Restrictions and limitations in OneDrive and SharePoint
This article contains information about the restrictions and limitations that apply to file names and file types when syncing with OneDrive for home, OneDrive for work or school or SharePoint in Microsoft 365.
Certain characters have special meanings when used in file names in OneDrive, SharePoint, Windows and macOS, such as “*” for wildcards, and “\” in file name paths. If a file or folder you’re trying to upload to OneDrive contains any of the characters listed below, it may prevent files and folders from syncing. Rename the file or folder to remove these characters before you upload it.
Characters that aren’t allowed in file and folder names in OneDrive for home, OneDrive for work or school and SharePoint in Microsoft 365:
” * : < > ? / \ |
Leading and trailing spaces in file or folder names also aren’t allowed.
These names aren’t allowed for files or folders: .lock, CON, PRN, AUX, NUL, COM0 – COM9, LPT0 – LPT9, _vti_, desktop.ini, any filename starting with ~$.
Notes:
“_vti_” cannot appear anywhere in a file name
“forms” isn’t supported when the folder is at the root level for a library.
You can’t create a folder name in SharePoint that begins with a tilde (~).
Temporary TMP files will not be synced to OneDrive.
Files that are used by your local computer, such as desktop.ini on Windows or .ds_store on macOS, don’t normally sync. If these files do get uploaded to OneDrive during a migration, the sync app will delete the cloud copy and leave the local copy.
Outlook .PST files are supported, however they are synced less frequently compared to other file types to reduce network traffic.
If you are a OneDrive for work or school user, some file types may be blocked on your organization’s SharePoint site. The list of blocked files will vary depending on your administrator.
For security reasons, a number of file names and extensions can’t be uploaded since they are executable, used by SharePoint Server, or used by Windows itself.
You can’t add a network or mapped drive as your OneDrive sync location. OneDrive doesn’t support syncing using symbolic links or junction points.
OneDrive can’t be run with elevated privileges, and you will not be able to see OneDrive menu items within File Explorer.
There is a limit of 50,000 items that can be shared within a folder and any sub-folders.
To overcome this restriction, move some items into another folder that is not within the original folder, or choose individual files to share.
You can’t synchronize the Shared with me view grouping of files from a OneDrive for work or school site.
You may receive this error message when trying to share to an address that is not associated with a Microsoft account.
There is a limit to the number of accounts that can be signed in and syncing: each device may only have a maximum of 1 OneDrive for home account and 9 OneDrive for work or school work or school accounts.
Synchronizing content using an external or guest user is currently not supported by OneDrive.
Authenticated proxies aren’t supported in OneDrive.
If you see the error message “Your proxy settings require authentication” or the error code 0x8004de42 when trying to sign in to OneDrive, please check you are not using an authenticated proxy to connect to OneDrive.
OneNote notebooks have their own sync mechanism outside of OneDrive. If you plan on sharing a OneNote notebook—with yourself or others—it’s best to create it on OneDrive right from the start. Moving an existing OneNote notebook into a folder synced by OneDrive without going through the OneNote application is not currently supported.
Once a OneNote notebook is saved in OneDrive, if you are syncing the folder that contains the notebook, you will find a stub .url file, which will open the notebook on the website.
OneNote notebooks saved in OneDrive or SharePoint are limited to 2GB.