Microsoft 365 & Power Platform Training and Consulting

Open a SharePoint Library in Windows Explorer and save it to Quick Access

January 14, 2019

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1–2 minutes

If you can’t sync a library, or prefer not to, you can pin the web location of a SharePoint form, media, or document library to your “Quick Access” panel in Windows Explorer.

This allows you to interact with (edit, replace, delete) the files just as you would in a network drive but requires that you’re connected to your SharePoint environment – there are no offline files in this method.

Access the library in Windows Explorer

Copy URL of library in SharePoint
Open Windows Explorer and paste in URL, deleting everything after the library name
Hit Enter

Pin to Quick Access

You could then right-click “Quick access” on the left of Windows Explorer and select “Pin current folder to Quick Access” to bookmark it for next time

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5 responses to “Open a SharePoint Library in Windows Explorer and save it to Quick Access”

Joao

December 26, 2020

Hi, I would like to have the Share Point Library to be shown as an icon the same OneDrive icon appears in the left panel. I mean, currently the Sharepoint Library is in My Favorite folder but I want it to be as the other icon.
Thanks
Joao

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Gerard Rodriguez

January 18, 2019

Nate, this is a very useful tool – especially for organizations still transitioning from Windows drives and network shares. Yes there are still many out there.
An important distinction overlooked though is the impact of using these Quick Access links directly in Windows 10. With the change from Win7, of using a link file, to that of a direct link can cause disruption if users rename the Quick Access library they’ve dropped there from SharePoint. Renaming the quick access library dropped there from SharePoint results in changing the originating folder in SharePoint. Any automation tools connected to this library are now vulnerable to breakage.

An alternative we’ve put into place is to return the link-file approach from Win7. This is done in Win10 by simply creating a “My Favorites” folder and adding it to the Quick Access list. Drop any SharePoint library/folder URL into the My Favorites folder, instead of direcly onto the Quick Access list, and you’ll get a link file – that can be renamed without affecting the original on SharePoint.

Hope this slightly deeper look helps your followers. Enjoy.

Gerard

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1. Nate Chamberlain
  
  January 18, 2019
  
  Thanks for sharing that! It’s a great idea
  
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2. Martina
  
  March 9, 2020
  
  Hi Gerard, can you explain how to “simply create a ‘My Favorite’ folder”? The only thing I can find to do it is manipulating the registry. It that how?
  Thanks
  Martina
  
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“Sync” button greyed out on SharePoint library – SharePoint Librarian

January 15, 2019

[…] Media and Form/InfoPath Libraries will not sync but you can still open them in Windows Explorer and pin to Quick Access so they will function as a mapped drive […]

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