Manage folder-level permissions in Microsoft Storage
Overview
When giving someone access to a folder in Microsoft Storage, consider what you want the person to be able to do with the content in the folder. You can allow people to edit or view the files in the folder. It is best to add people at the lowest permissions level that still allows them to do the work they need to do with those files.
Important:
Microsoft Storage uses waterfall permissions, that is, permissions that flow downhill and can only expand at lower levels. This means that collaborators will have the same permission level in subfolders as they do in the top folder. You can assign a given collaborator to a role with more permissions in folders deeper in your folder hierarchy. To do so, first invite the collaborator to the subfolder at the higher permission level, and then invite the collaborator to folders higher in the hierarchy at the more restrictive permission level. This will allow your collaborator to have different permissions at different levels of the folder structure.
Grant permissions
To grant permissions to a user:
- Open SharePoint Online, select the site for which you want to set permissions, and click in the left sidebar.
- Navigate to the folder for which you want to set permissions, and click (
). In the menu that appears, click . - In the "Manage Access" panel, click (blue plus sign). This will open the "Grant Access" form.
- Type the username of the person to whom you want to grant access, and select the person from the list of suggestions that appears.
- Repeat the previous step to grant permissions to additional users.
Note:All users listed here will be granted permissions at the same level.
- Select the appropriate permission level.
- If you want to notify users of their new permissions, enter a message, and leave checked.
- Click .
- To see your changes, close and reopen the "Manage Access" panel. The new permissions will now appear.
Change permissions
To change a user's permissions:
- Open SharePoint Online, select the site for which you want to set permissions, and click in the left sidebar.
- Navigate to the folder for which you want to set permissions, and click (). In the menu that appears, click .
- In the "Manage Access" panel, click the arrow (
) next to the user's name. A menu will open with three options: , , and . Select the level of permissions you want the account to have.
Remove permissions
To remove a user's permissions:
- Open SharePoint Online, select the site for which you want to set permissions, and click in the left sidebar.
- Navigate to the folder for which you want to set permissions, and click (). In the menu that appears, click .
- In the "Manage Access" panel, click the arrow () next to the user's name. A menu will open with three options: , , and . To remove the user's permissions, select .
Important:
When you remove permissions from a top-level folder, unique permissions will not be removed from subfolders of that folder. Removing users from direct folder access on a top-level folder will only remove permissions for subfolders where those folders are inheriting permissions from the parent folder. If the subfolders have unique permissions added for individuals, you will want to navigate through the folder structure to remove permissions on any folders that had unique permission levels.