Summary

A SharePoint document library can appear in File Explorer alongside your own files, so you open team documents without a browser. There are two buttons that do this and they produce very different results. This article explains both, shows you which to use, covers Teams channel files, and shows how to remove a library again without deleting a thing from SharePoint.

In this guide

• 1. Understand the Two Buttons Before You Click Either
• 2. Add a Shortcut to My Files — the Recommended Route
• 3. Sync a Library the Classic Way
• 4. Sync the Files from a Teams Channel
• 5. Remove a Library from File Explorer
• 6. Before You Sync a Very Large Library

Before You Start

• A Microsoft 365 work or school account with at least read access to the SharePoint site.
• The OneDrive sync client signed in with that same account. It is pre-installed on Windows 11 and Windows 10 and shows as a cloud icon in the notification area at the bottom right of the taskbar.
• No admin rights required. Some organisations disable one of the two buttons — Step 1 says how to tell.

Instructions

1. Understand the Two Buttons Before You Click Either

Both buttons sit on the command bar across the top of a SharePoint library. Clicking the wrong one is the single biggest cause of duplicated, confusing file trees, so spend thirty seconds here first.

	Add shortcut to My files	Sync
Where it lands in File Explorer	Inside OneDrive - Contoso, as a folder with a small link badge — at the root, or inside a Shortcuts folder if you send it there	A separate top-level entry named Contoso, below your OneDrive
Set-up needed on your other computers	None — it appears on its own	You repeat it on every machine
Visible in OneDrive on the web and mobile	Yes, under My files	No
What it downloads up front	Nothing — files arrive as online-only placeholders	Nothing, with Files On-Demand on, but the folder structure is rebuilt locally
Counts against your OneDrive quota	No	No
Removing it	Right-click the folder and select Remove shortcut	Stop sync in OneDrive settings

Use Add shortcut to My files. It is the option Microsoft now recommends, and the reasons are practical rather than cosmetic:

• It follows you. The shortcut is stored in your OneDrive account, not in the sync settings of one PC. Sign in to a new laptop and the library is already there.
• It keeps one file tree. Everything sits under your OneDrive entry instead of a second parallel tree that looks like a duplicate of your work.
• It does not re-download anything. The shortcut arrives as online-only placeholders, so a 400 GB library costs you no disk space until you open a file.
• It works in the browser and on your phone, because OneDrive on the web shows the same shortcut.

Stay with Sync in three specific cases: an application needs the library at a fixed local path it can handle, your organisation has turned shortcuts off, or you have hit the cap on how many shortcuts one account can hold.

Note: On older tenants the button reads Add shortcut to OneDrive rather than Add shortcut to My files. It is the same feature and behaves identically — Microsoft renamed the label when OneDrive on the web moved to a My files heading.

2. Add a Shortcut to My Files — the Recommended Route

1. Open the SharePoint site in your browser and click the document library in the left navigation — usually named Documents.
2. If you want only part of the library, click the checkbox to the left of a single folder's name. Leave everything unselected to add the whole library.
3. Click Add shortcut to My files on the command bar across the top. On narrow windows it hides behind the three-dot menu (...) at the right of that bar.
4. A brief message appears at the top right confirming the shortcut was added, and the folder gains a small link badge on its icon in the library view.
5. Open File Explorer and click OneDrive - Contoso in the left sidebar. The library is listed there as a folder with a link badge, usually within a minute — or inside the Shortcuts folder if you sent it there.

Note: As of July 2026 you can send a shortcut to a dedicated Shortcuts folder rather than to your OneDrive root. OneDrive creates that folder the first time you use it and gives it a distinct colour and a building icon, and from then on it behaves like any other folder — move it, rename it, share it, or remove it whenever you like. It sits inside your OneDrive, so do not confuse it with the top-level organisation entry that Sync creates in Step 3, which also carries a building icon.

Verification: Double-click the new folder in File Explorer. The team's files are listed with blue cloud badges. Double-click one and it downloads and opens, and the badge turns into a green check.

Selecting a single subfolder in step 2 is worth knowing about. A department library with 90,000 files across 40 folders is far easier to work with when you shortcut only the two folders your project uses.

3. Sync a Library the Classic Way

Use this when Step 1 pointed you here.

1. Open the document library in your browser.
2. Click Sync on the command bar. A browser dialog asks for permission to open Microsoft OneDrive — click Open.
3. The OneDrive client takes over. If a Set up OneDrive window appears, sign in with the same work account you are using in the browser.
4. A window titled Your folder is syncing appears, showing the local path. Click Open my folder or close the window.
5. In File Explorer, look at the left sidebar. A new top-level entry named after your organisation appears with a building icon, and the library sits inside it at C:\Users\yourname\Contoso\Site name - Library name.

Note: Sync is a per-computer setting. On your second PC the library is absent until you repeat these steps there. This is the difference people notice weeks later, and it is why Step 1 recommends the shortcut instead.

If the sync opens under the wrong account, or you have both a personal and a work account signed in, see How to Use Personal and Work OneDrive on the Same Computer.

4. Sync the Files from a Teams Channel

Every Teams channel stores its files in a folder inside the team's SharePoint library, so the same two buttons apply.

1. Open Microsoft Teams and select the team, then the channel whose files you want.
2. Click the Files tab across the top of the channel.
3. Click Sync or Add shortcut to My files on the command bar above the file list. If neither is visible, click the three-dot menu (...) on that bar, or select Open in SharePoint and use the buttons in the browser instead.
4. The channel's folder — not the whole team library — appears in File Explorer under your OneDrive entry or under the organisation entry, depending on which button you clicked.

Two details that catch people out:

• Private and shared channels have their own SharePoint sites. Adding the standard channel does not bring their files with it. Repeat the steps in each private channel you need.
• Files posted in a Teams chat are not in SharePoint at all. They sit in the sender's OneDrive and cannot be synced this way. Understanding Where Your Files Live — OneDrive vs. SharePoint vs. Teams explains the split.

5. Remove a Library from File Explorer

Removing the entry disconnects this computer from the library. It deletes nothing from SharePoint, and no colleague sees any change.

To remove a shortcut added in Step 2:

1. Open File Explorer and click OneDrive - Contoso in the left sidebar. Open the Shortcuts folder if that is where you sent it.
2. Right-click the library folder with the link badge and select Remove shortcut.
3. A confirmation dialog explains that the files stay in their original location. Click Remove shortcut.
4. The folder disappears from File Explorer and from OneDrive on the web. The library itself is untouched in SharePoint.

To remove a library synced in Step 3:

1. Click the OneDrive cloud icon in the notification area, then the gear icon, then Settings.
2. Select Account in the left sidebar. Each synced library is listed under your account with its site name.
3. Click Stop sync beside the library you want to remove.
4. A dialog titled Stop syncing this folder? appears. Click Stop sync to confirm.
5. The entry disappears from the File Explorer sidebar.

Verification: Open the library in your browser. Every file is still listed, with its version history and permissions intact. That is what Stop sync and Remove shortcut leave behind — nothing changes in the cloud.

Stop sync sometimes leaves an empty or partly filled folder at C:\Users\yourname\Contoso\.... Those are the local copies of files you had already downloaded. Confirm the library is intact in the browser, then delete that leftover folder like any other local folder — the deletion stays on your PC and does not reach SharePoint.

6. Before You Sync a Very Large Library

The sync client keeps a local record of every item it tracks, and that record is what slows a computer down. Microsoft's supported ceiling is 300,000 items across everything you sync, and File Explorer starts feeling sluggish well below that.

Check the size before you commit:

1. Open the library in your browser and click Documents in the left navigation to see the root.
2. Click the three-dot menu (...) beside the library name and select Details to see the item count, or open Site contents from the site's left navigation, where each library lists its number of items.
3. Treat anything over roughly 50,000 items as a library to sample rather than sync whole.

What to do instead of syncing a huge library:

• Shortcut one subfolder. Select the folder you actually work in and use Add shortcut to My files on that folder alone (Step 2).
• Work in the browser. Opening documents from SharePoint in the browser needs no sync at all — see How to Manage Files in SharePoint Document Libraries.
• Keep Files On-Demand on. It is on by default and stops synced files consuming disk space until you open them. How to Use OneDrive Files On-Demand has the detail.
• Trim what you already sync. If several libraries and folders are competing for the client's attention, How to Choose Which OneDrive Folders Sync to Your Computer shows how to drop the ones you do not need.

Troubleshooting

WARNING

Syncing a library with tens of thousands of files slows the whole computer, not only OneDrive. Symptoms are a File Explorer that takes seconds to open a folder, constant disk activity, and a sync status stuck on Processing changes. Shortcut a single subfolder instead, as described in Step 6.

Symptom / Error	Potential Cause	Solution
The same library appears twice in File Explorer	It was both synced and shortcutted	Keep one. Use Stop sync on the organisation entry (Step 5) and keep the shortcut inside your OneDrive.
Add shortcut to My files is missing from the command bar	Older label, hidden overflow, or disabled by policy	Look for Add shortcut to OneDrive and check the three-dot menu (...). If neither appears, tell IT: "Please enable the Add shortcut to OneDrive option for our tenant."
"Adding this shortcut failed" or the button does nothing	Shortcut limit reached on the account	Remove shortcuts you no longer use with Remove shortcut (Step 5), then add the new one.
Sync sits on "Processing changes" for hours	Library too large, or a file is stuck	Check the item count (Step 6). If the library is small, work through How to Fix OneDrive Sync Problems — Pending, Stuck, or Files Not Uploading.
"The file name would be too long for the destination folder"	Combined path over the length limit	Shorten the folder names inside the library, or shortcut a subfolder so the local path starts deeper in the tree.
Files vanished from File Explorer after Stop sync	The entry was removed, as designed	Open the library in your browser — everything is there. Add it back with Add shortcut to My files (Step 2).
The library synced under the wrong account	Two accounts signed in to the client	Stop sync, confirm which account the browser session is using, then sync again — see How to Use Personal and Work OneDrive on the Same Computer.

Related Articles

• Understanding Where Your Files Live — OneDrive vs. SharePoint vs. Teams
• How to Manage Files in SharePoint Document Libraries
• How to Choose Which OneDrive Folders Sync to Your Computer
• How to Use Personal and Work OneDrive on the Same Computer
• How to Use OneDrive Files On-Demand
• How to Fix OneDrive Sync Problems — Pending, Stuck, or Files Not Uploading
• How to Manage Your OneDrive and SharePoint Storage Quota
• Understanding Network Drives vs. Cloud Storage — Where to Save Your Files

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