Drag & Drop Not Working??

Post date: Oct 16, 2013 1:58:58 PM

Within SharePoint 2013, there is a new feature that allows users to drag and drop files into document libraries. I have been asked by a few users why they do not see this capability when they are trying to upload into a document library.

Unfortunately, Microsoft has built this functionality around the HTML5 framework. Any browser that supports HTML5 should be able to utilize this functionality out of the box; however, IE is the most common browser in businesses and only IE10 supports HTML5. So what about the users with IE8 or IE9?

In order to utilize this functionality in IE8 or IE9, the users need Office 2013 installed; well, actually there is only one component of Office 2013 that is needed. Office 2013 includes an ActiveX control (Interceptor.dll) that enables the Drag & Drop functionality in browsers that support ActiveX but do not support HTML5, such as IE 8 and IE9.

There are other MS 2013 products that also include this ActiveX control and some are free, such as SharePoint Designer 2013. Chances are though, that a business would not want to install the SharePoint Designer 2013 product on all machines; however, you can choose the options to install. During the installation process, you can remove all options except for the Microsoft SharePoint Foundation Support option under the Office Tools section. This will install the ActiveX control but will not install the product itself.

To recap, the base requirements of this functionality is that Office 2013 is a requirement when using IE8 or IE9; other browsers should work fine without Office 2013 installed. The following is a summary of supported browsers (only the major ones listed):

• Firefox (latest version)

• Chrome (latest version)

• Safari (latest version)

• IE10 Desktop

• IE8 or 9 Desktop + Office 2013