Grant user access to SharePoint site office 365 | SharePoint Site Permissions

In this SharePoint tutorial, we will discuss everything on SharePoint site permissions. We will see here, how to add members to a SharePoint site and how to add groups to a SharePoint site.

You will get to know here, how to grant user access to SharePoint site office 365. We will see step by step, how to add user to SharePoint site.

Once you add a user to a SharePoint site, the user can access the SharePoint site based on the permission you have assigned.

Here, we will see how to grant user access to a SharePoint site in office 365 classic site as well as a modern SharePoint site.

As a best practice in SharePoint, we should always add users to a SharePoint group. Never add the users directly on the SharePoint site. It will be difficult to manage the permission for individual users.

So, here we will see, how to add users to a SharePoint group.

Table of Contents

What is SharePoint site permission?

A SharePoint site permission level represents a set of rights that can be assigned to a user or group on a specific SharePoint site.
Each SharePoint site is created with 3 default groups- Owner, Member, and Visitor.
By default, Owners have Full Control, Members have Edit access, and Visitors have Read access.

Below mentioned are the different levels of SharePoint site permission.

Read – People having read permission, can view page and list items and download documents.
Contribute – User withe Contribute permission, users can view, add, update, and delete list items and document.
Edit – Users can add, edit and delete lists, can view, add, update, and delete list items and documents.
Design – In this permission levels users can view, add, update, delete, approve, and customize.
Full Control – Has full control.

To view the SharePoint site Permission levels, follow the below steps:

In the SharePoint site, click the Settings Gear Icon.
Select Site Permissions.Click on the Advanced permissions settings.

Then Select Permission levels under Permissions tab as shown below.

Read SharePoint list permissions

How to add members to SharePoint site

There are two ways to add members to a SharePoint site.

From the SharePoint Site Members section
Directly you can add members to the SharePoint site Using Site Permissions.
You can also grant access to the members to the SharePoint site Using Advanced Permissions settings.

Grant User access to SharePoint site from Members Section

Let us see how to directly grant user access to the SharePoint site from the members section,

Open the SharePoint site, Select the member option in the header section.

Site permission in SharePoint modern site

Select Add Members and enter the name or email address of the user that you want to add. When the name appears in a confirmation box below your entry, select the name to add it to the text box.
Click Save.

Site permission in the SharePoint modern site

Now we can see that the member is added to the SharePoint site.
We can change the member role to the owner role and vice versa and we can also select Remove from group option to remove the user from the SharePoint site

Site permission in the SharePoint modern site example

This is how to add members directly to the modern SharePoint site.

Using Site Permissions

Once the member is added to the SharePoint site, we can edit the Site member’s permission.

Site permission in the SharePoint online site example

We can assign Read permission and Full Control permission to the SharePoint site members.
We can also remove the user from the SharePoint site, for that select the user and click Remove from group option.

Site permission in SharePoint online site example

Add members to SharePoint site using Site Permissions

To add members to the SharePoint site permission. To achieve this, follow the below steps:

In the SharePoint site, click the Settings Gear Icon.
Select Site Permissions.

Under Add Members, select Add members to Group.
Select Add Members and enter the name or email address of the user that you want to add. When the name appears in a confirmation box below your entry, select the name to add it to the text box.
Click Save.

This is how to add members to the SharePoint site using site permission in SharePoint

Read SharePoint site collection administrator

Add user to SharePoint site (modern SharePoint site)

Let us see step by step how to add users to the group in the Modern SharePoint site.

Open your Modern SharePoint site.
Click on the gear icon/setting -> Site Permission

Add user to SharePoint site — add user to sharepoint site

Click on Invite people and from the drop-down arrow, select add members to group.
Under Site Sharing, click on the link Change how members can share, then under Sharing permissions, select the option (Site owner and member can share files, folders and the site. People with edit permission can share files and folders).
Left the Rest of the settings by default, and make sure if you have made any changes then click on save.

Add user to SharePoint online site — Invite members to the group of sharepoint site

Click on Add member, then enter a name or email address and click on Save.

Add user to the SharePoint site — add members to the group in SharePoint site

And also you can add members directly from the member icon(e.g 1member) in the command bar and click on add member, then enter name or email address and click on Save.

Now you can see one member is added to the group of SharePoint Modern site.

This is how we can grant user access to SharePoint site in Office 365.

Add Members to SharePoint site using Advanced Permission Settings

Let us see, how to add a member to a SharePoint site using the advanced permission settings.

To add members to the SharePoint Online site using advanced permission settings. To achieve this, follow the below steps:

In the SharePoint site, click the Settings Gear Icon.
Select Site Permissions.
Click on the Advanced Permissions Settings.

add members to the SharePoint site using advanced site permission — add members to a SharePoint site using advanced site permission

Select the SharePoint site checkbox and then click on the Grant Permissions in the ribbon.

add members using advanced site permission

By default Share dialog box appears, Enter the email address for the users who you add to join in the SharePoint site.
To choose a permission level, click Show options and then choose a permission level under Select a permission level.

add members using advanced site permission example

Enter the name or email address of the user that you want to add. When the name appears in a confirmation box below your entry, select the name to add it to the text box.
This is Optional. If you want to enter a personal message to the new user you can add it in Include a personal message with this invitation.
Click Share.

This is how to add members to the SharePoint site using advanced site permission in SharePoint.

Read SharePoint Navigation – Add parent site navigation to a subsite in SharePoint

SharePoint Site Sharing Settings

SharePoint provides Site Sharing settings, from where we can change the Sharing permissions settings, and also we can enable access requests for the SharePoint site.

To enable this click on the Gear icon -> Site permissions. Then in the Permissions, click on Change how members can share from the Site Sharing sections like below:

Here you can choose from the below 3 options in the Sharing permissions options:

Site owners and members can share files, folders, and the site. People with Edit permission can share files and folders.
Site owners and members, and people with Edit permissions can share files and folders, but only site owners can share the site.
Only site owners can share files, folders, and the site.

This is what the Site sharing settings screen looks like below:

Site sharing in SharePoint online site example

Enable Allow access requests

From here also, we can enable allow access requests for this SharePoint site. You can check an article on Setup and Manage Access Request Settings in SharePoint Online.

Once you enable Allow access requests, it will ask who will receive access requests for this site.

Site Name Owners
Specific email

If we want to add a custom message to the request access page, we can add it in the Add a custom message to the request access page.

Here, you can see I have chosen the Site Owners option and provides the custom message. In this case, everyone in the Site owners group will receive the notification.

Site sharing in SharePoint modern site example

If you choose Specific email, then it will ask you to provide the email addess. Here you can see I have provided an email address and Added a custom message like below:

Site sharing in the SharePoint modern site example

This is how to enable access requests on SharePoint Online site.

How to add External members to a SharePoint site

To add external members to the SharePoint Online site. To achieve this, follow the below steps:

In the SharePoint site, click the Settings Gear Icon.
Select Site Permissions.
Click on the Advanced Permissions Settings.
Select the SharePoint site checkbox and then click on the Grant Permissions in the ribbon.
By default Share dialog box appears,Enter the email address of the external users who you add to join in the SharePoint site.
To choose a permission level, click Show options and then choose a permission level under Select a permission level.
This is Optional. If you want to enter a personal message to the new user you can add it in Include a personal message with this invitation.
Click Share.

This is how to add external members to a SharePoint Online site.

Read Create site page in SharePoint online

How to create a SharePoint group

Let us see, how to create a group in a SharePoint Online site.

To create a SharePoint Group follow the below steps:

In the SharePoint site, click the Settings Gear Icon -> Site Permissions -> Advanced permissions settings opens the permissions page.
Click the Create Group icon from the ribbon in the upper left corner on the permissions tab.

create group in sharepoint site — create a group on the SharePoint site

Type a name and description for the SharePoint group.
- Note: Do not use special characters in the group name, i.e. \”‘/{}:<>+=,;?*@
Specify a single owner of this security SharePoint group in the owner box.
- Note: There can only be one group owner
In the Group settings section, mention who can view group and edit the membership of the SharePoint group.
n the Membership Requests section, select the settings that you want for requests either to join or leave the SharePoint group. You can specify the email address to which requests should be sent.

create group in sharepoint site example — create a group in SharePoint site example

create a group in sharepoint site example — create a group in SharePoint site example

Choose the permission levels the of the SharePoint group.
- Full Control – Has full control.
- Design – can view, add, update, delete, approve, and customize.
- Edit – can add, edit and delete lists, can view, add, update, and delete list items and documents.
- Contribute – can view, add, update, and delete list items and document.
- Read – can view page and list items and download documents.
Once you finish the permission level,Click Create to create the group.

This is how to create a group in SharePoint Online.

Read How to allow anonymous read access to a SharePoint site?

How to add a group to a SharePoint site

Let us see, how to grant site access to the SharePoint Group. To achieve this, follow the below steps:

In the SharePoint site, click the Settings Gear Icon.
Select Site Permissions.
Click on the Advanced Permissions Settings.
Select the SharePoint site checkbox and then click on the Grant Permissions in the ribbon.
By default Share dialog box appears,Enter the email address for the group who you add to join in the SharePoint site.
To choose a permission level, click Show options and then choose a permission level under Select a permission level.

Delete a group in sharepoint site — Delete a group on the SharePoint site

Enter the Group name or that you want to add. When the Group name appears in a confirmation box below your entry, select the Group name to add it to the text box.
Choose the permission level the of the SharePoint group.
This is Optional. If you want to enter a personal message to the new user you can add it in Include a personal message with this invitation.
Click Share.

This is how to add a group to the SharePoint site in SharePoint.

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How to delete a group on SharePoint site

In the SharePoint site, click the Settings Gear Icon.
Select Site Permissions.
Click on the Advanced Permissions Settings.
Select the Group which you want to delete from the site on the people and Groups Page.
Click Settings, and then click Group Settings.

Delete group in sharepoint site example — Delete group in SharePoint site example

In the Group settings page, at the bottom you can see the Delete option.

Delete a group in sharepoint site example — Delete a group in SharePoint site example

Click Delete
In the Confrimation window,Click OK.

This is how to delete a group on the SharePoint site.

Grant user access to SharePoint site office 365 (Classic site)

Are you still using the SharePoint Online classic site? Let us see step by step how to grant user access to the SharePoint site.

As I said before, we should not add users directly, first, you can create a SharePoint group if you do not have one.

Follow the below steps to add users to the classic SharePoint site.

Open your classic SharePoint site.
Click on the gear icon/setting -> Site setting
Under User and Permission, click on the people and groups.

On the left side, you can see the list of groups, here you can select a group in which you want to add the user, or else you can create a new group with a set of permission levels and add users to the group. To create a customized group, click on the more then click on the dropdown arrow next to the New, click on the New group.

add user to sharepoint group office 365 — creating new SharePoint group in SharePoint site

Then add group name, description and add group owner.

grant user access to sharepoint site office 365 — create a new group for SharePoint classic site

Next to the group setting, under ‘who can view the membership of the group?‘, select group member or else if you want everyone can view the membership of the group then select everyone.
Under ‘who can edit the membership of the group?’, select group owner, or else you want group member can edit the membership of the group then select group membership.
Next to membership request, under ‘Allow request to join the group?’, select no. Otherwise, if you are selecting yes then you send an email to accept the membership.
Then we add the permission level i.e the group member of this group having the permission to do action according to the permission. you can choose the permission level according to your requirement.
1. Full control – has full control
2. Design – can view, add, update, delete, approve, and customize.
3. Edit – can add, edit, delete and list; can view, add, update, delete list items and documents.
4. Contribute – can view, add, update, and delete list items and documents.
5. Read – can view pages and list items and documents.
6. Restricted view – can view pages, list items, and documents. Documents can be viewed in the browser but not downloaded.
7. View only – can view pages, list items, and documents. Documents type with server-side file handlers and can be viewed from the browser but not downloaded.

Note: If your requirement is not satisfied with the default permission level, then you can create a new customized permission level in the SharePoint site-> gear icon-> Site setting-> User and Permission-> Site Permissions-> Permission level-> Add permission level.

And also you can create a new permission level in the SharePoint modern site by following the same steps. According to the permission level, users can use the SharePoint site.

Check out a detailed article on SharePoint permission levels.

Click on Create.

allow all users to access sharepoint site — create a group in classic SharePoint site

Now, we can add new user to this newly created group of SharePoint classic site.

Before adding new user make sure that you are in People and Groups -> marketing

Click the dropdown next to the New, select Add user.

how to grant user access to sharepoint site

Next to Invite people, enter the name and email address, and also you can add a personal message.
Click on Share.

how to grant user access in sharepoint — adding user to group of SharePoint classic site

Now, you can see one more member is added to the group of SharePoint classic site.

Note: If you want to create a new group and customized permission level for the SharePoint Modern site. You can create a new group the same as the SharePoint Classic site and the only difference is, how to find the advanced site permissions, therefore for advanced site permissions, open SharePoint Modern site -> Gear icon/settings -> site permission -> Advanced permission settings -> after that you can follow the same step as classic SharePoint site.

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Add a user to an existing SharePoint group

In the above steps, we talked about how to create a new group and add users into that group. Now, let us check out how to add a user to an existing SharePoint group.

Open the SharePoint Online site (Classic site) -> click on the gear icon -> then click on the Site Settings.

Then in the Site Settings page click on Site permissions that is under Users and Permissions.

Then you can see all the users and groups available like below.

Now to grant user access to the SharePoint site, click on the Grant Permissions button from the ribbon.

Then this will open the Share dialog box. Here fill the below things:

Select the user whom you want to grant access to the SharePoint site.
Then put a small message if you want to in the message box.
Next, click on the show options and there you can see by default the check box “Send an email invitation” will be checked. If you do not want to send an email then uncheck this option.
Select a permission level is very important here, by default the Members (Edit) permission will be select. Here, when you click on the dropdown, you can see it will display all the SharePoint groups, and also it will display the individual permission levels. You can see below in the picture.
Here, it is always better to choose a SharePoint group, once you choose, the user will be added to the SharePoint group.
But if you choose an individual permission level like Full Control, Design, Edir, or Contribute, etc, then the user will be directly added to the SharePoint site which is a very bad practice.

You can see below, I have selected the Contribute access and the user has been added to the SharePoint site directly.

Imagine, if you will add hundreds of users directly, how difficult it will be to maintain the permission for those users.