How to Add SharePoint to File Explorer?
Requirement: Create a Quick Access Link to SharePoint Online in Windows Explorer.
How to Add SharePoint Document Library to File Explorer?
Accessing SharePoint document libraries from Windows Explorer helps us save a lot of time, especially when you want to save or open files quickly without opening a web browser! We can add frequently accessed document libraries to “Quick Access” (known as “Favorites” in earlier versions of Windows, such as “Windows 7”). How do I create a shortcut for SharePoint in File Explorer? Adding a SharePoint Online Document Library to File Explorer is simple and straightforward!
How to access SharePoint from file explorer? Follow these steps to add a SharePoint document library to Quick Access in File Explorer:
- Browse to the specific SharePoint site and Open your SharePoint Online document library or existing folder in Internet Explorer/Edge/Google Chrome (Doesn’t work in Firefox or Safari Browsers: “View in File Explorer” missing in SharePoint Online?).
- From the “Views” drop-down, click on the “View in File Explorer” option (In classic view: Click on Library tab >> Click on “Open with Explorer” button). This opens the document library in Explorer view.
- Right-click “Quick Access” on the file explorer and choose “Pin current folder to Quick Access” to add a shortcut.
- That’s all! This adds SharePoint to file explorer in Windows 10. If you open file explorer, You’ll find a handy shortcut to your SharePoint library under Quick access. You can add a specific SharePoint folder, site libraries, or the whole SharePoint site too!
If you no longer need a SharePoint site/library/folder in quick access, you can Unpin it from there. Once you have SharePoint in File explorer, You can access the SharePoint Files and Folders from local File Explorer and manage SharePoint data or site content just like any other folder on your local PC and perform activities like create new folder, copy files, Save files directly from Microsoft Word or excel, etc.
Kindly note that your client configuration should allow Windows explorer to keep the connection active! E.g., Your SharePoint site must be added to the trusted sites zone of your domain-joined PC to Automatically log in with the current user name and password settings.
Sync Vs. File Explorer
Please note, that the file explorer may not be the best tool for managing SharePoint files. You may lose versioning information, permissions, and metadata when copying files through Windows Explorer. Hence, Microsoft recommends the Sync option through the OneDrive client app, instead of using File Explorer views or mapped drives, for better, faster, and more reliable reasons: How to Sync SharePoint Online with a Local Folder?
To access SharePoint from file explorer as a mapped network drive, refer to How to Map a SharePoint Document Library as a Network Drive?
I don’t have the option to ‘View in File Explorer’. Wondering if this is now deprecated?
Can you explain why the Quick Access list displayed in Word is different to the Quick Access list displayed in File Explorer, with the one in Word using the FE one as the base, but allowing additional items to be added, that are not in turn visible in FE?
This means that there are at least two copies of the Quick Access list stored somewhere in Windows.
Thank you for sharing the article. Often people at my organization complain that they get an error message every few days saying “Access denied. Before opening files in this location, you must first add the web site to your trusted sites list, browse to the web site, and select the option to login automatically.” I have asked the admin team to add the list url to the list of trusted sites. Will that solve the issue the users are facing?
That’s because of the expired session cookies! You got to open the site in Internet explorer once in a while to renew the authentication cookies.
Is there some kind of PowerShell/Automated task as workaround for this?
This article was perfect and made find my docs easier. Thank you 🙂