Folder colors let you recolor the folder icon so important locations stand out. It’s a purely visual, personal touch — it changes nothing in SharePoint and is only ever seen by you.
Coloring a folder or library
- Right-click a folder (or a document library) in the file grid.
- Hover “Folder color” to open the swatch picker — a 4-column grid of circular swatches above a reset row.
- Click a swatch. The folder recolors instantly, and the menu closes.
The swatch matching the folder’s current color shows a highlighted ring, so you can always see what’s set.
Coloring several at once
Select multiple folders (or multiple libraries) first, then right-click the selection and pick a color from “Folder color” — every selected folder recolors in one step. The picker shows a swatch as “selected” only when all the chosen folders already share that exact color.
Folders and libraries never mix
Libraries live at site level and folders live inside a drive, so a single selection is always all folders or all libraries — the color picker works the same way for both. You’ll also find “Folder color” on the right-click menu of pinned folders and libraries in your Favorites.
The 16 colors
The picker offers the same palette as OneDrive’s folder colors:
| Column 1 | Column 2 | Column 3 | Column 4 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Yellow | Grey | Red | Pink |
| Orange | Peach | Green | Light Green |
| Teal | Cyan | Blue | Light Blue |
| Purple | Lavender | Magenta | Light Pink |
Each swatch has a tooltip with its name, so you can confirm the color before you click.
Resetting to the default
Below the swatch grid is a “Default color” row. Choosing it clears any custom color and returns the folder to the standard Windows manila yellow. When none of the selected folders has a color set, “Default color” shows as the selected option with a checkmark.
How folder colors are stored
Folder colors are client-side only — there is no server involved:
- They’re saved in this device’s local browser storage (
localStorage), so they’re per device and aren’t shared with teammates or roamed to your other machines. - A recolor applies everywhere that folder appears at once — the file grid, the Favorites mega-menu, and any other open File Explorer window — the instant you pick it.
- Because nothing is written to SharePoint, coloring a folder never touches the folder, its contents, or anyone else’s view.
Colors survive, even without a color set
A folder with no custom color simply uses the default manila icon. Setting, changing and clearing colors is completely non-destructive — you can experiment freely.