Disable "Add Shortcut to OneDrive" for a Document Library
"Add Shortcut to OneDrive" is a new feature in the last few months. When it was in Public Preview, there was a PowerShell command to disable that feature:
"Set-SPOTenant -DisableAddShortcutsToOneDrive $true"
This command was announced in MC217339 of the O365 Message center. Based on my interaction with support in Case 22963247, that PowerShell command is no longer available now that the feature is no longer in Public Preview.
I would like the ability to disable "Add Shortcut to OneDrive" again. My environment is about 50% Windows 10 LTSB (1607), and when users "Add Shortcut", it syncs the Document Library to their local computer, filling it up. Win 10 LTSB (1607) does not have the Files On Demand feature, so the users can't pick and choose what in the Doc Library syncs and what doesn't.

22 comments
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Stacey T commented
Please allow this to be disabled. It's confusing for our users.
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Joe commented
This needs to have an option to disable it. My users sync lots of doc libraries from Sharepoint. If they add the onedrive shortcut for a folder within the doc library, the entire Doc Library stops syncing. Causing lots of confusion among users. Need to have easy way to disable this ability.
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Eric commented
And another thing...
I was sent to this topic by Microsoft Support after I opened a support ticket because we were starting to experience problems when this showed up in our tenant. When you're having problems should the solution really be to send the people to UserVoice? Seriously? Don't get me wrong, I actually quite like UserVoice, but it's not like I had called suggesting that lavender be made the new default color for SharePoint. Frustrating. -
Shylah commented
Please let us remove this. The feature is causing nothing but grief.
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Mike P. commented
I echo the sentiments of the users below. This feature should be allowed to be disabled.
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Lars commented
Please let us remove that Feature.
Many Users just click it and have Sync Problems later caused by this. -
Adam Motley commented
This needs fixing Microsoft, it's confusing for users and why you've implemented something that conflicts with existing functionality with no way to turn it off is ridiculous.
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T.O. commented
Please disable the "Add Shortcut to OneDrive" feature. It is causing the same sync issues in my environment as described by others in this post.
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Anonymous commented
This has already cost me several hours of time helping people through sync issues caused by this.
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Rick commented
This is a huge problem for us. We've had users with a shortcut to a shared library accidentally drag folders out to their personal OneDrive. We wind up with changes that sync to multiple computers and any attempt to clean it up just makes it worse. We've had to disconnect everyone, clean it up then reconnect.
Not only did Microsoft add this and enable it by default, but they draw attention to it with a tooltip-style message.
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JK commented
This was not a well thought out feature. Users who have already synced libraries and are now using shortcuts are causing themselves a ton of problems. Most users don't even know they have a onedrive sites and work locally. They think deleting the linked folder locally is the correct procedure and accidently deleting their SharePoint content. You need to let us disable this feature ASAP.
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Eric commented
How did the powershell command not get included when this 'feature' was enabled?!? It's bad enough this 'feature' was added and enabled automatically by Microsoft without tenant administrators having any say in the matter. I mean isn't the idea supposed to be that a new feature or option becomes available and then administrators decided how/when/if they're going to implement it in their environment?
I really hope the powershell command gets added back soon...shouldn't that have been caught by some QA/QC testing? -
susanne.mellberg commented
Unless name of the website can be shown this is not good! Want it to look as Syncronise
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Ghamdan Almokadam commented
creating shortcuts of important company documents to onedrive or local computer will make documents unsecure against any accidental deleteion or modification.
- I dont know what is the point of giving the ability to prevent users from using Synch button but at the same time he is able to use this pointless feature (add SHC to ondrive ) !!!!!!!!!Please, disable this feature or let us control it.
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Nigel commented
We'd like the ability to remove the add shortcut to Onedrive feature for same reasons as others. We would prefer users to use sync and as the shortcut appears in their personal onedrive so they delete it causing issues. Also if they have a shortcut to the root of the sharepoints documents then they have to use this for all sharepoint docs as they can't sync any.
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Anonymous commented
If one of our users adds a shortcut to OneDrive from a SharePoint folder they can no longer sync the SharePoint site to their PC. We need the ability to disable adding shortcut to OneDrive
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Al Butler commented
I am finding that users who use sync on SP document libraries, suddenly find their libraries will not sync due to having inadvertently added shortcut from the library to OneDrive. I am seeing an increasing amount of Incident tickets logged with this as the root cause. Please either disable this by default or give us the ability to disable with PowerShell.
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JL commented
I've found when testing this, if we give a user custom view only permissions in SharePoint online (ie. the user can only view documents in a site library - with no download/sync option) - if the user then chooses the 'add shortcut to onedrive' - the folder is then of course added to their onedrive and in turn can download the file (despite the onedrive app showing with a padlock icon)! Seems a bit pointless! +1 for having the ability to remove that button
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Joe McGiven Corban commented
Yes please - this is causing our organisation grief, as users will see a shortcut in their personal OneDrive (supplied by the company) to SharePoint site libraries.
Because this looks like 'a personal link in a personal place' they simply delete it - and that deletes the content which we then need to get out of the Recycle Bin.
Instead, we only want them to use the "Sync" option instead - as it syncs on their OneDrive Sync client to the Synced folders location instead - not in their OneDrive!
If the Powershell to disable the "Add Shortcut to OneDrive" is not working, then please get this working (reinstated ) asap, so we can disable it at a tenant level.
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Anonymous commented
This needs to be brought back.
If a user adds a link to OneDrive from the root of the SharePoint document share they have to do everything via that new link in OneDrive and the synced area in explorer that still exists doesn’t sync anymore.
It wouldn’t be so bad but MS are sign-posting users to it with an animation!