[Fixed] You’re Already Syncing a Shortcut to a Folder from This Shared Library

User case

Quick navigation:

• Overview of Add shortcut to OneDrive tool
• Step-by-step guide to fix OneDrive unable to sync shortcut
• Extra tip: A more flexible way to sync folders to OneDrive

Overview of Add shortcut to OneDrive tool

✐ What does Add shortcut to OneDrive work?

“Add shortcut to OneDrive” is a convenient service that OneDrive offers to its users. Allowing users to add shortcuts to work or personal shared folders, it makes finding the currently used shared files a quick and easy task.

When someone shares a folder in Microsoft OneDrive, SharePoint or Teams, they can add a shortcut to the shared folder in OneDrive to easily find and handle the file.

✐ Why will this error line occur?

When you try to create a shortcut to one of the folders in your SharePoint site using Add shortcut to OneDrive tool, you may get the error message “Sorry, we can't sync this folder, you're already syncing a shortcut to a folder from this shared library”. The message indicates that there is already a sync task to that folder in OneDrive for Business, so you cannot sync the shortcut. Cause the two sync tasks cannot process at the same time.

✐ Differences: add shortcut to OneDrive vs sync

OneDrive Sync: You can sync your Microsoft SharePoint files (library) to a folder on your computer by the OneDrive client. This lets you work directly in File Explorer and access files even when you're offline. And when you go back online, any changes made to those files will sync automatically.

Add shortcut to OneDrive: With this feature in SharePoint, you can sync your Microsoft SharePoint files (library) to your OneDrive. You could access the SharePoint library in OneDrive directly. Also, if you use the OneDrive application, you could see the library folder in File Explorer.

Helpful tip: When using Add shortcuts to OneDrive and OneDrive Sync, you need to be aware that while both features are unique and beneficial in their own way, using them at the same time will create big headaches for you. So you’d better not use them simultaneously, otherwise, you will be in a mess.

Step-by-step guide to fix OneDrive unable to sync shortcut

If you add an OneDrive shortcut to a SharePoint Online (library) folder and at the same time there are no folders in that document library being synced, then this issue does not occur. However, if you try to sync a folder in that document library, OneDrive reports an error and the sync fails because you are already syncing a shortcut to a folder in that shared library. Obviously, the two can't be done at the same time. The solution is simple, you just need to go back to OneDrive for Business and delete the offending shortcut, and then the problem is solved. Here are the steps on how to do it.

1. On OneDrive website page, you can see the shortcut is listed under “My files”.

2. Locate the shortcut version of the file/folder (you will see a chain icon by folders or files that have shortcuts).

3. Select the folder shortcut you would want to delete, click Remove.

4. Once OneDrive has successfully deleted the shortcut, you can try to resync a folder.

Quick fix

There is a quick fix for you to easily tackle this problem.

1. Use your browser to go to the library in question and try “Add a shortcut to OneDrive”. It may say that you have a link to an existing folder within the library and ask if you want to replace it - select Replace.

2. Then, click on the link it provides for the new shortcut and delete it. You may have to wait a minute for it to sync, but once OneDrive has removed the shortcut from your computer, you'll be able to sync a shortcut to a folder in library again.

Extra tip: A more flexible way to sync folders to OneDrive

You cannot use the OneDrive Sync option along with a shortcut to the same folder. If you want to switch from one method to the other, you will need to either appropriately remove the shortcut or unsync the folder.

Such a conflict may cause you inconvenience at work and in life - you can't use both functions at the same time to complete synchronization of files in time. In this case, you can ask help from the best free file transfer tool to easily solve your dilemma, and that is AOMEI Backupper Standard.

With its assistance, when you use shortcut function to sync folders, you no longer have to worry about other files on OneDrive not being able to be synced, which delays your process or causes loss. And there are some of its powerful features listed below.

✮ It can support you to sync files/folders to multiple paths, such as internal/external hard drives, NAS devices, USB drives, clouds (OneDrive, Google Drive, Dropbox, etc.). Syncing folders between computers is also available.
✮ It has plenty of powerful features such as Email Notification, Schedule Sync, Verify the integrity of files in destination during synchronization.
✮ You can set up automatic sync of files at a daily, weekly, monthly, event triggers (paid), or USB plug in (paid) frequency so that some changes won’t missing.

Now, let’s start to sync files to OneDrive automatically with AOMEI Backupper Standard. Just click the button below to securely download this software (FREE) on your PC to have a try.

Step 1. When you boot into the main page, click Sync and then Basic sync.

Tip: You can see in the above picture, there are 3 other sync types for you to choose: Real-Time Sync, Mirror Sync, Two-Way Sync. If you want changes to be synced from the source folder to the destination folder and vice versa, you can upgrade to Professional version to enjoy it.

Step 2. Click Add Folder to choose files or folders to sync to OneDrive.

Step 3. Click the inverted triangle and Select a cloud drive. And in the pop-up window, choose OneDrive as the target path.

Step 4. Click Start Sync to complete this sync task easily.

Conclusion

That’s all about how to cope with the “Sorry, we can't sync this folder, you're already syncing a shortcut to a folder from this shared library” error with just several steps. This error is caused by OneDrive sync and syncing shortcuts at the same time. If you still want to enable the two features simultaneously, you can rely on the best free OneDrive sync tool, which can also help you deal with OneDrive stop syncing Documents folder.

Meanwhile, there are many other wonderful features such as backup, restore, clone, etc. waiting for you to explore. So why not try it now?