How do I allow people search for files within an anonymously shared folder?

Question

I've got an absolutely massive folder of GIS data that I'm sharing via SharePoint. Each folder within the top level folder has about 7000 files in it, and it's clear that you won't be able to find anything in it without the search function, because you can't even load up the files towards the bottom of the list without the browser crashing on you.

However, when I share the folder via the "Anyone with the link" option, the search box doesn't appear anywhere on the page. This means the people I've shared the folder with can't feasibly find the files they want, and generally people only want a couple files from the data set, not the whole thing - downloading the whole data set would be overkill.

Is there any way to enable search for people using anonymous access links to access folders, or if there isn't, what's the reasoning behind this?

Answer 1

Per my test, I could reproduce your issue on my end. It's by design that we cannot enable search for people using anonymous access links to access folders.

As a workaround, I suggest you use the Browser's built-in search function. Click "Ctrl+f", you could search on the page.