Microsoft to shut down OneDrive feature that let users upload files from a URL

Microsoft has revealed it will be shutting down a feature available for the consumer version of OneDrive in the very near future. In a blog post, Microsoft says it will soon no longer allow users of its cloud file storage service to upload a file by using a web URL address.

Microsoft first added this way to upload files in 2021 and labeled it as a preview feature. It was created as a way to help people who had mobile devices and wanted to upload a remote file to their OneDrive account. However, they may not want to download the file to their device first before uploading it again.

Instead, the feature let users send a URL weblink with the file location they wanted to upload to their OneDrive cloud files. OneDrive would directly download the file from that website link.

However, Microsoft has revealed that the feature ended up with a low amount of usage, while at the same time also generating high maintenance costs. It added that the URL upload feature did "not align with our vision for OneDrive as a cloud storage service that syncs your files across devices."

This feature will no longer be supported in just a few weeks, on March 29, 2024. If you have used this URL feature to upload files to your consumer OneDrive account, those files will still remain in that account.

Microsoft launched a new interface design for its OneDrive service for personal users in January. The new UI was designed to cut down on clutter, including adding new filters that were made to quickly discover files that you want to access by different file types. There's also a "add new" button that lets users create a new document in their OneDrive account, like a Word document, without having to launch an outside app.