Attach Onedrive File To Outlook

I'm trying to attach a Onedrive file link to an Outlook email. This is not the same as the.Attachments.Add method, where the file gets attached as a copy. The file needs to be shared as a link that the recipients can edit. This can be done manually, but trying to automate for a large number of emails to be sent this way. Attach a link to a picture, file or folder from your OneDrive Reply, Forward or create a new email message or calendar event. Select Attach then Browse cloud locations. Choose the file from your OneDrive or other cloud storage you want to link to and select Next. Open the Outlook Desktop program on your Windows computer. Click New Email. In the To: field, add all users that you would like to share OneDrive files with. Click Attach File. Click Browse Web Locations. Select OneDrive - University of Connecticut. In the File Explorer window, select the file you wish to share. In Outlook 2016, select File Options General. In the Attachment options section, select the default state for the attachments that you choose in OneDrive or SharePoint from the following options: Ask me how I want to attach them every time (By default) Always share them as links.

Whenever I attach a file that is located within my OneDrive folder on my computer, it is being attached as a OneDrive link with a cloud icon and not as an actual file attachment.

This also happens when I select a file via “Browse This PC…” and then select my locally cached OneDrive folder.

How can I configure Outlook so that it always attaches my files as actual attachments and not as a link to the file on OneDrive?

Outlook has the option that allows you to send people links to files that you have stored in the Cloud like OneDrive Personal, OneDrive for Business or a corporate SharePoint server.

Sending a link instead of the actual file has several benefits such as keeping the email smaller and making sure that people are always using the latest version of the file.

Of course there are valid reasons to still send an actual file instead of a link.

While you can change the default, there are also various workarounds available when you want to remain flexible with how you are sending attachments.

Solution: Attachment options

If you do not like the default attaching behavior for files stored on OneDrive or SharePoint, you can luckily choose from 3 options;

  • Ask me how I want to attach them every time.
  • Always share them as links.
  • Always share them as copies.

You can set this option via;

  • File-> Options-> General-> Attachment options


Set your default online attachment behavior.

Note: When using Outlook 2016 (MSI), you may not have this option available to you. In that case, you can still use any of the workarounds below.

Workaround 1: Attach as Copy

Attach Onedrive File To Outlook

A quick way to convert a Cloud Attachment into an actual attachment is to attach the file as usual and then click the down arrow next to the attachment. This opens a dropdown menu from which you can choose: Attach as Copy.

After choosing this command, Outlook will download the latest version of the file from OneDrive and attach it to your email.


Convert a OneDrive attachment into an actual attachment.

Note: The above option is not available when using OneDrive for Business (SharePoint).

When you are composing in Plain Text format, you’ll get prompted how you want to attach the file when selecting a file that is located on OneDrive or other Cloud based storage;


Converting a OneDrive attachment when composing in Plain Text.

Workaround 2: Copy & Paste

To bypass the need to select “Attach a Copy” and download the file, you can use the Attach File method to browse to the file as you’d normally do but instead of selecting the file and pressing the Open button, select the file and press CTRL+C to copy the file. You can then press Cancel to close the Attach File dialog.

Once returned to the message, press CTRL+V to paste the file as an actual attachment to your message.

This method also works for OneDrive for Business.

Workaround 3: Drag & Drop from File Explorer

Yet another way to include actual attachments instead of OneDrive links is to attach the file via Drag & Drop from a File Explorer window.

This might sound complicated, but it is actually quite easy.

  1. Create and type your email as you’d normally do until you are ready to add an attachment.
  2. Open a File Explorer window (keyboard shortcut: Windows key + E).
  3. Browse to the file that you want to attach.
  4. Click and hold down your mouse button on the file.
  5. Move your mouse cursor within the message body of the email that you are creating and release the mouse button; The file will now show up as an actual attachment.

I use this method quite a lot as attaching a file via the regular method basically does nothing more than opening a smaller File Explorer window and I often already have a File Explorer window open at the file’s location when I just finished editing the file that I want to send.


Attaching files via the drag & drop method will always create actual attachments even when you are dragging from a OneDrive folder.

File

Workaround 4: Use the classic Attach File button

As the first method is relatively slow (especially when attaching multiple files) and the drag & drop method might not be as convenient for everyone, there is also a way to bring back the “classic” Attach File button that isn’t “Cloud aware” at all.

When you use this Attach File button, you will always add the file as an actual attachment and never as a link to OneDrive or any other Cloud based storage.

You can add the command to the Quick Access Toolbar in the following way;

  1. File-> Options-> Quick Access Toolbar
  2. Set the “Choose commands from” dropdown list to: All Commands.
  3. Select the “Attach File” command.
    • Make sure you do not select the “Attach File…” command as that is the new menu button.
  4. Press the “Add > > “ button.
  5. Press OK to close the Options dialog and return to Outlook.
  6. When you also want to add this command to the QAT of the Message Compose window or the Appointment/Meeting window, then create a new message or Calendar item and repeat step 1 to 5.


Adding the classic Attach File command to the QAT.

You can add the classic Attach File button to the Ribbon as well. You must then choose “Customize Ribbon” in the Options dialog and create a new Group first before you can add the command to the Ribbon tab of your choice. For detailed instructions see: Adding commands to the Home or Message tab of the Ribbon.

SharePoint is all about sharing and collaboration (hey, the word “Share” is right in its name), so naturally, you will want to email and share documents stored in SharePoint and OneDrive with your colleagues and external parties. There are quite a few ways to do this, so here are your options, as well as pros and cons of each method.

Option 1: Download a file, send as an attachment

This is the method we are all accustomed to, as we have been attaching and emailing things for quite some time. Before you attach files to your email, you will need to download them first from a SharePoint document library.

Pros:

  • That’s how we did this for the last 20 years.

Cons:

  • The biggest disadvantage is that if you need to share multiple files, you might run into size limitations with your email client
  • Another big issue is that by sharing files via attachments, you inadvertently create another revision of the file that might be out of sync with your master one stored in SharePoint
  • Too many clicks

Option 2. Sync a library via OneDrive Sync, then attach from your synced library

If you want to save time with the “Download” step from the previous method, you can synchronize a document library to your desktop and then just drag and drop files to your email from your synced OneDrive.

Pros:

  • A bit of a timesaver as you don’t need to download multiple files – they are all there ready for you on your computer.

Cons:

  • Same as with Option 1.

Option 3: Share a file directly from SharePoint

If you want to make it to the 21st century, you can share a file directly from SharePoint Document Library or your OneDrive, without downloading or attaching it to an email. I have documented the steps and also explained this feature in great detail in this post.

Pros:

  • No need to download any files or go to Outlook – share directly from SharePoint or OneDrive
  • Great from versioning/revision standpoint. Even after you email the file and then make a change to it – the recipient will still get the latest and greatest version, as the link with stay the same
  • If you need to share multiple files – you can share whole folder and all of its contents in the same fashion
  • When sharing, you can specify whether you want to grant the recipient just the ability to view or also the ability to edit a file – great from collaboration perspective – no need to track versions or changes like with file attachments.

Cons:

  • Need to share multiple times if content being shared is not located in the same library
  • Some people like to originate their emails from within the Outlook client and not via Sharing screen

Option 4: Copy link from SharePoint or OneDrive and paste into email

Another great option to share files is via sharing URLs to the files. This post explains this feature explicitly.

Pros:

  • Same as with the previous option
  • Addresses the previous method’s limitation of using Outlook – by grabbing file URL, you can go to your Outlook or another favorite email client and author your email from there
  • Great for anonymous sharing (as long as your SharePoint external sharing has been configured accordingly)
Attach onedrive file to outlook 365

Cons:

  • Same as with previous option
  • Every time you share a file or copy link, it creates unique permissions for the file. Might get little wild with all the sharing, so proper governance is important.

Option 5: Share directly from Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and OneNote

This option is similar to the above method, except you initiate your sharing right from within MS Office applications. This works for both browser and desktop versions of Word, Excel, PowerPoint and OneNote.

Sharing from within Word Online

Sharing from within Word Desktop

Option 6. Attach files from Outlook Web Mail

You can also attach a file from Outlook web mail. This only works in browser-based Outlook email, it works differently in your desktop Outlook client (more on that in the next option). When you attach a file from within Outlook web mail, you can grab files either from your OneDrive or Office 365 Groups document libraries. Once you specify the file(s) you want to attach, it then gives you an option to handle attachment as “attachments” or live links to the files (same as Copy Link above).

Pros

  • Smooth way to attach files if you are working in Outlook Web mail

Cons

  • As of writing of this post, you can only attach files from OneDrive and Office 365 Groups, not other types of SharePoint sites

Option 7: Attach SharePoint Documents from Outlook Client

I saved the best for last. Let’s face it – all the above options are great, but they require us to change the behavior, and who likes that? 🙂 We live and breath in Outlook for the whole day. So here is how to attach SharePoint files in Outlook desktop app:

How Do I Attach Onedrive Files To Outlook

  1. In your Outlook, click on Attach File, then Browse This PC
  2. In the window that pops up, we have to choose the attachment from our PC. However, instead, let’s go ahead and paste the URL to the document library where you want to attach files from. Go ahead and copy the URL, Make sure you only copy the URL fo library itself, not the whole path to a specific view
  3. Your document library files and folders will now appear in the window.
  4. Just navigate to the file you want to attach and click Insert
  5. The file will now be attached to an email

Credit: This last tip is courtesy of Darrell Webster and his great video tutorial

Pros

Attach Onedrive File To Outlook Mac

  • I personally think this is awesome!

Attach File From Onedrive To Outlook On Ipad

Cons

Attach Onedrive File To Outlook

  • I don’t see many, other than you need to grab URL of your SharePoint Document Library first