Problems Solved
Q
Having followed one of your earlier tips to share files copied to my Onedrive folder, I’ve been experiencing intermittent problems with the system. When I right-click and then choose the ‘Share a Onedrive Link’ option, sometimes it works but sometimes it doesn’t. On the occasions when it won’t work, Windows pops up with a message that says the link could not be created, as “some of these items can’t be shared right now” (see screenshot bottom right). This message also says to try again in a few minutes. To be fair to Microsoft, after a few minutes it does usually work. However, sometimes I have to wait an hour or more. This is frustrating, because I take lots of photos and videos that I like to share with friends and family. Do you have any idea what’s going on here, or how to make it so that I don’t have to wait to share stuff? My PC runs Windows 10, by the way.
Benjamin Smith
A
Yes, this is the message Onedrive displays when the selected file or files are still uploading to Microsoft’s servers. To create a download link for you to share with others, Onedrive requires that files are fully uploaded – otherwise the recipient might end up clicking a link for stuff that’s not actually ready to download. So, even though a file has been copied into the Onedrive folder on your PC, it might still be making its way to the Onedrive server.
How long a file takes to fully upload depends on both the size of the file and the speed of your internet connection. For example, while a single photo might take just moments to upload, it could be hours before the entirety of a very large video completes uploading.
So, that explains why you’re seeing this message only intermittently: it’s simply that some files are still uploading when you right-click to use the ‘Share a Onedrive Link’ option. You can see Onedrive’s upload progress by hovering your mouse pointer over the app’s icon in the notification area, at the far left of the taskbar at the bottom of the Windows desktop (see screenshot middle).
Unfortunately, there’s not a whole lot that you can do to prevent this. If you’re sharing a lot of very large files then you could consider upgrading your internet service to a faster package. However, be warned that because of the way most services are configured, upload speeds are almost always significantly slower than downloads – so upgrading to a ‘faster’ service might not help much.
However, one thing to check is that Onedrive is set to upload at the maximum speed enabled by your internet connection. First, right-click the app’s notification area icon, then choose Settings. Now select the Network tab and then, under ‘Upload rate’, choose the ‘Don’t limit’ option (see screenshot top).