Files.com connects to SharePoint Online sites and their document libraries in Microsoft 365. The sites can belong to your organization or to a client, partner, or vendor. Use a Remote Server Mount for access to the connected files, or a Sync for transfers between SharePoint and another storage location.

The connection can authenticate as a Microsoft user or a Microsoft Entra ID app. Choose a user-based connection when a person maintains it directly, or an app-based connection for unattended workflows that should not depend on a user's account.

The Microsoft user or app supplies remote access. Files.com folder permissions separately control which users can work through a mount; Microsoft consent or site access does not itself grant a Files.com user access to that folder.

On-Premise SharePoint

This integration does not support on-premises instances of SharePoint. The native connector uses Microsoft Graph to reach SharePoint Online. An on-premises SharePoint Server needs a separately reachable service.

The WebDAV integration can be used to connect with on-premise SharePoint servers, provided that your firewall is configured to allow WebDAV connectivity to pass through.

SharePoint Paths

When you browse the connection, the top level contains a single folder named after the SharePoint server, such as companyname.sharepoint.com. Inside it are the root site's own document libraries and a sites folder that lists every SharePoint site the connection can access. Each site contains its document libraries, and each library contains its folders and files. You can work with the default document library that comes with every site and any document libraries created in that site.

Each site's default document library appears as Shared Documents, the name from its web address, even though SharePoint displays it as Documents. A site path takes the form companyname.sharepoint.com/sites/MySite, and a document library within that site takes the form companyname.sharepoint.com/sites/MySite/Shared Documents.

Use the path spelling shown by SharePoint when configuring the connection. For example, if the path is companyname.sharepoint.com/sites/MYSITE/Shared Documents/MySubFolder, enter the path using that exact case.

Authentication Methods

A SharePoint Remote Server can authenticate two ways: as a signed-in Microsoft user or as a Microsoft Entra ID app registration with no user involved.

Sign In With Microsoft is the default authentication method. It redirects you to Microsoft's sign-in page to authenticate, using OAuth for access delegation to SharePoint. It's the simpler of the two methods to set up, since it only needs a user to log in once, and it fits connections a person maintains directly.

Files.com refreshes OAuth access tokens automatically while the authorization remains valid. If access is revoked or the provider requires a new sign-in, follow Re-authenticating Remote Servers. Authentication errors appear in External Logs and site alerts. After restoring authorization, re-save a disabled Remote Server's configuration and verify its next Mount or Sync operation.

Account and License Requirements

For a user account in your Microsoft 365 organization, assign a license that includes SharePoint Online and enable the SharePoint service for that user. This applies to dedicated integration accounts as well as named users. A Microsoft 365 subscription without SharePoint Online does not provide that access, and assigning a license does not replace the site and folder permissions described below.

The account must have an email address in its Microsoft profile. Files.com checks the email domain during sign-in to confirm its association with the Microsoft organization. Using the same domain for the email address and the Microsoft sign-in name, also called the user principal name (UPN), satisfies this check. When those domains differ, Microsoft must confirm that the email domain is verified for the organization.

Your organization can use its existing companyname.onmicrosoft.com domain or a custom domain verified in Microsoft Entra. The SharePoint server address, such as companyname.sharepoint.com, is separate from the account's email and sign-in domains; they do not need to match that server address.

SharePoint Access and Permissions

The connection uses the SharePoint account that authorized it. Collection requires Read and List access to the relevant sites, folders, and files. Full file management also needs Create, Update, and Delete permissions. Grant the rights required for the actual workflow, including deletion when an operation replaces a destination by deleting and recreating it.

To confirm your SharePoint account has the access you need, log in directly to SharePoint with that account and verify that you can access those resources. Contact your SharePoint administrator if access fails.

Service Account Versus Named Users

For a user-based connection, use a dedicated SharePoint account for Files.com so that access can be managed independently of an employee's account. This "service account" needs the same license, email-domain verification, and SharePoint permissions described above. You can use a named user's account instead, but removing that user's access also affects the connection. For unattended workflows, consider Microsoft Entra ID App authentication, which does not depend on a user account.

You can configure as many connections to SharePoint as you need, each with different SharePoint credentials, which lets you restrict access to specific parts of SharePoint to specific users.

Microsoft Entra ID App (SharePoint)

Use app authentication for unattended Syncs or Automations when access should be maintained independently of an employee's Microsoft account. Its lifetime depends on the app's credentials, consent, and site access rather than a person completing a new sign-in.

A SharePoint Remote Server can authenticate as a Microsoft Entra ID app registration instead of a signed-in user. The connection runs as the app itself and obtains access without an interactive Microsoft sign-in. This also means it doesn't need a dedicated service account or the Microsoft 365 license that account would otherwise require, since it never authenticates as a SharePoint user.

OneDrive Remote Servers can't use this method. An app-only token has no signed-in user to resolve, and OneDrive needs a specific user's identity to know which drive to connect to.

Authenticating as a Microsoft Entra ID app requires the app registration's Directory (tenant) ID and Application (client) ID, plus either a client secret or a PEM-encoded certificate and private key. These credentials can be entered directly on the Remote Server form or stored in the Remote Server Credential Manager and reused across multiple SharePoint Remote Servers.

Register the app in your organization's Entra admin portal and grant it permissions. Client secrets created there have a maximum lifetime of 24 months. Certificates also expire, and tenant policies can restrict their lifetime; Microsoft recommends rotation within 180 days. Update the Remote Server or shared credential before the active secret or certificate expires so unattended work retains access.

When setting up the SharePoint Remote Server connection in Files.com, a site scope choice controls how much of SharePoint the connection can reach. Choose All Sites for one connection that reaches every site in the tenant, without maintaining a separate Remote Server per site. Choose Specific Site when you only need access to a single site, or when your organization won't grant tenant-wide Entra permissions.

All Sites

All Sites lets the connection browse the sites and document libraries throughout the tenant. This requires the app registration to have the Sites.ReadWrite.All Microsoft Graph permission.

In the app registration's API permissions, select Microsoft Graph and add Sites.ReadWrite.All under Application permissions. Files.com uses Microsoft Graph to access SharePoint, and Application permissions let the connection operate without a signed-in user.

An Entra administrator must grant consent to that Application permission before the connection can use it.

Specific Site

Specific Site restricts the connection to one site using the narrower Sites.Selected permission. The selected site's root is read-only. Files can only be created, modified, or deleted inside a document library within the site.

The Remote Server form shows a SharePoint Site URL field when Specific Site is selected. It takes the site's full URL, including https://, for example https://companyname.sharepoint.com/sites/MySite. Each Remote Server scopes to exactly one site. If you need Sites.Selected access to several specific sites, set up a separate Remote Server for each. All of them can share the same Entra app registration's credentials through the Remote Server Credential Manager.

In the app registration's API permissions, select Microsoft Graph and add Sites.Selected under Application permissions. Choose the Microsoft Graph entry because that is the API Files.com uses for this connection.

Adding the permission and getting an Entra admin's consent only allows the app to be granted access to specific sites later. It doesn't grant access to any of them yet. Assigning that access happens through a separate Microsoft Graph API call, since Entra has no portal screen for it. Resolving a site's ID and granting the app access to it are both covered in Microsoft's own documentation. The app registration's Application (client) ID is the same value entered as the Remote Server's client ID.

Mounting a SharePoint Folder

Use an empty Files.com folder for the mount, following the shared Mount configuration. The SharePoint-specific choice is the remote site, document library, and folder it exposes.

When setting up a Remote Mount to SharePoint, leave the Remote Folder setting blank and select the Choose a folder option. Files.com then presents the sites and document libraries on the SharePoint server so that you can navigate to and select the exact folder you want to connect to.

You can also manually enter the full path to a SharePoint folder instead of selecting it, which is useful for hidden sites within SharePoint that aren't presented to Files.com through their API. For example, companyname.sharepoint.com/sites/HiddenSite/Shared Documents/Incoming includes the document library and the folder inside it.

When entering the Remote Folder path manually, confirm that it is valid and accessible by the credentials used in the Remote Server configuration. When in doubt, leave the Remote Folder setting blank and use the Choose a folder option to navigate to the folder instead.

After saving the configuration, the folder reloads and immediately lists the remote folders and files from the selected remote path.

With Buffered Uploads set to Automatic, Files.com receives uploads before forwarding them to SharePoint. Client completion then confirms receipt by Files.com; onward delivery establishes availability in the library. Required processing can also stage files before delivery.

You can also set up Syncs with your SharePoint site. When SharePoint receives the files, select a destination library or folder.

Sync and SharePoint

When SharePoint is the Sync destination, select a document library or a folder inside one, such as companyname.sharepoint.com/sites/MySite/Shared Documents or companyname.sharepoint.com/sites/MySite/Shared Documents/Incoming. The connection root and site levels let you browse to libraries; they cannot receive files. Selecting a site alone does not identify a writable file destination.

This also applies to connections scoped to Specific Site: the site URL limits which site the connection can reach, and the Sync destination must be a library or folder within that site. The connection's Microsoft user or Entra app must have permission to write there.

Sync rejects an empty SharePoint destination path when you create or edit its configuration. A nonempty path still needs to identify a writable library or folder; accepting the path does not confirm write permission. The connection root can be used as a source. A OneDrive connection points directly to a drive and supports a root destination.

SharePoint Changes to Uploaded Files

SharePoint modifies certain files after they are uploaded. Office documents and similar file types get SharePoint metadata added directly to the file, which changes the file's size and checksum. The file stored in SharePoint is no longer identical to the original.

Left alone, that difference would put a Sync into an endless loop. Each sync run would see a source file that never matches its copy in SharePoint, transfer it again, and SharePoint would modify it again.

Files.com prevents this loop with a remote resync. When a sync run detects that SharePoint modified a delivered file, Files.com copies SharePoint's version of the file back to the sync source. The file is then identical in both places, and later runs treat it as already synced. This appears in the sync run logs as a sync_remote_resync event.

A remote resync writes contents back to the source even though the Sync is delivering files to SharePoint. Both locations then contain the SharePoint-modified version. Account for that write-back when the source belongs to another application or needs to preserve the original upload unchanged.

Because the resync writes to the sync source, the source location must be writable. When the source location lacks write permission, the resync fails. Every following run then re-transfers the same files in an endless sync loop, which can produce excess transfer charges.

Case Sensitivity

Be aware of case sensitivity differences when copying, moving, or syncing files and folders between SharePoint and other storage locations. SharePoint is case insensitive, while other systems may be case sensitive. Files can be overwritten and folder contents merged when their case-insensitive names match.

File Locking

SharePoint can lock a file while it is checked out, open for editing, or used by another process. The lock belongs to the remote file; changing Files.com folder permissions does not release it.

Locked files cannot be synced by Sync processes. The External Logs do not list files that the sync skipped due to SharePoint locks.

When a file does not sync because it is locked in SharePoint, check whether any users have it checked out. A file open in Microsoft Office Online in another browser tab can also remain locked. Have the person editing it close or check in the file as appropriate, then retry the affected transfer.

Rate Limiting

Microsoft applies SharePoint request and resource limits. They account for work by users, applications, and the tenant; some allowances depend on the tenant's license count. File listings and other operations consume capacity as well as transfers, so file count and concurrent workflows matter alongside total data size.

Files.com responds to rate limiting by slowing reconnection attempts and retrying actions. Repeated throttling calls for reducing the work per run, spreading scheduled transfers, or both. Consider the combined workload against SharePoint rather than increasing retries or starting overlapping runs. The troubleshooting reference identifies the corresponding error.