Changing shared folders to links in onedrive

Hello @Johannes Kingma,

Thank you for sharing this, and I understand how disruptive it can be when your day‑to‑day flow suddenly changes. 

Based on the information available in Microsoft’s documentation, I have not found any indication that Microsoft has recently changed the core behavior of how SharePoint shared folders are synchronized through the OneDrive Desktop App.
You may refer to the official SharePoint sync overview here: Sync in SharePoint and OneDrive - SharePoint in Microsoft 365 | Microsoft Learn

However, I did find that Microsoft has recently documented an issue where OneDrive shared folder shortcuts may unexpectedly appear as Internet Shortcuts in certain environments. If this aligns with what you are experiencing, the details and available workarounds can be found in Microsoft’s official support article: Fixes or workarounds for recent issues in OneDrive - Microsoft Support

To better understand your situation and determine whether it matches the known issue or if this is something different, could you kindly provide more details about the behavior you are encountering? For example, are shared folders that previously synced as regular folders now appearing only as links, or are they opening differently in OneDrive?

Any additional clarification or a brief screenshot would help me provide more precise guidance.

Thank you again, and I’m here to assist further.

Warm regards,

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Microsoft introduced a shorter share link format for OneDrive and SharePoint that changes how shared items (including folders coming from SharePoint) are represented and handled by links and any apps or services that depend on those links.

Previously, shared items used guestaccess.aspx URLs. These now use a shorter, typed URL format, for example:

• Old: https://contoso-my.sharepoint.com/.../_layouts/15/guestaccess.aspx?share=...
• New: https://contoso-my.sharepoint.com/:w:/p/john/...

Key points about what changed and what to adjust:

1. Shorter, typed links for shared content
   Shared files and folders in OneDrive and SharePoint now use the new short format. This affects:
   • How links look when copying a sharing link from OneDrive/SharePoint.
   • Any tools or workflows that parse or inspect OneDrive/SharePoint URLs.
2. Impact on custom tools or scripts
   If any applications, scripts, or processes were:
   • Parsing OneDrive/SharePoint URLs to extract the site URL or file path, or
   • Using URL patterns (for example, checking for guestaccess.aspx) to determine whether a link is anonymous vs internal, those tools must be updated to handle the new format. The new short links are still compatible with APIs that worked with guestaccess.aspx, but URL-parsing logic may break.
3. Recommended handling going forward
   • Avoid relying on URL structure to determine sharing type or to build API calls.
   • Use supported APIs (for example, Microsoft Graph “Accessing shared DriveItems”) to resolve and work with shared items instead of parsing URLs.
   • When sharing from OneDrive or SharePoint, continue to use the built-in Share and Copy link experiences; the platform handles the new link format automatically.
4. No change to existing links
   Links created before the change continue to work; only newly created sharing links use the new format.

For day-to-day handling of shared folders in the OneDrive sync client, normal user workflows (syncing, accessing, and sharing) remain the same; the main adjustment is needed only if there is custom tooling or automation that depends on the old URL format.

References:

• Shorter share link format in OneDrive and SharePoint
• Share files and folders in Microsoft OneDrive
• Manage sharing settings for SharePoint and OneDrive in Microsoft 365