How To
Summary
How to identify all users with access to your Microsoft OneDrive folder and change their permissions.
Objective
Environment
Steps
Step 1: Identify Users with Access to Your OneDrive Folder
1. Open OneDrive:
- Log in to your OneDrive account using your Microsoft 365 credentials.
- Navigate to the folder you want to check.
2. Access the "Manage Access" Panel:
- Select the folder, then click the Share button (or the three vertical dots next to the folder and select Manage Access). Alternatively, click the Information (i) icon next to the folder to open the Details pane.
- In the Details pane, under the Has Access section, you’ll see icons for People, Groups, and Links that indicate who has access.
3. View Users and Permissions:
- Click on the People or Groups icons to see a list of individuals or groups with access. Each entry will display their name or email and their current permission level ("Can Edit" or "Can View").
- If a sharing link was used, click the Links icon to see details about the link and its permissions. Note whether the link allows "Anyone," "People in your organization," or "Specific people" to access the folder.
Step 2: Change Permissions to "View Only"
1. Modify Permissions for Specific People:
- In the Manage Access panel, locate each user or group with "Can Edit" permissions.
- Click the pencil icon or permission level next to their name/email, then select “Can View” from the dropdown menu. Confirm by clicking Apply. This changes their access to view-only, preventing edits.
2. Modify Permissions for Sharing Links:
- If a sharing link is set to "Can Edit," you cannot directly change it to "View Only" without deleting it. Instead:
- Click the X next to the link to remove it (confirm by selecting Delete Link).
- Create a new sharing link by clicking Share > Specific people (or the desired link type), then set the permission to, “Can View”. Optionally, uncheck Allow editing and enable Block download for stricter view-only access. Re-share the new link with the intended recipients.
3. Bulk Permission Updates (Optional):
- If you have many users, manually updating each one can be tedious. As a workaround, consider stopping sharing entirely and re-sharing with view-only permissions:
- In the Manage Access panel, click Stop Sharing to revoke all access.
- Then, re-share the folder by selecting Share > Specific people, entering the email addresses of all intended users, and setting the permission to “Can View”.
- Note: Microsoft 365’s recent update allows bulk permission updates for multiple users in a single step, but this feature may require admin access or specific tools like PowerShell for automation.
4. Verify Changes:
- After updating permissions, revisit the Manage Access panel to confirm that all users and links are set to "Can View."
- Optionally, notify users of the permission change via email through the sharing interface.
Additional Information
Additional Tips
- For Admins: If you’re a Microsoft 365 Global or SharePoint admin, you can use the Microsoft 365 Admin Center or PowerShell to manage permissions at scale. For example, use the `Set-SPOUser` cmdlet to modify permissions for a user’s OneDrive.
- Audit Access: To ensure security, periodically check the Shared > Shared by me view in OneDrive to monitor all shared items and their permissions.
- Limitations: If a user has edit access through a group or inherited permissions, you may need to adjust those separately via the Site Permissions settings in the OneDrive site.
Document Location
Worldwide
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Document Information
Modified date:
23 September 2025
UID
ibm17245952