Microsoft OneDrive account sharing broken - Workaround🔗︎

Update December 2024🔗︎

I'm happy to report Microsoft has finally fixed this issue.

Delete the shortcut(s) to other OneDrive account(s) (if you have any) on your PC.
Log into the OneDrive web portal as the user of the main account (parent).
Navigate to Shared (1). You should see the OneDrive folders shared with your main account (child).
Click the horizontal dots ... (2).
Click Add shortcut to My files (3).

Once OneDrive has sync'd, you should see the proper link in your local PC's OneDrive folder.

TL;DR🔗︎

If you have a QNAP NAS

, they offer an app called HybridMount. Configured in cache-mode (File Cloud Gateway), it will give you similar functionality to navigate your personal OneDrive* accounts. It comes with two free licenses. AKA you can connect two Microsoft accounts from Windows Explorer.

Issue🔗︎

The OneDrive client only allows one personal OneDrive account to be configured. For those of us with multiple accounts, to access other accounts, one would have to use a browser. For as long as I can remember, Microsoft provided the ability to share secondary accounts that would result in a folder being created inside the primary account with access to files in the secondary account.

Back in the spring, Microsoft decided to disable this incredibly useful functionality, resulting in a shortcut that did nothing more than open a browser. It didn't even include single-sign on.

Following the rather strange restriction of only one personal account in the client (considering multiple business accounts can be added), it would make sense that Microsoft deliberately turned it off. Microsoft probably think users create multiple OneDrive accounts rather than paying for extra storage. It hasn't crossed their mind that users may have multiple accounts for many other reasons. Microsoft have been very quite on the subject with a brief comment suggesting that the lose of the feature was accidental and they're looking into the bug. We all know Microsoft are not the most honest or the fastest to fix issues, but come on, it's been 5 months now!

There are multiple post on the subject, this being one of the most active with the OP creating daily Tweets on Microsoft's channel.

Solution🔗︎

I appreciate not everyone has a QNAP NAS

, but with the plethora of apps available, owners might not realise "there's an app for that". It's called HybridMount and it can help one access multiple cloud storage accounts. The File Cloud Gateway mode is a cache, essentially synchronising your cloud files. I keeps a "stub" (a link to the actual file) until you need the file. In "File Cloud Gateway" mode, one can access files through Windows explorer.

It's easy to set up, so I won't go into detail, but to access the files from Windows Explorer, it must be in "File Cloud Gateway" mode.

If you can't see the new shares in Windows Explorer (Network), make sure you've set the correct permissions in Control Panel > Shared Folders.

Note

Not all of QNAP's apps work on all their devices.

There are software packages out there than can achieve the same functionality.

Admin share — Control Panel > Shared Folders