Fix for SharePoint 2013 Drag and Drop Upload Not Working Issue

One of the cool new feature in SharePoint 2013 is the ability to drag and drop files directly into document libraries.  We had a scenario where it didn’t work!  some users were unable to upload files into document libraries by dragging and dropping. They see only “New document” but “new document or drag files here” not visible. This means: drag and drop not available for them!

SharePoint 2013 drag and drop requirements:

SharePoint 2013 drag and drop feature is based on HTML 5! So, the browsers which support HTML 5, such as recent versions of IE 10 or above, Firefox, Chrome, and Safari, drag and drop functionality in SharePoint 2013 works fine.

This functionality also works on browsers that don’t support HTML 5 (such as IE 8 and IE9), when you have Microsoft Office 2013 installed. Office 2013 installs an ActiveX control “SharePoint DragUpload Control (Interceptor.dll)” and browsers use them for drag-and-drop functionality. BTW, Check the version compatibility (If you have the 32-bit version of Office installed, It can’t run on IE 64 bit!!)

Enable drag and drop feature in SharePoint 2013 for IE8/IE9:
As already stated, SharePoint 2013 drag and drop not available for IE8/IE9 when you don’t have Microsoft Office installed on the client machine. So, We can run the SharePoint designer 2013 installer (Just choose the “Office Tools >> Microsoft SharePoint Foundation Support” option, No need to install SPD 2013!) Having SharePoint Designer 2013 enables uses to drag and drop documents in SharePoint 2013.

SharePoint 2013 drag and drop upload permissions:
user must have at least contribute permission to the document library, otherwise, they can’t drag and drop in SharePoint 2013. Also, drag and drop functionality doesn’t work for sub-folders. You can drag and drop only FILES. Use Explorer view to upload files along with folders!