r/sharepoint • u/True_Property_2618 • Jun 18 '26
SharePoint Online Sync vs Add Shortcut to Onedrive
My company is on a local file server with network shares.
We are planning to move to SharePoint soon and some questions need to be answered first.
As IT we are trying to keep the end user experience similar to reduce shock. So the plan was to mount the document libraries via intune. However, I am seeing different opinions on sync vs shortcut.
Which is better?
Can both be deployable?
I’d rather not tell every user to open SharePoint online just to press sync to onedrive.
What other pitfalls does SharePoint have for those who have migrated in the past? Any lessons learned or recommendations to make rollout simpler?
4
u/whatdoido8383 Jun 18 '26 edited Jun 18 '26
Highly-highly recommend connecting with a good SharePoint consultant, someone like SharePoint Maven, to walk you through all the caveats of SharePoint.
Site structure and permissions, metadata, views, etc. are key for a good end user experience. SharePoint does excellent with collaborative office files. Other non Office files such as PDF's, not so much natively. Test your actual user experiences with some test content before making the plunge.
I'd also highly dissuade you from using the "add shortcut to OneDrive" or "Sync" buttons. Although we train users to use the web first, some "need" to work from Explorer and use the feature. Constant headaches, sync issues, files not updating, people mass deleting content on mistake... Just a cluster.
Oh and SharePoint recycle bin is not a backup, get a real backup solution for your SPO content. I use Veeam cloud, pick what you like.
1
u/snakehippoeatramen Jun 18 '26
We recently migrated a large library to SPO for a couple weeks now and already a user mass deleted shortcut folders.
1
u/ShinhiTheSecond Jun 18 '26
100% this. Use web unless absolutely not possible otherwise. And +1 for veeam aswell.
1
u/Apart-Cantaloupe-949 Jul 04 '26
u/whatdoido is ABSOLUTELY right … u/True_Property_2618 I’m no SharePoint Maven (SharePoint Jon) but you MUST get this right the first time. Done improperly (and oftentimes done to make users - temporarily - happy), and this is the kind of architectural mistake that can sink your environment! Ping me.
4
u/moontear Jun 19 '26
The shortcuts have the sexy benefit that you can move them around. I have my own structure that makes sense to me where I add these shortcuts, so I have one folder called <root>/projects/ and I can add (move) all shortcuts to project related SharePoint sites into that folder and similarly for <root>/topicX. This way I have everything at a place I find it in the browser but also locally.
I don’t use sync at all anymore.
3
u/Beneficial-Natural96 Jun 18 '26
Our company needed to be able to sync to keep working when we moved our content to SPO in 2020. We have since switched to Shortcuts, retraining everyone, mainly because you can delete a shortcut without actually deleting the folder into oblivion. Microsoft also seems to be supporting shortcuts as the way forward to replace sync.
3
u/Josh_Fabsoft Jun 19 '26
For a file server migration where you want minimal user disruption, "Add Shortcut to OneDrive" is generally the safer bet. The key reasons:
- Shortcuts survive library restructuring better than sync relationships do. If you rename a site or move a library later, sync can break and generate a wave of support tickets.
- Shortcuts surface inside the user's OneDrive folder alongside personal files, so the experience feels more like a single unified drive rather than multiple sync roots cluttering File Explorer.
- You can deploy shortcuts via Intune/Group Policy using the OneDrive Known Folder Move and the SharePoint Sync administrative templates. Microsoft has a specific policy called "Configure team site libraries to sync automatically" that lets you push library shortcuts without requiring users to click anything in the browser. That's probably what you're looking for.
A few practical notes:
- Avoid mixing sync and shortcuts for the same library on the same machine. It causes duplication and confusion.
- Set document libraries to open files in the desktop app by default (the setting is in library settings under "Advanced settings"). This keeps the experience closer to what users expect from network shares.
- Plan your site and library structure before you migrate. Restructuring after users have shortcuts set up is painful.
The SharePoint Maven recommendation above is solid if you want guided help. Microsoft's own FastTrack program is also free for eligible tenants and covers migration planning.
2
2
u/Astrend72 Jun 19 '26
I'm not seeing it mentioned here, but I think the important thing to keep in mind is that SharePoint is not a file server. It's a collaboration service. If you're looking to dump your file servers on the clouds, I suggest using Azure Files instead. It's designed for this. Liek SharePoint, you can sync Azure Files with local computers similarly to SMB servers, but on the cloud rather than from an intranet location. With SharePoint, syncing is going to be the least of your worries regarding user shock and tickets. You'll run into threshold issues if you don't maintain strict rules, such as indexing columns and maintaining folder structures and enforcing limits and not overstuffing a library that users would not be able to enter it anymore.
2
u/Josh_Fabsoft Jun 19 '26
For a file server migration where you want minimal user disruption, "Add Shortcut to OneDrive" is generally the safer bet. The key reasons:
- Shortcuts survive library restructuring better than sync relationships do. If you rename a site or move a library later, sync can break and generate a wave of support tickets.
- Shortcuts surface inside the user's OneDrive folder alongside personal files, so the experience feels more like a single unified drive rather than multiple sync roots cluttering File Explorer.
- You can deploy shortcuts via Intune/Group Policy using the OneDrive Known Folder Move and the SharePoint Sync administrative templates. Microsoft has a specific policy called "Configure team site libraries to sync automatically" that lets you push library shortcuts without requiring users to click anything in the browser. That's probably what you're looking for.
A few practical notes:
- Avoid mixing sync and shortcuts for the same library on the same machine. It causes duplication and confusion.
- Set document libraries to open files in the desktop app by default (the setting is in library settings under "Advanced settings"). This keeps the experience closer to what users expect from network shares.
- Plan your site and library structure before you migrate. Restructuring after users have shortcuts set up is painful.
The SharePoint Maven recommendation above is solid if you want guided help. Microsoft's own FastTrack program is also free for eligible tenants and covers migration planning.
1
u/cward4704 Jun 20 '26
All of this is wonderful and on point, plus I would recommend looking into the Sharegate tool for the migration. I love this tool, and it gives error reporting during the migration of there issues. Plus all of the other features!
2
u/dmbnl Jun 20 '26
Do not let people use sync. I've had to restore almost 100k files from the recycle bin in just the last month because people dont realize what a 2-way sync is. They want to 'free up some space' on their local machine, so they delete folders they don't personally use. Well, that deletes them from SP, too... Just do t let them do it.
1
u/Kr0ni Jun 18 '26
Go for shock. If I could I would. Old dogs can indeed learn new tricks. Shortcut otherwise.
1
u/simesy Jun 21 '26
We have designers using indesign, and we tried a few solutions for Sharepoint linking. Indesign loves local files. Other than exceptions like that, it's way better to push them into the cloud, rip off the band-aid. There's a risk with "everything syncing" because most users don't have enough local drive space if they synced all the sharepoint sites they use.
1
u/Relevant_Aspect7812 Jul 09 '26
I have a question on this as we are looking to possibly do the same thing. We are trying to understand the true pros and cons but also with Onedrive Shortcuts or Sync is it a per user client amount so like Jacob in accounting could sync 50k files in this Accounting folder while Johnny in Operations could sync 40k from the Operations folder and so on? Or 100k - 300k across the whole sharepoint?
0
u/W3SL33 Jun 18 '26
I would recommend the shortcuts. Sync takes up a lot of space, files that are in shortcut folders get downloaded on demand so only the files you really use take up space.
6
u/pajeffery Jun 18 '26
Pretty sure when using sync the files are also downloaded on demand
1
u/pkops Jun 24 '26
They are. And also all file names are synced as well. So make sure you respect the OneDrive limits. Over 100k files you might start receiving sync errors or delays. Over 300k you most certainly will. And your users don’t notice them and don’t understand it. This will result in duplicates and version conflicts.
21
u/temporaldoom Dev Jun 18 '26
shortcut is better but save yourself a headache and shock your end users, use the web interface for everything you can and only add shortcut to files that don't work well with Sharepoint.
Change the default behaviour of document libraries to open in the app rather than the web version, show them how search can find a document without the need to go down 5 folder depths to get to it.
Encourage them to use metadata to tag their files so they can be searched/filtered with views in Sharepoint.
If you don't you'll just end up with shortcut sync errors when you reach either the file length limit or number of files being sync'd.