same file uploaded to 2 different teams do not sync changes

[theyzer1]

Our company is fairly new to Teams and I've been given the task of teaching the others. I've been testing what syncs and what doesn't as this has already been a question coming up. I've figured out that as long as SharePoint is synced with Teams, you can work in either and the other updates, which is great. But, we will have some files that will be uploaded to different channels or even different Teams and from what I can figure out, only the first occurrence uploaded to Teams will sync. The 2 copies in different channels or different Teams do not sync. How can we keep one version of the same document while allowing different people to edit it?

[#2]

Hi!
When you add a file to different teams/channels they will be different copies so this won’t work!
What you need to do is either:

Use a common library and add this library as a sp library tab or cloud storage in those teams! Just make sure that all have access to this library!

You can also just add a document tab that point directly to the document that exists in another tab/ channel! Same here regarding permissions!

Adam

[#3 · Accepted solution]

Adam has some good suggestions and probably the way you want to go if working out of Files tab and expecting same files. The Add Cloud storage option is pretty good, but no matter which solution you choose you cannot sync changes, you have to find and choose a single source of truth for the file(s) to live then sync back, you will also have to make sure others are members of both Teams, or manually add permissions to those documents.

You could also employ Sharing links using the underlying SharePoint library, but these are mostly juts good for sharing files in the chat with a link around a conversation. But similar to OneDrive, you open the Team where you are going to store the (Single source of truth) document, and select it and click share, share with the proper permissions, then copy that link and paste it into chat.

Multiple ways to accomplish this, just have to pick the one that makes the most sense from a UI perspective. I prefer the Sharing links as users can go get links to their file and then share into chat, but others like having a repository to browse and that's when you use the cloud storage solution or document library tab.

[#4]

You can also just add a document tab that point directly to the document that exists in another tab/ channel! Same here regarding permissions!

---

@adam deltinger How do I do this? So far, nothing I have tried allows me to point to a single document. All I've been able to do is point to an entire Team's library. Thanks!

[#5]

No, you can’t point to a document this way, only library! Use a document tab if you need this or a teams or sharepoint link going directly to the document

[#6]

For a Single file, if it's in a Team location everyone that would use the tab has access too, then use the app that is tied to the file type, so Word Tab, point to the document. Otherwise, you will want to get a Share link like I said in the past and use "Website" tab, if you use "Anyone" link, or "People in your Org" permission level when you generate it, then anyone using the tab will open that document when using the tab.