Does the question in the title seem familiar to you? Have you ever wondered how to open a SharePoint folder in File Explorer or what are the advantages of using File Explorer to open SharePoint folders? You're not the only one who thinks this way! Many individuals, like myself, find File Explorer to be more convenient than the SharePoint interface. So in today's blog, we're going back to the fundamentals of SharePoint.
We'll go through what SharePoint is, what you need to know about it, how to open SharePoint folders and files using File Explorer on Windows, and why you should use it instead of the SharePoint web interface in this exploratory blog.
What is Sharepoint?
Microsoft SharePoint is a website-building platform used by businesses. It may be used to store, organize, share, and access information from any device in a secure manner. A web browser, such as Microsoft Edge, Internet Explorer, Chrome, or Firefox, is all you need.
SharePoint is a cloud-based content collaboration and management platform that may let your team work remotely, collaborate more effectively, and work smarter. SharePoint is a document management platform that encourages team communication no matter where they are in the world, and it is used by over 80% of Fortune 500 enterprises.
How To Open SharePoint Folder In File Explorer?
I am used to working with File explorer to handle tasks like moving, copying, and deleting Files and Folders. SharePoint interface is sometimes very confusing.
We get the best of both worlds by utilizing SharePoint to store our data and File Explorer to access it more conveniently. There are minor steps we need to complete, but it is well worth it.
I want to make it clear that this technique might not work in Chrome and other browsers. You will have to use Internet Explorer Or Edge to perform the steps.
1. Go to the SharePoint site which you want to access in Internet Explorer.
2. Copy the address from Internet Explorer's address bar, starting at the beginning and ending with the slash character next to Shared Documents. The link should appear as seen below. Every SharePoint configuration will have a different '---' part.
https://---.sharepoint.com/sites/---/Shared%20Documents/
That's all. You can now move, copy and delete files as you would normally work with folders and files on your local drive.
For easy access, you can map the SharePoint location and assign a drive letter to it.
How to map a SharePoint site in File Explorer
To map the SharePoint site in File Explorer, follow the below steps.
1. With SharePoint Folder open in File Explorer, click on Easy access dropdown in Home Tab
2. Click on Map as drive.
3. Next, you have to select the Drive Letter from the dropdown and click on Finish in the below dialog box. The folder field would have the SharePoint Path entered automatically. If not, you could browse and enter it manually.
4. Once you click Finish, you would see the newly mapped drive in the 'This PC' folder.
That's it.
Sometimes, you might encounter issues while mapping the SharePoint folder to a drive letter.
5. Click on Add button and then the Close button. Try to map the Share Point site now.
In some organizations these settings are controlled by IT Teams, in that case, you may have to ask them to configure it for you.
Hope it helped:
Once the library has been mapped, File Explorer provides a familiar, convenient interface that gives you rapid access to your information. It also supports drag-and-drop uploading, copying, and relocating (even between libraries), which isn't possible with SharePoint in the browser.
When you open a file in File Explorer, it opens in its native program rather than downloading the file to be opened later, as SharePoint does with zip files.
.jpg "Linking to Bookmark in Word Document Saved on SharePoint")
