Brainlitter » Long Company Names make Sean Sad in OneDrive for Business

Long Company Names make Sean Sad in OneDrive for Business

I’m more than a little surprised there was nothing out there for the following issue already. So I took it upon myself to provide a solution (and a recommendation, which is “avoid this early in your tenancy and OD4B and SharePoint sync rollout”).

What

I didn’t like that when I connected OneDrive for Business to my Windows 10 PC (i.e. the “Sync Client”, or “Next Generation Sync Client”), that the name and visual within Windows Explorer was quite long.  For SharePoint Sync, it was “itgroove Professional Services Ltd” and for OneDrive for Business, it was “OneDrive – itgroove Professional Services Ltd”.

Worse still, this caused a really long filename on my PC where OneDrive was storing the files. I.e. OneDrive for Business, just to get to the base folder of my files was then:

C:\Users\swallbridge\OneDrive - itgroove Professional Services Ltd

Whew.  That’s 66 characters, before my filename (or any folders) join the party.

OneDrive for Business with Long Company Name

So What

While it is true that our Organization’s legal name is “itgroove Professional Services Ltd”, we generally refer to ourselves as “itgroove” and certainly within Office 365, I don’t need this long name anywhere.  I want it to be like this…

OneDrive for Business with Shorter Company Name

Above you can see now that my SharePoint Synched sites are now simply under “itgroove”.  And my OneDrive for Business is “OneDrive – itgroove”.  Much better.

Now What

The problem is, when I first synced with OneDrive for Business (and added SharePoint sync support by “adding an account”), my organization name was already set in Office 365.  So I had to do a few things.

Shorten the Organization Name

Change the Organization Name in Office 365. This was easy, but only a Global Admin is going to be able to do this (and you may want to consider other ramifications of this decision. I’m the owner, I get to decide and I felt no need to argue with myself ;).  You do this by going into Office 365, Choosing Organization Profile under settings and then choosing Edit.

Shortening Organization Name

Uninstall and Reinstall the OneDrive Client

Once the Organization is correct you are going to want to uninstall “Microsoft OneDrive” in Control Panel and then reinstall and reconnect your OneDrive stuff.  Why you say?  Well here’s why:

  1. I didn’t want to wait to see if eventually the name filtered through to the client (i.e. the name appeared in Explorer). I was impatient…
  2. But more importantly, the reason I didn’t wait was because “visually” it would have made it look better, but it wouldn’t have changed the path it took on my C: and that was actually MORE IMPORTANT to me.  Now my path is shaved down to a little more comfortable 40 characters – ala: C:\Users\swallbridge\OneDrive – itgroove

 

 

8 responses to “Long Company Names make Sean Sad in OneDrive for Business”

  1. Hello,

    thanks for your comment. we have the same Problem – a very Long official Company Name which is now shown in the onedrive-folders.

    Changing the Company Information is possible – my question is: does that Change the Company Name printed on invoices?
    maybe you have some info about that.

    thanks, best regards

  2. Thanks for the tip, but even after un- and reinstalling OneDrive, it still makes the long file name. It’s short in the Organization Profile and Account name. Maybe it’s stuck in the client registry settings.. I’d appreciate any ideas.

  4. Computer\HKEY_USERS\S-1-5-21-3346215286-396065825-918808981-1001\Software\Microsoft\OneDrive\Accounts\Business1
    Modify the “DisplayName” when you are at the step of “select the folder”. Then you open the select window again. you can see the folder name is changed.

  5. I have the same problem. Even reinstalling OneDrive, the client uses the old, long folder name. Is there any change to this? I’m using Windows 7.

  6. I made the change in the company profile waited about an hour, before resetting the OneDrive client. I did not uninstall it, I right click on the OneDrive – company name, selected settings and then clicked on “Unlink this CP” this re-launch, initial configuration wizard and re-entered my credentials and voila!. the new company “short name” was there….. great article!!!

  8. I am grateful I have had not too long Company Names which is very awesome. Nevertheless, I had a problem on Onedrive but it turned out well now.

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