SharePoint Online List Permissions [Complete tutorial]

In this SharePoint tutorial, we will discuss SharePoint list permissions. And also we will discuss how to create unique permission to SharePoint list or library. And also, we will see how to give item-level permission in SharePoint.

We will also discuss the below topics on SharePoint Online list permissions.

• How to assign unique permissions to a SharePoint Online list
• Change permissions levels in a SharePoint Online list
• Remove user permissions from the SharePoint Online list
• How to enable item-level permissions in a SharePoint Online List
• Allow anonymous access to SharePoint online list
• How to enable anonymous access to a SharePoint online list
• Share a SharePoint Online list item with an anonymous user
• Share a SharePoint Online list with an anonymous user
• SharePoint online list view Target Audience
• How to Enable Audience targeting in SharePoint online List

SharePoint list Permissions

As a SharePoint administrator or SharePoint site owner, you can change the permission, so that the right people can access the data that they need to access.

• In SharePoint by default, all sites, and list libraries in a site collection inherit the permission which is directly above them in the site hierarchy. This means a SharePoint site can inherit the permission from the root site and a SharePoint subsite can inherit the permission from the parent site.
• In a SharePoint, when a list contains more than 100,000 items, neither you can break permission inheritance on the list itself nor you can re-inherit the permission on the list itself.
• If you want to assign unique permission to a SharePoint list, we have to first break the permission inheritance and then we can assign unique permission.

Assign unique permissions to a SharePoint Online list

Now, let us check, how to assign unique permissions to a SharePoint Online list. For this first, we need to break the permission of the SharePoint list. By default, it will inherit the permission from the parent site.

Let us see how to break permission inheritance in the modern SharePoint Online list,

• Open the SharePoint online list for which you want to break the inherit permission, Select the settings gear icon, and click on List Settings.

• In the List setting page, Under Permissions and Management select the Permission for this list option.

• Now to break permission inheritance from the parent site, Select the Stop Inheriting Permissions under the Permissions tab.
• Once you break permission inheritance for the SharePoint list, you can assign unique permission or grant permission to the new user, and the modern SharePoint online list becomes the parent of the list items.

• In the pop-up box, click on the Ok button. Any changes made in the parent site permission will not affect the SharePoint list.

Once you break permission inheritance, we can see options to grant, modify, remove and check permission in the modern SharePoint Online list, under the Permissions tab as shown below:

This is how to break permission inheritance in the SharePoint Online list. Now, we can assign unique permissions to the SharePoint Online list.

Before that, Make sure you have stopped the inheritance permission for the list, only then we can assign unique permissions in the modern SharePoint list.

• Open the SharePoint online list -> Select the settings gear icon -> click on List Settings.
• In the List setting page, Under Permissions and Management select the Permission for this list option.
• To assign unique permission, select the Grant Permissions option under the Permissions tab. If you are unable to see the Grant permission option then the list is inheritance permission from the parent site.

• Now, In the dialogue box, we can invite the user by entering the name or email address to the Modern SharePoint list.
• We can also have an option to send an invite message which is an optional field.
• Once we click on the Show Options we can see another two options to send an email invitation and to select the Permission level for the selected user.
• If we want to send an email invitation to the selected user, we can check the checkbox else we can uncheck it.
• We can select the permission level for the user to access the SharePoint Online list.
• By default, the edit permission level is granted for the users, we can also change the permission level as mentioned below:
  • Full Control – Users have full control to access the SharePoint list, they can even add and delete members to the site.
  • Design – Users can create new document libraries, columns, and views, and also they can customize the layouts.
  • Edit – Users can add, view, edit and delete the SharePoint list, and also they can add, view, update and delete the SharePoint list items.
  • Contribute – Users can add, view, update and delete the SharePoint list.
  • Read – Users can only download documents and view the list, they cannot able to edit the SharePoint list.

• Click on the Share button to send the invitation to the selected users.

In the below screenshot, we can see that the Shared User is added with the assigned permissions under the Permissions tab.

This is how we can assign unique permissions in the modern SharePoint Online list

Read Grant user access to SharePoint site office 365

Restore inheritance to delete all unique permissions in the SharePoint Online List

Let us see how we can delete all the unique permissions to restore inheritance in the SharePoint online list,

• Open the SharePoint online list -> Select the settings gear icon -> click on List Settings.
• In the List setting page, Under Permissions and Management select the Permission for this list option.
• Under the Permissions tab, select the Delete unique permission from the inheritance option.

• Click on Ok to remove all the unique permissions, and it will restore inherit permission from the parent SharePoint site.

This is how we can delete all the unique permissions to restore inheritance in the SharePoint online list.

Read SharePoint 2013 list item level permission using REST API

Change permissions levels in a SharePoint Online list

Let us see how we can change permissions levels for the users in the SharePoint Online list.

• Open the SharePoint online list -> Select the settings gear icon -> click on List Settings.
• In the List setting page, Under Permissions and Management select the Permission for this list option.
• To change the permission level, Under the Permissions tab, Select or Check the user to whom you want to change the permissions.

In this example, I have selected the user name called Roselin who already has full control permission. Now I am going to change the full control permission to edit permission for the selected user.

In the Edit Permissions section, Under Permissions Select or check the permission that you want to change and click on the Ok button to save your changes.

In the below screenshot, you can see that Permission has changed for the selected user called Roselin from the full control permission to edit permission.

This is how to change permissions levels for the users in the SharePoint Online list.

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Remove user permissions from the SharePoint Online list

Let us see how we can remove user permissions from a SharePoint Online list,

• Open the SharePoint online list -> Select the settings gear icon -> click on List Settings.
• In the List setting page, Under Permissions and Management select the Permission for this list option.
• Under the Permissions tab, Select or Check the user whom you want to remove from the SharePoint list.

In this example, I am going to remove a user name called Roselin from the SharePoint list.

• In the pop-up box, click on the Ok button, to remove the user from the SharePoint list.

In the below screenshot, you can see that the selected user called Roselin is removed from the SharePoint list.

This is how we can Remove user permissions from the SharePoint Online list.

Read SharePoint Online List Web Part

Enable item-level permissions in a SharePoint Online List

Let us see how to enable item level permission in a SharePoint Online list,

Yes, it is possible to set item level permission in the modern SharePoint list, follow the below steps to achieve this:

• Open the SharePoint online list -> Select the settings gear icon -> click on List Settings.
• In the List setting page, Under the General settings click on the Advanced settings option.

• In the Advanced settings page, under Item level permissions we can specify which item users can edit and read.
• By default, item-level permission set to
  • Read all items – Anyone who has permission to access the SharePoint list can read all items in the SharePoint Online list.
  • Create and edit all items – Anyone who has permission to access the SharePoint list can create and edit all the items in the SharePoint Online list.

• Once the changes are made, scroll down and click on the Save button to commit your changes.

We can also change the item level which is mentioned above to :

• Read access
  • Read items that were created by the user option, where the logged-in user can able to see the items in the list only when the items are created by that user. The SharePoint Online list displays the items that are created by the user. They cannot view the other items on the list.
• Create and Edit access
  • Create and Edit access that was created by the user option, where the logged-in user can only edit the items if the items were created by the logged-in user.
  • If you try to edit other items in the SharePoint list that are not created by you, then you will get an error message like sorry you don’t have access error.

This is how to enable item-level permission in the SharePoint Online list.

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Allow anonymous access to SharePoint online list

Let us discuss what is anonymous access in SharePoint and how we can enable anonymous access to the SharePoint online list.

What is anonymous access in SharePoint?

• Without Login to the SharePoint site, the anonymous users can access the SharePoint site. And Anonymous access is the permission granted to anonymous users to access the SharePoint collection.
• When we enable anonymous access to the SharePoint Online list, by Sharing the link, the anonymous users can access the SharePoint site’s files and folder. It is accessible only through the link.
• The anonymous users cannot access the Whole SharePoint site, if the anonymous user wants to access the whole site, then they should be added as a guest in the groups to access the SharePoint site.

How to enable anonymous access to a SharePoint online list

Let us see how can we enable anonymous access to the SharePoint Online list,

yes, it is possible to share the folders and files with the anonymous user by Sharing an anonymous link, they can access it without signing to the SharePoint site.

We can only see the anonymous access option in the List permission settings ribbon only on the SharePoint 2013 and SharePoint 2016 versions.

Follow the below steps to enable the anonymous access to the SharePoint online list:

• Click on the Office365 App Launcher and then click on the Admin.

• Choose Show all options and then select the SharePoint option under Admin centers.

• Under Sites, option-> click on the Active sites to view all the active sites.

• Select the Sharepoint site for which you want to share with the anonymous user or external user, and click on the Sharing icon.

Here you can pick the Anyone option from the below options and click on the Save button to share the files and folders with an anonymous user or external user using links.

• Anyone: If you choose this option, then anyone with the link can access the site (files and folders, etc) without sign-in.
• New and existing guests: If you choose this option, then both new and existing guests can access the site contents by signing in or by providing a code.
• Existing guests only: If you choose existing guests only, then your organization’s existing guests only can access the content.
• Only people in your organization: In this case, there will not be any external sharing for the site. The site only is accessible to your internal users.

• Now open the SharePoint site collection, select the list item that you want to share with an anonymous user, and click on the Share option presented in the toolbar.

Read How to delete all items from SharePoint list

Share a SharePoint Online list item with an anonymous user

The below example represents, how to share the SharePoint Online list item with an anonymous user.

• Select the list item that you want to share with an anonymous user, and click on the Share option presented in the toolbar.
• It is not possible to select Multiple list items to share with an anonymous user, we can share only a single list item with an anonymous user.

• Once the Share option is selected, you can able to see the Link settings option, now select the Anyone with the link option and click on the Apply button.
• When you select Allow editing option under the other settings, The anonymous user has permission to edit and save the list item.

• Here you can type the anonymous user email address or name and select send option to share the link, or you can either copy the link and share it manually by selecting the Copy link option.

• The anonymous user can see the shared SharePoint Online list item without login into the SharePoint site as shown below:
• An Anonymous user viewed the Shared SharePoint Online list item, without signing in to the SharePoint site.

This is how we can Share the SharePoint Online list item with an anonymous user.

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Share a SharePoint Online list with an anonymous user

The below example represents, how we can share the SharePoint Online list with an anonymous user.

• Open the SharePoint online list that you want to share with an anonymous user, and click on the Share option presented in the toolbar.

• Once the Share option is selected, you can able to see the Link settings option, now select the Anyone with the link option and click on the Apply button.
• Under Other settings, when you select the can edit items option, then the anonymous user can edit the Shared SharePoint list. They can edit, view, modify and add new list items to the SharePoint Online list.

• Here you can type the anonymous user email address or name and select send option to share the link, or you can either copy the link and share it manually by selecting the Copy link option.

• The anonymous user can see the shared SharePoint Online list without login into the SharePoint site as shown below:
• An Anonymous user viewed the Shared SharePoint Online list, without signing in to the SharePoint site.

This is how we can Share the SharePoint Online list with an anonymous user.

This is how to enable anonymous access to the SharePoint Online list.

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SharePoint online list view Target Audience

Let us discuss audience targeting and how can we enable and use the target audience in the SharePoint Online list.

Yes, it is possible to set an audience targeting the SharePoint Online list.

• Audience targeting is useful when you want to share some information that is applicable only to specific people or groups.
• We can add audience targeting for the List items, only the targeted user can able to see the list item in the SharePoint online list.

How to Enable Audience targeting in SharePoint online List

Let us see how can we enable audience targeting in the SharePoint online List,

• Open the SharePoint online list for which you want to set an audience targeting.
• Select the settings gear icon and click on the List settings as shown below:

• Then Select the Audience targeting settings under the General settings in the SharePoint list page settings.

• In Enable Audience Targeting, select or check the Enable audience targeting check box and click on the Ok button to save your changes.

• Once the Audience targeting is enabled, you can the Audience column is added to the SharePoint list as below:

• Now select the list item for which you want to target the audience, Either click on the I circled icon to edit or select the Edit option available in the toolbar, and add the audiences that you have to target for the selected list items.
• We can enter a maximum of 50 audiences. Then click Save.

• In the below screenshot, you can see that the targeted audience has been added to an audience column in the SharePoint online list.

• In the below screenshot, you can see that I have logged in with a different user to test the audience targeting, where I can only see the SharePoint Online list items that have no targeted audience.

This is how to enable audience targeting in the SharePoint Online List.

In this SharePoint Online tutorial, we learned about the SharePoint Online List Permission, and how we can break permission inheritance in the modern SharePoint list. Also Covered the below topics:

• Assign unique permissions in the modern SharePoint Online list
• Restore inheritance to delete all unique permissions in the modern SharePoint Online List
• Change permissions levels in the modern SharePoint Online list
• Remove user permissions in the modern SharePoint Online list
• Enable item-level permissions in the SharePoint Online List
• Allow anonymous access to SharePoint online list
• What is anonymous access in the Modern SharePoint list
• How we can enable anonymous access to the SharePoint online list
• Share the SharePoint Online list item with an anonymous user
• Share the SharePoint Online list with an anonymous user
• SharePoint online list view Target Audience
• How to enable audience targeting in SharePoint online List

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