How to Map SharePoint as a Network Drive? November 18, 2020January 28, 2021 Raza Ali Kazmi Cloud, Solutions Microsoft SharePoint is a content collaboration platform used by over 200,000 organizations across the globe. SharePoint facilitates organizations to work remotely. SharePoint contains a set of multipurpose technologies that are part of the Office 365 subscription. SharePoint provides for smooth communication of critical information within an organization and allows the employees to work remotely. Product Spotlight: Use Clone Files Checker to remove duplicate files from PC, Network Drives, and External Drives. CFC follows Google Software Principles. Download Today. SharePoint is available in two versions. Depending on your organization’s usage and requirements, you can choose one of the following versions: SharePoint Server: SharePoint Server is installed on your organization’s local server. As a local server, your organization requires you to deploy sufficient capital to set up and operate on-premise server computers, sufficient workforce to upgrade or repair servers as and when needed. Besides server setup and maintenance, your organization also needs to invest in data security. When you set up a SharePoint Server, Microsoft creates a snapshot of all the features available in the cloud-based SharePoint Online version. SharePoint Online: In contrast to SharePoint Server, this is a simple Web-based SharePoint version hosted on Microsoft’s data centres. Typically, it comes with a Microsoft Office 365 subscription. However, you can also purchase it as a standalone product. SharePoint Features SharePoint offers features to work in teams from any corner of the world. Here are some of the distinct features: Manage company websites and administer domains Send newsletters to subscribers and keep them updated about new offers and plans Business intelligence Workflow management Administer financial records & books of accounts Create marketing and promotional materials Gather information, manage request for client quotations Build apps Document sharing between teams within an organization Some of the tasks required for the day-to-day functioning of the organization Map SharePoint as a Network Drive Mapping SharePoint as a network drive is very easy. You can do that straight from File Explorer. Before you map SharePoint as a network drive, you’ll need to first add your SharePoint Library as a trusted site. If you skip this step, you might encounter errors, warning messages or face other problems while accessing your SharePoint account. Remember, you can perform this procedure only using Internet Explorer. Step 1: Add your SharePoint Library as a Trusted Site Open up Internet Explorer. Visit http://portal.office.com. Sign in to your Microsoft account and be sure to save the credentials. Open your SharePoint library. Click the Settings icon on the upper right corner and select Internet Options. In the new dialog that opens up, click on the Security tab. Click on Trusted Sites, followed by Sites. Enter the root domain to your SharePoint library. For example: https://YourLibraryName.sharepoint.com. Click on Add to Confirm. Important: You must add the root domain to your cloud library and not the links to subpages. If you enter individual page URLs, you will need to add every page in your library to the Trusted Sites list. Step 2: Map SharePoint as a Network Drive Double-click This PC icon on your Desktop. Right-click the Network icon on the left-hand side panel. Select Map Network Drive. Select your desired drive letter for the new network drive. Type in the folder address to your SharePoint library. Make sure to check the Connect using different credentials. Click on Finish to proceed. Finding Duplicate Documents in your SharePoint Library Once you map SharePoint, it’s important to regularly scan it for duplicates. Duplicate files are junk files that contain identical content. These files take up a precious amount of storage and cause several issues including insufficient storage. As a result, you will be forced to expand your cloud storage quota by upgrading your existing plan. It is a good practice to regularly scan and eliminate any duplicate files found. In order to find duplicate documents you will need specialized software. Clone Files Checker is a specialized software that scans the content of your documents and identifies duplicate files. Thanks to the developers, smart algorithms ensure the scan provides 100% accurate results with fast performance. Once your scan is completed, Clone Files Checker will display a list of all duplicate files and allow you to mark or unmark them. You can either do so manually or automatically using the in-house functionality. After selecting the files, you can choose to either move the duplicate files to a separate folder or delete them permanently. Clone Files Checker Features Optional file size filters allow you to limit the scan to fewer files. For instance: You can use the optional file size filters to scan only those files that are between 2 MB to 20 MB in size. On the down side, it will free up only limited storage. Clone Files Checker allows users to use the file type filters to define which file types are to be scanned and which are to be excluded. You can either select all file types, or individual file types such as documents, images, music, videos and archives. Clone Files Checker secures your files by backing them up before deleting them. Thus, you can restore them at any time if you ever need them. Remember to activate this feature from the program settings. You can view a comprehensive scan history in the History section with a catalog of the total number of scanned files, deleted files, scan date-time, etc. CFC also has a Quick-Fix option to quickly clean up your storage without requiring you to review any files. It saves a lot of time. Steps Download and install Clone Files Checker. Double-click This PC. Open your SharePoint network drive. Right-click the folder you want to scan for duplicate files. Choose the Scan with Clone Files Checker option. CFC will launch and auto add your selected folder. Select one of the options from All files or Custom. Start the scan and wait. Once the scan is finished, select Review and Fix. Go to the list of duplicate files and mark those you want to delete or move. Finally, click on Select Action and choose Delete or Move to folder.