Skip to main content
< All Articles

How to favorite files in SharePoint and OneDrive

Posted on September 5, 2023
SharePoint

I have been waiting to write this post for such a long time. Honestly, I do not know why it took so long to have this feature available in SharePoint. The feature I am talking about is the ability to favorite files. Whether you find a file in your OneDrive for Business account or any SharePoint document library, you can now “favorite” it for easy access. So, in this quick post, I would like to explain this feature on how to favorite files in SharePoint and OneDrive.

How to favorite files in SharePoint and OneDrive

  1. Navigate to any SharePoint document library or your own OneDrive for Business, then right-click next to the file you want to favorite and choose Favorite.favorite files in SharePoint
  2. You will then get a confirmation messagefavorite files in SharePoint

Where do the favorite files show up?

Once you favorite the files in SharePoint document libraries or OneDrive, they appear under the Favorites tab within your OneDrive for Business.

favorite files in SharePoint

Important Notes

  • You can only favorite files, not folders
  • Favorite files only show up in OneDrive for Business on the Web, not within the synchronized version of OneDrive

Other ways to favorite files and folders

As mentioned earlier, this was a long overdue feature. Before it became available, we had to rely on other ways to “favorite” content. Here are a few alternatives:

Pin files and folders

There is a way to pin files and folders within a document library, but those pins only appear in the folder where the pin was created. I explained this feature in this post.

Bookmarkfilesfolderssharepoint2

Add Shortcut to OneDrive

Another option to favorite content was to use Add Shortcut to OneDrive. With this option, though, you cannot pin files, just folders. Besides, Add Shortcut to OneDrive has a love/hate relationship with OneDrive Sync. I explained this in this article.

Addshortcuttoonedrive2

About Me

I’m Greg Zelfond, a U.S. based SharePoint consultant, and I provide affordable out-of-the-box SharePoint consulting, training, and configuration assistance to small and medium-sized businesses all over the world.

Need help?