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OneDrive Sharing UI "breaking" "Shared with Me" functionality

Bronze Contributor

Hi, so I'm not quite sure when the Sharing UI in OneDrive for Business (web) changed, but a couple of weeks ago it looked different.

What I'm specifically talking about is this usage scenario:

  • Users right clicks folder in his/her OneDrive and clicks "Share"
    • right then pops up a little different sharing dialog than previously
    • when you look closely you'll see the text "anyone with this link can edit this item" below the File/Foldername and right above the User entry field
  • Users enters Names/E-Mail of specific people
  • User then clicks share
  • done

 

Previously what happend is, that those users would get permission to the file/folder and also see this in their own OneDrive under "Shared with Me", since they've received explicit permission

 

But since the UI changed sometime in the last couple of weeks this is what happens

 

  • the sharing dialog defaults to the "Get a Link" functionality, which btw is still accessible in the right click menu, but looks a little different as well than previously
  • a links is created and that link is sent to the shared users
  • BUT
    • no explicit permissions are granted anymore
    • instead a link is created with a default expiration of 180 days
    • and those Users no longer see the shared file/folder in their "Shared with Me" OneDrive UI

 

To change this, a user has to do the following

 

  • in the new Sharing UI click that tiny text hyperlink "anyone with this link can edit this item"
  • a new "Permissions" side pane flys open and in the available dropdown menu select "Only people in the To: line" instead of "Anyone with this link"
  • Click OK
  • Click Share

 

Can someone point out when this change happend, or where it was mentioned? I usually follow all the changes very closely, but this one I might have missed.

Also, what will happen to the "shared with me" functionality, because I can pretty much guarantee that nobody will effectively using it anymore, since no new shared files/folder will show up there as long as the sharing ui works like it does now.

 

I'm on full tenant first release btw.

 

Thanks,
Ivan

34 Replies

 

This is new for me too!

BTW, is still there the option to get an anonymous link? How?

 

EDIT: Well, it appears that the default sharing option for a file ("anyone with this link can edit...") sends indeed an anonymous link with edit permissions to the recipient. Maybe this is the answer to people complaining that recipients out from the organization, and not with an MS Acoount or an O365 Account, don't like to be forced to signin for an MSA. Anyway, to send as default an anonymous link with edit permissions appears a bit too "strong" for me...

Hi all,

 

We did release a message center announcement on the new sharing dialog in ODB but it was a month or two back so it has probably expired at this point. The very short version though is that our previous model combined two separate concepts (how do I want to share? and how do I inform the recipient of their access?) in a very weird way. If you wanted to e-mail the recipient, you could only permission the user directly. If you wanted to copy a link, you could only copy anonymous or company shareable links.

 

In the new sharing dialog, the user now makes a deliberate choice between e-mail and copy, and then another choice on the type of link (anonymous, people in my org or permissioning) to share. We've gotten a lot of good feedback on the sharing dialog and we are constantly looking for ways to improve.

 

In the meantime, we have a feature in the SharePoint admin center that lets the admin choose the "default link" in the sharing dialogue (either anonymous access, internal or direct/restricted). This chooses the default link that is selected but users can still change if needed.

 

Hope this helps! Thanks!

 

Stephen Rice

OneDrive Program Manager

Hi Stephen,

 

Thanks for the input, I can't remember the MC message to be honest. I have messages dating back to August in the MC, but not the one about the Sharing Dialog. Do messages have a unified expiration date, or are they different for every message?


@Stephen Rice wrote:

 

In the new sharing dialog, the user now makes a deliberate choice between e-mail and copy, and then another choice on the type of link (anonymous, people in my org or permissioning) to share. We've gotten a lot of good feedback on the sharing dialog and we are constantly looking for ways to improve.

 

 

 

Here's a screenshot of this new sharing dialog, and I'm not sure what you mean by "user is making a deliberate choice".

Image_221.png

I can pretty much assume, most of the users will enter the recipients mail address, add a message and hit "Share" without deliberately thinking about how this file/folder is shared. Being the IT-Admin and an O365 enthusiast, even I've done it and just assumed this worked as before and only looked a little different. 

 

It would be great if you would move the sidepane controls, that opens upon clicking that blue text link, to the sharing dialog itself, since there isn't much going on in the sidepane, that wouldn't fit in the dialog itself. This blue text link, looks more like it would link to an office.com information page about sharing itelf, rather than to additional controls. Or add an edit icon (pencil) next to it.

Image_222.png

Thank you for the workaround with the defautl sharing experience, though I would suggest to update the wording on this. I wouldn't have selected this option on my own, because I assumed "Direct - only people who have permission" means that the link to file will shared, but you can only access it, if you already have permission for it.

 

 

Hi Stephen.

You write: "In the new sharing dialog, the user now makes a deliberate choice between e-mail and copy".

Do you mean the choice between "Share" and "Get a link"?

Also, you write: "we have a feature in the SharePoint admin center that lets the admin choose the "default link" in the sharing dialogue".

Where exactly?

TIA

 

 


@Salvatore Biscari wrote:

Hi Stephen.

You write: "In the new sharing dialog, the user now makes a deliberate choice between e-mail and copy".

Do you mean the choice between "Share" and "Get a link"?

Also, you write: "we have a feature in the SharePoint admin center that lets the admin choose the "default link" in the sharing dialogue".

Where exactly?

TIA

 

 


You can find the setting in the SharePoint Admin Center > Sharing

Thanks Ivan!

 

BTW, "Direct - only people who have permission" means exactly that the link can be used only if the recipient already has permission for accessing the file. You can see this in practice if you "Get a link" instead of "Share". In fact in the first case, where you can send manually the link to other people, they will be able to access only if they already have the right permission in place; in the second case, the permission is automatically created for the email recipient, but the same rule holds.

 

@Stephen Rice: IMO it would have been much better to put in the SharePoint setting also the option for the default about read-only or read/write.

But after reading all this I'm confused. Why isn't a folder/file that is shared not showing up in the Shared with me area in the OneDrive?? This is confusing my users.

@Ivan Unger, I just checked through e-mail and it looks like our message center announcement went out on 8/5/2016 and expired on 9/30/2016. Here is the text from the message center announcement:

 

 

Title: Updated Feature: Simplified sharing from OneDrive for Business from the web. 
Body copy: Updated Feature: Simplified sharing from OneDrive for Business from the web. 
We are updating the user experience for sharing files and folders in OneDrive for Business from the web. First release customers will see this change starting in mid-August with full rollout expected by mid-September. 
  
[How does this affect me?] 
This new sharing experience simplifies the flow of emailing links to colleagues and guests and copying links to the clipboard. Like the original experience, the new experience presents two choices to users who want to share, they can type email addresses to send a link in email or copy a link to the clipboard.  
 
Both the “Email link”* and “Get a link” command support all three types of links in OneDrive, including: 
Anonymous access links, accessible by anyone 
Company shareable links, accessible to those within your organization 
Restricted links, accessible to a custom set of users both in and outside your organization 
This allows users to more easily choose their method of sharing via email or copying to clipboard while retaining the full set of permissions choices. 
 
*Note: As part of this feature rollout, the "Share" command will appear as "Share link" or "Email link" for some users. This is expected behavior and a part of our validation and fine-tuning process. Before rollout is complete the finalized text will be deployed to all users. 
 
[What do I need to do to prepare for this change?]  
P1 – Update your user training, and notify your helpdesk. Please click Additional information to learn more. 

 

 

Thanks for the additional feedback on the sharing dialog as well. Discoverability of the link options is definitely one of the biggest pieces we've learned and, while I can't share any specific details, I can tell you we are planning on addressing this in the future.

 

That is also about what the "direct link" does in ODB. Essentially, it allows the user to permission new users to the resource and then sends/copys a restricted/canonical/direct link. This type of link will only work for people who already have access (including those who were just added.)

 

@Salvatore Biscari, we actually have a the default view/edit permission on our backlog as well. We don't have a timeline on when we will be able to offer it but we've definitely heard the request for the feature :)

 

@Guy Johnson, most likely the reasons that files/folders aren't showing up in Shared with Me is that users are now sending anonymous access links instead of permissioning them. Once the user clicks on the anonymous link, they will be redeemed and the file will show up in Shared With Me. We've also heard confusion around this and have plans to address it.

 

Hi Guy. Glad to hear from you!

In "Shared with me" (as well as in "Shared with us" for Groups) are visible only items EXPLICITLY shared with a user (or with a Group).

Not true Stephen. My users are clicking on the link they get and the file will open but it doesn't show up in the Shared with me - therin lies the problem

@Guy Johnson, I'm sorry, you are correct. We have this "redeem" behavior today for company shareable links (only people in my organization) but not for anonymous access links. That being said, this is something we are actively investigating so we should have some news to share in the next few months.

 

Edit: Double checked, this feature is not complete yet. Apologies for the mistake!

Hi Salvatore

I respectfully disagree with your statement. My users have had the file/folder shared specificaly with them and when they click on the link it doesn't show up in the Shared with me.

@Guy Johnson, when you say that the resource is "shared specifically with them", are you referring to a link was e-mailed directly with the user or the selected link permissions are "only for specific people". If your users are selecting the latter, it should show up in Shared with Me. If not, please let me know so we can investigate. Thanks!

Stephen

I went to the computer that initiated the share and redid it. I open his OneDrive for Business and selected the folder I want to share; clicked share at the top of the page. I got the Share "Folder Name" box; I clicked on Anyone with this link can edit this item; Selected anyone in My Company; clicked okay. Then I added the names of the people and clicked share.

 

Went to a users dsktop and clicked on the link in the e-mail and was able to open the file but it was never added to the Shared with me area of OneDrive

 

Originally I did the first 3 steps and just added the name and share. Same resuly.

 

What am I doing wrong?? This has my users up in arms.

 

Temporarily I'm suggesting that they save the e-mail in a folder to get access.

@Guy Johnson, can you try the same repro steps but, instead of selecting "People in my company/organization", can you select the top option for "only specific people" and see if that shows up in Shared with Me?

 

We had an issue with showing documents shared with "people in my organization" links in Shared with Me and we are still investigating the fix.

 

Thanks!

That option is not available to me.

 

See attachedShared.PNG

@Guy Johnson, sorry, I meant the option for "only people on the To: line". When you are in the "e-mail" flow, we wanted to adopt more clear "e-mail" terminology. Effectively, this is the same as saying "permission these users to the resource and send them mail with a link to the resource"

I'll give it a try and report back - but I beleive we are asking an awful lot of our users. They need this to be simple - Click on Share; add names; click share to send it.

 

If the IT people are having problems how much more for the users???

@Guy Johnson Totally agree. This is something we're constantly working on. The thinking behind the current design is that we want to allow users to send anonymous access links via e-mail as these are the most user friendly (behave like attachments, don't require complicated sign-in, etc.) but we are definitely hearing feedback that this is having an effect on the Shared With Me experience.

 

If your test does work out successfully, you can go to the SharePoint admin center, select the "sharing" tab and select "Direct" as the "Default sharing link". This will mean that when your users click "share", we will default to "only specific people" or "only people on the To: line" which should guarantee that resources will show up in SWM.

 

Hope this helps!

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best response confirmed by VI_Migration (Silver Contributor)
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Glad to hear it @Guy Johnson! Sorry we had to go through so much trial and error to figure this out. I'm going to send a copy of this thread to the team so we can make sure future iterations take all of this into account. If you have any other questions, let me know! Thanks!

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