For a long time now, SharePoint and OneDrive users have been constantly frustrated with having to rename their files when uploading to SharePoint due to Invalid file or folder name characters errors.  i.e.:

“The file name is invalid or the file is empty.  A file name cannot contain any of the following characters: \ / : * ? ” < > | # { } % ~ &”

This is due to the fact that  “certain characters have intrinsic meanings when used in filenames in SharePoint and Windows, such as “*” for wildcards, or “\” as a directory separator”.

Bill Baer recently posted that Microsoft has now starting shipping support for # and % as supported characters in file and folder names across document libraries in SharePoint Online and OneDrive for Business.

Note that this support is only for Office 365 and not on premise.

For new Tenants, support for these characters will enabled by default upon Tenant provisioning however, for existing tenants they will be rolled out by default at a later point in time (H2 CY2017).  To enable for your existing tenant before the forced rollout, run the following commands as a SharePoint Online global admin within SharePoint Online PowerShell:

$adminUPN="jdoe@YourOrgName.onmicrosoft.com"
$orgName="YourOrgName"
$userCredential = Get-Credential -UserName $adminUPN -Message "YourPassword."
Connect-SPOService -Url https://$orgName-admin.sharepoint.com -Credential $userCredential
Set-SPOTenant –SpecialCharactersStateInFileFolderNames Allowed

Refer to Bill Baer’s article and the dev.office.com article for more information.

3 thoughts on “Office 365 SharePoint Online and OneDrive for Business rolling out support for the # and % symbols”
  1. […] OFFICE 365 SHAREPOINT ONLINE AND ONEDRIVE FOR BUSINESS ROLLING OUT SUPPORT FOR THE # AND % SYMBOLS (REZ’S BLOG SPOT) For a long time now, SharePoint and OneDrive users have been constantly frustrated with having to rename their files when uploading to SharePoint due to Invalid file or folder name characters errors. i.e.: “The file name is invalid or the file is empty. A file name cannot contain any of the following characters: / : * ? ” < > | # { } % ~ &” […]

  2. Hi REZ,

    Thanks for the presentation at SPSTO2017 yesterday. It was awesome! Could you please send me your slides. Or advise where can I download?

    Thanks,
    Cathy Zhang

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