SharePoint - Mapped Drives Alternative

[OspreyO]

Is anyone still using mapped drives in Windows File Explorer to SharePoint?

Personally I use OneDrive Sync or just use Edge but we still have some users using this and if often disconnects or fails to refresh due to authentication needing to be refreshed. Obviously you can go out and force a refresh of credentials in IE11. But that a faff.

Wondering if anyone has any workarounds.

 

[wesley]

Having the exact same problem with mapped drive to SharePoint ....

 

[dlockers]

The workaround is OneDrive

 

[OspreyO]

OneDrive isn't the same. You can get users Syncing massive network drives to their local machine.

 

[Django x2]

OneDrive isn't the same. You can get users Syncing massive network drives to their local machine.

It only syncs, doesn't download, so therefore, it's exactly the same as OneDrive. OD4B is the document library sharing mechanism for SharePoint that honours modern Auth. That's it.

 

[#Chri5#]

It only syncs, doesn't download, so therefore, it's exactly the same as OneDrive. OD4B is the document library sharing mechanism for SharePoint that honours modern Auth. That's it.

Works well for me - I've got a couple of folders from our company SharePoint syncing which total 75GB but use less than 100MB on my laptop.

 

[OspreyO]

It only syncs, doesn't download, so therefore, it's exactly the same as OneDrive. OD4B is the document library sharing mechanism for SharePoint that honours modern Auth. That's it.

It does if they accidently choose to keep it local. Then they delete it thinking its a local copy. Or they make multiple copies of it.
Users are morons, what can I say. It was no problem to restore.
The problem was some in IT have argued against using Sync because of this, thus we now have support issues around mapped drives.
My solution is to delegate all this support back to the people advocating for mapped drives.
For power users, I tell them to use sync and show them how to use it.

Of course then there's the issue of collaborative working. People are confused why they can do this on some documents and not on others.
Don't get me started on Sharing Links. I'd love to see some basic certification on Office/Office365 as standard requirement for all staff.

I was just wondering had anyone some innovative workarounds. I don't do support normally, I'm just a curious observer, being admin.

 

[wesley]

So there are 2 different OneDrive app, one for home, other one for business ? What's the difference?

 

[OspreyO]

As usual Microsoft has made the differences blurry.

https://sharegate.com/blog/onedrive-for-business-vs-onedrive-know-the-difference

In our organisation we hide the personal folders in Windows Explorer but you can see them in the browser interface. It's a bit stupid to hide them as some apps like teams defaults to saving recordings to the personal one drive. They used to save to Stream.

You use the app to specify what default folders get synched and it does the synching. So you need to be logged into it for synching to work. Can be glitchy to set up.

 

[Django x2]

As usual Microsoft has made the differences blurry.

https://sharegate.com/blog/onedrive-for-business-vs-onedrive-know-the-difference

In our organisation we hide the personal folders in Windows Explorer but you can see them in the browser interface. It's a bit stupid to hide them as some apps like teams defaults to saving recordings to the personal one drive. They used to save to Stream.

You use the app to specify what default folders get synched and it does the synching. So you need to be logged into it for synching to work. Can be glitchy to set up.

No they haven't. You've posted an article that is 8 years old. There is no OD4B anymore, only one OneDrive client that does it all.

 

[OspreyO]

No they haven't. You've posted an article that is 8 years old. There is no OD4B anymore, only one OneDrive client that does it all.

All I know there are two one drive icons on the tree. One seems to be for personal folders, the other for all business collaboration.

There are settings for it in group policy that you can disable. Which we have as I explained above.

 

[Django x2]

All I know there are two one drive icons on the tree. One seems to be for personal folders, the other for all business collaboration.

There are settings for it in group policy that you can disable. Which we have as I explained above.

Yes, just the one OneDrive client targeted at 2 (or more) locations. And no, Teams won't save recordings to the personal OneDrive, it will save the OneDrive of the account signed into Teams.

SharePoint will also allow you to Sync to your Desktop, and uses the OneDrive client to do so. That icon, in the File Explorer menu, is of a building.

So, that leaves us with:
1. Normal OneDrive that your mum can have.
2. Your "personal" OneDrive that belongs to your work user account (e.g. [email protected])
3. Your synchronised SharePoint document libraries.

* #2 above is where Teams would save it's recordings if you were signed into teams as [email protected]. #2 above Should Not be disabled by Group Policy (number 1 can be).

 

[OspreyO]

The behavior of Teams Recording has changed a couple of times since I started using it it 2020.

It used to save to your logged ("personal") MS Stream account - no one else has edit rights
Then they switched it to save to your logged in ("personal") one Drive account.
Now they have it so its shared automatically with everyone in the meeting.

If its a team recording (not MS team) recording I want it shared and owned by the team not by the individual.
I also might want to it shared with people who weren't at the meeting.
It can now be shared externally as a MP4 which I may not want.
Then there's the issue of bandwidth and storage.
I also don't want it distributed thorough a MS Teams Meeting. We upload it into MS Stream and control them through groups and channels.
Trying to turn off the automatic share of a video from someone's logged in ("personal") OneDrive doesn't work reliably. I find I have to move and rename the file.

People also sent links to share the file, which then blows a hole through any sort of auditing and tracking of access.
They also forward the link to people who it wasn't shared with who can't see it which then raises a support call.

Just so half assed.

 

[OspreyO]

I suspect the change of recording location confused so many that they made OneDrive the default to fix that.

 

[OspreyO]

I still don't get why files sometimes (for certain users) don't appear in your Windows Explorer but do appear in Edge when you look at the folder there.

Happens a lot with mapped drives, so the point I no longer use mapped drives. I mostly use edge or synch. But I don't a lot of file handling myself, nothing like an end user would.

I suspect we'll have to do a user re-education sessions on using Sync. But at the moment I can't do that because the Dinosaurs in IT don't want most end users, using it.

 

[Django x2]

The behavior of Teams Recording has changed a couple of times since I started using it it 2020.

It used to save to your logged ("personal") MS Stream account - no one else has edit rights
Then they switched it to save to your logged in ("personal") one Drive account.
Now they have it so its shared automatically with everyone in the meeting.

If its a team recording (not MS team) recording I want it shared and owned by the team not by the individual.
I also might want to it shared with people who weren't at the meeting.
It can now be shared externally as a MP4 which I may not want.
Then there's the issue of bandwidth and storage.
I also don't want it distributed thorough a MS Teams Meeting. We upload it into MS Stream and control them through groups and channels.
Trying to turn off the automatic share of a video from someone's logged in ("personal") OneDrive doesn't work reliably. I find I have to move and rename the file.

People also sent links to share the file, which then blows a hole through any sort of auditing and tracking of access.
They also forward the link to people who it wasn't shared with who can't see it which then raises a support call.

Just so half assed.

You're still mistaking OneDrive personal, with OneDrive personal (for business). If I'm in a work Teams call, ([email protected]) that won't be saved to my outlook account ([email protected]) as there is no link between my work Teams account and my personal outlook OneDrive. It will save to my personal work OneDrive ([email protected]) but that is technically not "personal" nor should it ever be considered so.

 

[OspreyO]

You seem to be hung up with the term "personal" hence I used "logged in". (We don't allow Personal One drive accounts.) How about we call it the user account.
You have one drive icon for their user files (ours has nothing in it) and one drive icon for their business files. Happy?
Still makes no sense to make a team recording into the user account and not the Teams Folder at a minimum.

 

[OspreyO]

Works well for me - I've got a couple of folders from our company SharePoint syncing which total 75GB but use less than 100MB on my laptop.

What happens if the user right clicks the root folder and chooses "Always keep on this device"

 

[Django x2]

You seem to be hung up with the term "personal" hence I used "logged in". (We don't allow Personal One drive accounts.) How about we call it the user account.
You have one drive icon for their user files (ours has nothing in it) and one drive icon for their business files. Happy?
Still makes no sense to make a team recording into the user account and not the Teams Folder at a minimum.

It makes perfect sense, as the person pressing record is the owner of that recording and should only share it wider if they feel it has valid information to do so. I'll give you a recent example of why that is useful:

10 people enter a meeting
Transcribe and recording is started
3 people leave at the end
The meeting over runs and 7 other people start bitching about the 3 people that left

or

an internal job interview is recorded between 3 people (2 interviewers and 1 interviewee)
The meeting is scheduled for an hour, but ends after 45mins
the interviewee leaves
the interviewers continue to debate the interviewee


Where do you want these recording to be saved to? I'll help. It's not the Teams channel or meeting chat.

 

[OspreyO]

This is all AFAIK. Maybe I'm wrong. But even where I'm right, Microsoft is likely to change it so its probably only correct for a small time window.


The meeting will be automatically shared regardless. The person recording doesn't control how its shared.
You can't delete anything from the teams chat including the shared link to the recording.
To removed the sharing you have to remove each person one by one. We often have meetings with 50~200. Its not viable.
I don't know if don't share doesn't work or is just laggy.
Either way people can still access it until I break the link manually. I rename the recording and move it. Then the link doesn't work, but I can't remove it.

I can kick off a recording, and leave the meeting, the recording will continue until the meeting ends or everyone leaves, or it hits the storage/time limit.
This often happens because I'm in area of bad reception and I kick off a recording from my mobile, then continue my journey, or my internet drops out.
Which is handy, but its a different to how the rest of the Teams meetings/chat work, in those if I leave I can't see what happens when I'm not there.
Its also not how the SharePoint site under the MS team work. I can set specific permissions there that do not mirror the MS Teams Meeting/Chat permissions.

If its an interview, it will be shared automatically amongst everyone in the meeting. No way to control that.
What we do, is leave the meeting and start a new one that the interviewee hasn't been invited to.
We aren't daft enough to record either meeting, so it can't be requested under FOI.
Every interviewee gets a seperate meeting every review/scoring of the interview is a seperate meeting also.

I want to set where recordings are saved to and where I can set the permissions. I don't want to be nannied by Microsoft assuming what they think I want is actually what I want.