many steps as we can to make it not super-duper simple for it to happen), so we have to have specific sites for videos intended to be consumed by all employees are stored. We can't open those up to everyone to have edit access because we have to verify that the video should be open to everyone. I know that's not what Microsoft recommends, but we're not the typical customer. Also, our videos also aren't displayed on one site. A single video might be displayed on five sites. Our sites have a maximum number of editors and employees who upload videos may -- and usually don't -- have anything to do with site editing (and 99.9% of the time the site editors don't deal with video creation/maintenance). All of our hundreds of sites have to go through a central content approval because we have to ensure the accuracy of information. That's not the typical situation for most customers, but it's what we absolutely, positively have to do.

[#10]

It doesn't allow you to select the site and then the document library on that site. It just shows the most recent document libraries that you have accessed. Following or pinning the site wouldn't help with the current option available. In order for the document library to show up under Recent, you would have to save the draft of the page, navigate to the document library where the video lives and open it, wait a few minutes, go back to the page you were editing, put it back in edit mode, select the edit web part icon for the Stream web part, select From sites, and then pray the document library shows up under Recent, so you can select the document library where the video(s) live. That's a lot of steps and will create a lot of confusion for your everyday SharePoint site admin/owner.

[#11]

Hi @Tasmania. Thanks for sharing that extra information on your use case. I know that this wasn't any simpler in Stream Classic as you can't do approvals or anything in that system. Understanding what you are trying to do helps a lot. You can add metadata to where you store your videos as well as workflows that can control your process and user access to videos or what they have uploaded. The out of the box migration to SharePoint isn't going to solve for your situation. However, you can use workflows to modify permissions on files that are uploaded and can send notifications to approvers and when approved update the permissions for viewing of the file - or maybe based on metadata it can notify specific users of videos with links to them. There are a LOT of things you can do with workflows or even Power Apps with the process you are describing. However, you probably would benefit from a full analysis and recommendation or assistance from at least a short consulting engagement with a company like the one I work with. You are correct that your situation isn't the "norm" and you need a more complex solution to meet your needs. https://aka.ms/StreamMigrationPartners

[#12]

Ugh. I don't have the new Stream web part in any of my tenants yet. I had hoped it would let you select the site and then the library. You just confirmed that my original thought of making the most of the File and Media, Hero, and Highlighted content web parts are the way of the future. I'm not thrilled with the playlist, but I can make it work now that you can display it with a list web part.

[#13]

We're definitely looking at Power Apps for the future, but right now we're in a place where we're just trying to make it work since the organization has other more pressing things to deal with at the moment. We have a year-round partnership with a consulting company with dedicated resources and we're making the most of what they can do to help us with our very complex needs.

[#14]

@TasmaniaI wish you the best luck. I hope your consulting partner is very SharePoint savvy. There are a number of things you could do just with workflows right now or even with what I refer to as "security by obscurity" to allow users to upload files and have them not be able to give access to others or for others to see it until your approvers say it is ok. It requires someone with strong no-code solution skills in SharePoint to come up with these. Hopefully your consultant has someone like that dedicated to your team.

[#15]

New Stream web part just reached our tenant. When I choose OneDrive as the source and navigate to a folder that I know has videos in it, none of my videos show up. Any thoughts (I've tried multiple folders with different video types?  TIA

[#16]

@Kelly Meyer I think it's a bug and it's happening when you select Site > Doc Library on the site as well. I know there are videos in this Doc Library. Even though nothing shows, when I click on the Select button, all the videos in that Doc Library show. 

[#17]

@KatherineS-Q Oh how stupid is that .  

And in case I might help you in return, you noted in an earlier post "It doesn't allow you to select the site and then the document library on that site. It just shows the most recent document libraries that you have accessed."  I agree this web part can use many improvements, BUT if you do manage to find your site listed in 'From sties' and it's showing the wrong document library, you can click on the breadcrumb to go up a level and then all the libs do show up.  I suppose Shared Docs is the default.  Nothing intuitive about using this web part at this point...

Thanks again!

[#18]

We do understand that picking up the right set of videos is getting painful, especially when the picker is not functioning the way it should have been. Thanks for highlighting these as this helps me note down the gaps and prioritize them accordingly. We are currently investigating as to why is the picker not showing all the sites and just limiting to 12 recent ones. Additionally, the folder picker is designed in a way to show folders only, we are also starting to explore different ways for showing information on folder content inside the picker for user awareness.

[#19]

@AnubhavNigam 

Is this resoved?

when i try to point to folder in site where page exists, it shows videos. But page exists in subsite and trying to point o root library, it doesnt show any videos and says list doesnt exist error.

[#20]

@Debaray The biggest limitation for the new Stream webpart is that you can't filter by metadata which makes it completely unusable across our tenant. Until this functionality is introduced, we are forced to use the HCWP. Really hoping you can add this in the near future (I still can't believe it didn't have this ability from day one).

The other key missing capability is that you can't bring back videos from more than one SharePoint Site, or all sites within a Hub Site. Again, these are things we absolutely need.