How to share and unshare files and folders on Microsoft OneDrive

Microsoft OneDrive is built into Windows these days and it provides online storage that enables you to share files and folders. Sharing them is easy, but how do you unshare items? Let’s see.

Files and folders folders can be shared on OneDrive and you may have a ready-made Public folder designed for just that, but you need to think twice before using it or you could unintentionally share more than you intended.

Additional folders can be shared and you can also share individual files. Shared files are handy when you need to send someone a large file and you don’t want to attach it to an email, you can just send a link. They can then download the file from your OneDrive online storage or even edit it online if it is an Office document. Sharing Microsoft Office documents on OneDrive is great for collaborating with work colleagues.

Sharing files and folders is straightforward, but you may have difficulty working out how to stop sharing. How do you unshare a file or folder when there is no menu option to do it? Let’s take a look at creating a shared folder or file and see how it works.

By the way, did you know that the free storage on OneDrive is just 5 GB for new users, but if you are a long-time user and have taken advantage of various offers, you could have up to 50 GB for free?

Create a folder on OneDrive

Click the New button and select Folder on the menu. We will turn this into a shared folder, but you can also create a file to be shared and the following steps work just the same.

Share a file or folder on OneDrive

Select a folder or file and click the three dots to display a menu and select Share. Alternatively, when a file or folder is selected, a Share button in the menu bar at the top appears.

Share options on OneDrive

Allow editing: This option enables people to edit shared files on OneDrive and this is useful if you and a colleague or friend are working on the same document. Clear it to prevent anyone changing a file on OneDrive.

Set expiry date: When this box is clear, a file or folder is shared forever. If you have a paid Office 365 account then you can set an expiry date for the share. You could limit it to a week for example and then automatically stop sharing it.

Set password: Free OneDrive accounts cannot set a password for shared items, but Office 365 users can. This is very useful for limiting who can access a shared file to only those you give the password. If you have a free account, use a zip utility to create a password-protected zip file and share that on OneDrive.

Copy the link

Click Get a link to get a link to the file or folder that you can then send to someone or share on the web or in an email. Copy it to the clipboard and then paste it wherever you want to share it.

Get file/folder info on OneDrive

Suppose you forget what the link is or some time later, want to share the file with someone else and need the link again. Select the shared folder or file on OneDrive and then click the i button in the top right corner to open the details panel. Right clicking a file/folder also enables the details panel to be opened.

Click the link button or Manage access below.

Stop sharing a file on OneDrive

The link to the folder or file is displayed. To copy it, click in the box and (press Ctrl+A to select everything if necessary) then Ctrl+C to copy it.

It is not obvious how to unshare a folder or file on OneDrive, but all you do is click the cross at the right side of the link.

Shared folders share everything

Any shared folder you create yourself on OneDrive or the Public folder can be accessed by anyone. They do need to know this link and it cannot be guessed, which prevents access to a degree, but are you sure whoever you share the link with will not then share it with other people? You might share it with a friend who then shares it with their friend and so on. Pretty soon it is widely known.

Any files that are added to a shared folder or the Public folder are themselves shared. For this reason it is not a good idea to share a link to a shared folder. If the share link gets out, anyone can access any of the files the folder contains.

Instead, you should select a file in the shared folder and get a link for it. Share the link to that one file, not the whole folder.

Here there are two links for a file. This is because a shareable link was created for the file so it could be given to people who need access. The file is also in a folder, Public, which is shared, so anyone with the link to the folder can also access the file. It is worth bearing in mind that people other than the intended person can access a file that is in a shared folder.