How to Enable Item-Level Permissions in SharePoint (Lists and Libraries)

A client used a SharePoint list for vendor requests, and each vendor’s guest account should only see the requests that vendor created. Breaking permissions on every item by hand wasn’t realistic. SharePoint’s item-level permissions setting does it for the whole list in one place.

In this tutorial, I’ll show you how to turn it on for a list, who can still see every item, and what to use for document libraries, where the setting isn’t available.

Quick answer: Open the list, select Settings > List settings > Advanced settings, and under Item-level Permissions choose Read items that were created by the user and Create items and edit items that were created by the user. Select OK. Owners and anyone with Override Check-Out still see all items.

What item-level permissions do

The setting has two parts, and you can set them separately:

Setting	Options
Read access	Read all items, or read only items the user created
Create and Edit access	Create and edit all items, create items and edit only the user’s own, or none

It works on the whole list without breaking permissions item by item, so it doesn’t count toward the unique permissions limit. It’s ideal for requests, timesheets or feedback lists. If you only need to hide links or news from some people, rather than data, use audience targeting instead; see how to enable audience targeting in SharePoint.

Step 1: Open the advanced settings

Open the list and select the Settings gear > List settings, then Advanced settings:

You need the Manage Lists permission, which site owners and, by default, site members (Edit permission level) have.

Step 2: Choose who can read and edit

1. Under Read access, select Read items that were created by the user.
2. Under Create and Edit access, select Create items and edit items that were created by the user.
3. Scroll down and select OK.

Now each person sees only their own items in every view, in search and in apps built on the list, such as Power Apps.

If people should be able to read everything but only edit their own items, keep Read all items and change only the edit setting. To build a form on top of the list, see how to customize SharePoint list forms with Power Apps.

Who can still see every item

Item-level permissions don’t apply to people with the Override Check-Out permission. That includes the Full Control, Design, Approve and Manage Hierarchy permission levels, so site owners and designers still see all items.

Test with a normal member account, not your own owner account, or you’ll think the setting didn’t work. To check who has which access, see how to get SharePoint site members using PowerShell.

Document libraries: what to do instead

Document libraries don’t have the item-level permissions setting in their advanced settings:

You may find scripts that set the hidden ReadSecurity and WriteSecurity properties on a library with PnP PowerShell. Microsoft doesn’t document this for libraries, and users have reported that it fails, so I no longer recommend it.

These supported options work instead:

• One folder per person or vendor, with unique permissions on each folder through Manage access. Files dropped in a folder inherit its permissions.
• A separate library per group, when there are only a few groups.
• A flow that sets permissions on each new file. See how to upload files to SharePoint with metadata for a starting point.

Limits to keep in mind

• A list or library supports up to 50,000 unique permissions, and Microsoft recommends staying under 5,000.
• You can’t break or restore inheritance on a list, library or folder with more than 100,000 items.
• Item-level permissions in a list don’t break inheritance, so they don’t count toward these limits.

Too many unique permissions slow down the site and make access hard to audit. If you need a report of who has access, see how to get the SharePoint site owner and work from the site’s permission groups.

These SharePoint tutorials go well with this one:

• How To Reset Id In SharePoint List
• How to Get the SharePoint Site Owner Using PowerShell?
• How to Change SharePoint Site URL and Name?
• SharePoint Online Document Library Web Part (Complete Guide)

Frequently Asked Questions