How to access your Microsoft Teams folders in Windows File Explorer?

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Here’s a question from Betty:

Our organization uses Microsoft Teams pretty extensively and pretty much for every work group i am part of we have a dedicated Team for online collaboration, group chat and file sharing. One query i had was relative to accessing my Teams files more easily. Today, whenever i need to modify a file which is available on our Teams folder, i first need to access Teams and look for the file. I would rather map the file to a drive (cloud or local) on File Explorer. Any idea how to do that. If it helps i have Microsoft Windows 10 and OneDrive for Business installed on my laptop. Any ideas are very appreciated!

Thanks for the question, here we go with our answer.

Show Teams folder on File Explorer

Please follow this step-by-step process to map your relevant Microsoft Teams folders on File Explorer.

  • First off, login to Microsoft Teams and access your relevant Channel.
  • From the upper menu hit the Files tab.
  • Then hit the Open on SharePoint button as shown below
  • You’ll now be shown the SharePoint site that hosts all files related to your Team.
  • Now go ahead and hit the Sync button. This will go ahead and sync your channel files into your computer and make them available for access via the File Explorer.
  • If prompted, authorize SharePoint to interact with OneDrive.
  • Your files synchronization will take a few moments depending on the number of files and your network speed.
  • Now open your File Explorer (hit the Windows button + E) note that you’ll see an icon pointing to a new folder named after your Organization. You’ll find the new icon below your OneDrive shortcut.

Add a Shortcut to Teams files stored on SharePoint

Another possible solution is to simply create a shortcut from your OneDrive for Business to the Teams files stored in SharePoint. Process is quite simple:

  • Access your Teams Channel SharePoint Page as shown above.
  • Hit Add shortcut to One Drive.
  • A shortcut named after your Channel and Team will be available under My Files in One Drive.
  • Files will be synced into One Drive as per your synchronization settings / schedule.

Note that you can also easily add a link tour Teams files from your Desktop.

Remove Teams folder from File Explorer

If you want to remove the Teams folder from Explorer, you need to first ensure it’s not syncing any longer.

  • Open your OneDrive application (from your system tray in the right hand side of your taskbar).
  • Alternatively hit Windows +S to open Windows Search, and then type OneDrive followed by enter.
  • On OneDrive, hit Help and Settings.
  • Then hit Settings.
  • Then navigate to the Account tab.
  • Last, go ahead and hit Stop Sync next to the relevant Teams channel your would like to un-sync.
  • If you have no other folders left to un-sync, you’ll be prompted to un-link your account from OneDrive.

Map SharePoint folder to File Explorer

To add a SharePoint folder or list to File explorer, so you can easily access them as needed, proceed as following:

  • Navigate to your SharePoint library.
  • From the upper bar, hit on Sync.
  • The folder library from SharePoint will be replicated to your Computer and available under your organization’s name.
  • Any changes will be synced into the SharePoint library.