Changing the teams channel folder location in an existing sharepoint

[asafg]

Hi there!

I run a SharePoint team site that its main purpose is maintaining the team's main document library, and last week I added the SharePoint team site to Teams.

My problem is that every channel that is added to the team automatically opens a new folder in the SharePoint library that I built and maintain. I can't move this folder or even designate new channels to a different SharePoint library on the same site to avoid this mess. There's seems to be a major lack of control in the Teams app which is causing the opposite of what it’s meant to do.

If anyone knows differently, please share!

Asaf

[#2]

Hi!

This is how it works by design! Teams uses the underlaying Team site for file storage and every channel is a folder in that default library! There’s no way to move or alter this setup, and doing this might really mess thing up!

You can use another library you maintain and add this as a tab instead of using the files tab, but it will be quite confusing not to use the files tab at all to users, and you will loose the structure of each channel’s files...

Adam

[#3]

@asafg 

I get what you say about the "mess" thing but it's mostly meant that the "Teams" library will be used from a Teams perspective, thereby the structure per channel in Teams! Easy and not complicated for users! 

If you want to work with files from SharePoint itself, I'd suggest creating another library to avoid this "problem" You can then use the SharePoint tab! If you will use both this and the files tab depends solely on your organisation , setup and needs..

[#4]

@asafg 

Just adding in here, this USED to be how it worked (and quite handy to keep up with modified folders). However, it must be a recent change that Teams is no longer letting you play fast and loose here. Renaming a folder underneath a channel will no longer 'stick'. And you now DEFINITELY can NOT create a channel to an existing folder name as it triggers an error.

I'm midway through a migration and just finding this out now; going to require some fancy legwork to get it working now :\

[#5]

This is definitly a MUST HAVE for Teams... creating channel folders by default in team site in the ROOT of spoint library is a MESS as we grow the number of channels, for instance we create channels monthly to collaborate in monthly reports but the documents we want MUST be stored in another centralized folder with subfolders for each month, and the only ways are: 1) in the end to manually MOVE all files and folders created to there every time or 2) have Teams opened in one EDGE tab (for otehr tasks like forms etc) and the sharepoint folder with the docs opened in another EDGE tab :\

btw adding as a new tab in Teams works only for LIBRARIES, not to specific folders, this is another mess since we'd want only a particular folder deep inside a library and adding the library requires to navigate through it in the Teams tab much likje would do in sharepoint

There should have a menu in Team channel to move file/folder contents to another folder we'd want to, with a 'no override' option, then we'd be able to change the work folder for the channel to wherever and just go back to sharepoint and delete the default folder Team creates with the channel

[#6]

@asafg 

The best way to create a channel from a SharePoint folder is:

• copy the folder name exactly as it is in SharePoint
• In Teams, Create Channel, then past the folder name exactly as it is in SharePoint.
• The files and subfolders of the SharePoint folder name you pasted as the Channel name will all show up in the "Files" tab.
• Depending on the size of the files and subfolder, this may take a little bit to update.

Now if you do not want the channel name to be the SharePoint folder name, you will need to edit the Channel and change the Channel name.  If you do this after you have verified the files and subfolders desired are all listed in "Files" tab of the channel, they will still exist after a channel name edit.  The channel name edit does not change the SharePoint folder name after creation.

Alternatively, you can create the Channel, refresh the Team SharePoint site to find a new folder with the name of the Channel you just created, then move/copy all the files and subfolders from the desired folder into new Channel folder.

[#7]

@ShaneHutchison it would be excellent product development if Teams could let the user choose a default Sharepoint folder to use for each additional channel.  Organisations could simply have a TEAMs folder in sharepoint that's sole purpose was holding the docs embedded in Team discussions.

[#8]

I totally agree... @microsoft are you reading this?

[#9 · Accepted solution]

@ShaneHutchison Probably not, the place to suggest features is https://microsoftteams.uservoice.com/, you are highly unlikely to see any response here.

This issue with using another site is permissions, by having the default content storage location for files dropped into chat be in the associated site all the Team members are guaranteed permissions. I consider i working documents, and then get my users to publish the files to permanent filing and storage when they are final.

[#10]

@mescwbif

You just explained what I have been grappling with this past week. All I wanted to do was link to one of my SharePoint folders in the Teams app to collaboratively write on a report.  Turns out can't do that. I get why MS is generating new folders per Team channel (and that works in some instances) but it making an assumption about how teams collaborate which isn't accurate always; thus as you mention, there should be the flexibility to change that setting to redirect files shared in a Teams channel to a specified folder.