Applies ToOneDrive for Business OneDrive (home or personal) OneDrive for Mac OneDrive for Windows

If you cannot share OneDrive files it could be because:

  • You have reached your sharing limits.

  • We need to validate your account.

  • The item is in your Personal Vault.

  • OneDrive is not running.

  • Your organization has disabled or restricted it.

  • You can't share to specifc people who don't have a Microsoft account.

Sharing is limited in basic or "storage only" OneDrive.

Limits reset after 24 hours, but you can upgrade to a Premium subscription to get increased sharing limits and more sharing features.

If you are having issues sending sharing emails, this might be due to validation issues with your Microsoft Account.

  1. Go to https://account.live.com/reputationcheck to validate your Microsoft Account.

  2. Ensure your Microsoft Account profile is up-to-date and complete. Make sure you accept the Terms Of Use, if requested.

Items in your Personal Vault are private and can't be shared.

If you want to share, you must move your content to a folder outside your Personal Vault and share it from there.

If the OneDrive desktop app is installed on your computer, you should see the Share option when you right-click a file or folder in Explorer.

Explorer right-click menu showing OneDrive share command

If OneDrive is not running or the desktop app is not installed, you will not be able to share from File Explorer or Finder.

You can still share OneDrive files and folders from onedrive.com

  1. If you don't see the OneDrive icons on the taskbar or notification area, launch OneDrive.

  2. Windows users should select the OneDrive app with the folder icon:  OneDrive desktop app from start menu

    If you don't see this version, read Which OneDrive app? for more information.

Viewing online

If you sign in with a work or school account, your organization may have disabled the OneDrive web Sharing views or disabled the Anyone with the link option to prevent usable links being forwarded to others:

OneDrive web link settings

You can still create and share a link, but only people in your organization will have access to it.

Viewing on a desktop

If the OneDrive desktop app is installed on your computer, you should see the Share option when you right-click a file or folder in Explorer.

Explorer right-click menu showing OneDrive share command

If the Share option has been greyed out, or is missing from the right-click context menu, your organization's admins may have restricted the feature.

Admins can change the User Account Control policies to allow OneDrive context menus.

See also

How to share OneDrive files and folders

Share files in OneDrive for Android

Share files in OneDrive for iOS

Need more help?

Contact support icon

Contact Support For help with your Microsoft account and subscriptions, visit Account & Billing Help.

For technical support, go to Contact Microsoft Support, enter your problem and select Get Help. If you still need help, select Contact Support to be routed to the best support option.

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Admins Admins should view Help for OneDrive Admins, the OneDrive Tech Community or contact Microsoft 365 for business support.

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