Links to SPO always open in browser - I need native app by default

[romanbrun]

I can two crucial issues with links in SPO.

1. With the feature in SPO I can set, that Office documents always open within the Desktop app. 

--> This feature doesn't work when I send a link to someone. It then still open within the browser. How can I change this?

2. It get's even worse, when I send a link to a none Office document, e.g. a *.dmg (CAD-File). Then the browser opens and asks me to download the file. This leads to a duplicate, what I really want to avoid.

I couldn't find anything on the roadmap for this issues, but would undersand it as basis functionality. Understand that MS wants to push into the cloud - that's still not the way many users work (e.g. because of the lack of many functionalities).

Thanks for you help in advance.

[#2]

@romanbrun

1. May not be exactly what you are looking for, but you can use Office URI Schemes to share the links to documents which will open office documents in desktop app. For example, below link will open the excel file in desktop app: 

ms-excel:ofv|u|https://contoso/Q4/budget.xls

 Where "https://contoso/Q4/budget.xls" is the URL of your excel file. You can find other URI schemes in above documentation.

2. Non office documents will not open in browser or respective desktop apps - this is a default behavior in SharePoint.

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[#3]

@ganeshsanap 

Thanks for your reply.

1. I found them aswell. But didn't get further how to add the uri-scheme-prefix by default. Would I need to adapt a registry entry? And is this only a possible solution for Office documents, but e.g. not PDF or other files (as far as I found out)?

2. When I have a none-office file stored within a SPO and share a link to this file, it generates me a link like https://contoso.sharepoint.com/:w:/r/sites/SP1/Shared%20-Documents/General/Folder1/sampleFile.dmg 

And yes, tries to opens it within a browser. And then asks me to download that file. What leads to duplication. 

What I want is, that the file direct opens the corresponding desktop app. So, the same behaviour as if I would have stored the file on a file server, e.g. R:\Folder1\sampleFile.dmg .

[#4]

@romanbrun For office documents, you can use URI schemes while sharing the document links (whether you are sharing via email or adding links on any site).

For non-office files: try adding ?Web=1 at the end of URL and see if it works for you. File URL format:

https://contoso.sharepoint.com/sites/siteName/Shared%20Documents/Document.docx?Web=1

OR you have to share the file URLs in this format: 

https://contoso.sharepoint.com/sites/siteName/Shared Documents/Forms/AllItems.aspx?id=/sites/siteName/Shared Documents/MyImage.png&parent=/sites/siteName/Shared Documents

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[#5]

@ganeshsanap 

With "you can use URI schemes while sharing the document links" I assume you mean, that i add this manually, correct? This wouldn't work for our end-users... I need a solution where it is added by default.

Adding  ?Web=1 still adds within the browser

Changing the URL from:

https://contoso.sharepoint.com/:x:/r/sites/sp1/Freigegebene%20Dokumente/General/sample.xlsx?d=w1fef9...

to:

https://contoso.sharepoint.com/:x:/r/sites/sp1/Freigegebene Dokumente/Forms/AllItems.aspx?id=sites/sp1/Freigegebene Dokumente/General/sample.xlsx&parent=sites/sp1/Freigegebene Dokumente

Leads to the message saying "element not found"

[#6]

@romanbrun Do not use the "Copy link" option, it will not give you clean URL of document. 

Check steps given here to get the direct/clean URL of document: Hyperlinks to PDF files on SharePoint Online 

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[#7]

@ganeshsanap 

Thanks. However, independent from where I generate the link, I always get "Type 2" links (as named within Hyperlinks to PDF files on SharePoint Online ).

I mostly use the type of shareing "People who have access". 

When I couse "People in my tenant" I get "Type 1" links. But I don't want to share with anyone in my tenant...

[#8]

@romanbrun Sorry, I must have provided wrong post URL in my above response. 

Try solution given in this thread to get the direct link to document: Copy Link includes extra characters that won't work 

It will be in this format: 

https://<tenant>.sharepoint.com/sites/<siteName>/<libraryName>/folder/fileName.extension

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[#9 · Accepted solution]

The short answer is, you cannot. Specially since it seems you're trying to link .dmg files. Unless these apps have support for talking to SharePoint directly to edit files, which I'm not aware of them having that you're only option is utilizing OneDrive sync clients and Modifying files direct that way.

Or what we have done in the past with files like this is utilize a tool such as ZeeDrive to create "Network Drives" to the dmg files etc. And others could share file links like you have in your example to locations they have access to in ZeeDrive.

If the app you have can open SharePoint dmg files directly from the open menu some how, then you might be able to finagle something with a URL shortener etc. to allow the different URL formats to tell the OS to open the file, but that's assuming those can open a web link to edit files that way, which not many 3rd party apps do.

Anyway, I know it's not the answer you were hoping for but working with 3rd party file types is a bit tricky vs. office files.

It's OneDrive sync and ZeeDrive for us and works ok.

[#10]

@romanbrun 

1. There is a feature under the site collection features in settings called "Open Documents in Client Applications by Default". This will open documents in the native app by default.

https://Yourtenant.sharepoint.com/_layouts/15/ManageFeatures.aspx?Scope=Site

2. This is due to how OS and Your browser handles links that aren't "native". This will happen on all websites.  You can try to copy the path by pressing information then path as the image below and adding ?web=1 as stated by others in the thread :) 

[#11]

That only works for Office application files not 3rd party.

[#12]

@Chris Webb 

Thanks for you replies!

So ZeeDrive is different from just synchronising with OneDrive?

The issue I have is, that when synchronising and using the Windows Explorer, I always get the username within the path, e.g.:

C:\Users\uxxxxx\Tenant\SPO-Project1\...

Then, obviously, the link doesn't work.

Technically, this could be removed. But then I get a security issue (different users using a same device).

[#13]

@Chris Webb 

I currently run the trial of ZeeDrive. Seems to be the best (temporary) solution. Looking forward that @MS solves this issue...

[#14]

@romanbrun Yup, if everyone is trained to master OneDrive and everything is internal you can use OneDrive, but people would have to share "Folders" to documents, so you can utilize the "Link to my onedrive" feature the shared folder location, which will sync down local and can be worked on and utilized that way. But that's really the only way around it other than Zee Drive and it's direct path to the SharePoint location. 

So if you don't have a massive user base that might be an alternate solution in training users to Share the file in a folder and utilizing that link to their onedrive so it just syncs into their OneDrive.