SharePoint is a completely permission driven platform which enables you to manage the permission at any level of content.
Here we are going to discuss how we can efficiently manage the permission for the documents in SharePoint Library.
How to manage permissions for entire SharePoint library
The current web is the parent for any SharePoint document library. So, when you create a new document library in SharePoint it will inherit all the permission from the parent (the permission of the web).
Whatever the permission users have on the site will be inherited to the document library as well. If users have Contribute permission at the site level the same user will have Contribute permission to the document library also.
Now what if you want to maintain some confidential documents within the site. We will see how to do it.
Go to Library Settings and look for Permissions settings as below,
In the next page you can find that you will not be able to remove/add permissions since it is inheriting from the parent site. Now click, stop inheriting permissions option at the top left of the page,
Now this page will turn like below,
You can find lot of options enabled for you as I listed below,
- First, now you will be able to select all the users/groups listed in this page.
- After selecting, you will be able to remove that user/group completely from accessing this library by using “Remove User Permissions”
- After selecting, you will be able to modify the permission level by using “Edit User Permissions”. In the next page you can choose a different permission level.
- Also, if you want to add grant permission to specific users to this library you can do by clicking “Grant Permissions”. In the upcoming popup you can select the users and permission level to be granted for them like below,
- If you want again to inherit the permission from the site level, click “Delete unique permissions” which will reset all the steps that you have done above.
Note: It is not possible to break the inheritance on a document library if the number of documents in it crossed the threshold limit. So please plan your permission management earlier.
How to manage permission for a single document within SharePoint document library?
It’s as simple as creating a document. Yes, just open your document library and select the document then go to the properties panel and click “Manage Access” like below
In the upcoming panel popup select the dropdown arrow next to the user/group for which you want to remove the permission and select “Stop Sharing” like below,
Now, the specific user/group won’t have access to this specific document, but still they will have the same permission level to other documents in the library.
I hope this article helped you to understand the different ways you can follow to manage the permissions for the document within the SharePoint document library.