IT ISSUE · MICROSOFT 365 AND COLLABORATION
SharePoint file unavailable
Usually still there. What changed is access, location or which copy you're looking at.It is almost always still there. What has usually changed is whether this person is allowed to see it, where it now lives or which copy they're looking at. Those produce three quite different messages that all read as the file being gone.
What you may notice
- The link works for one person and not another.
- A file opens in the browser but not on the desktop.
- It disappeared from a Teams tab but exists in the site.
- Someone has edited a version you didn't expect.
- The name suggests a conflict copy.
Separate access from location from version
We check where the file actually sits now, who has permission to it, whether it was moved or renamed and what the version history records.
Version history is the part most people don't know they have, and it is worth saying out loud: a file that was overwritten, mangled or emptied can often be returned to an earlier version, as long as version history was switched on where it's stored. Before you tell somebody their morning is lost, let us look.