Locking a list in SharePoint

Question

I have several lists where I add invoices and route them to the proper people for approval. They will go into the list and edit certain columns and Approve. Is there a way to lock a list so that they aren't able to delete items/columns, but are still able to edit fields within the columns? 

Also, is there a way to have only certain people view a list and they aren't able to see the others? I tried only sharing that certain list, but then they weren't able to access the SP at all until I added them to a member of the site. Once they were a member of the site, they can see everything.

Answer 1

Dear Aimee,

Sorry for the delayed reply.

I do a test with the permission level you showed in the screenshots above and users should see all items in the specific list.

I'd like to confirm whether the users can only see the newly added items created by them in the specific list each time when they add the new items each time. 

If yes, I guess that someone in your company creates a flow by using Power Automate to restrict users' view in the specific list. For example, the flow can be created as follows. 

Condition: When a new item created or modified by a user.

Result: Remove the user permissions on all existing items in the specific list and only grant user permission on the newly created item added by the user.

If the user add item 8 on the list, the flow will be automatically ran and the user's view will become the following on the list.

The site owner view is the following on the list.

So I suggest you contact other users and go to Power Automate to check whether someone creates such a flow created on the affected list in the site. If yes, let the flow creator removes the flow to see the result.

Best Regards,

Cliff

Answer 2

Hi Aimee，

Thank you for posting in this community.

You can set up how users access your SharePoint lists by customize site permissions and permission levels.

For your references:

User permissions and permission levels in SharePoint Server

SharePoint site permissions

For your questions, to meet your need, I would suggest you create a new Permission level in the first time. Like below:

1. Settings>Site Permissions> Advanced permissions settings.> Permission Levels.

2. Choose Add a Permission level then create a specific Edit permission level**.** ( I named it "Edit but can not delete items". And  about the detailed settings, you may need refer to the following screenshots)

The above Permission level can let users to edit items but limit them to delete items and columns. And based on my test, they can access a specific list with no problem.

Then you could assign the Permission level to your users to manage how they access a specific list.

And please see the following example:

1. Navigate to the specific List>Settings> List settings >Permissions for this list.
2. Choose Stop Inheriting Permissions. (This step can break the Permission inheritance from the Parent sites and avoid other site members to access the list. For your reference: Customize permissions for a SharePoint list or library)

 

3. Select Members Group and Visitors Group then Remove User Permissions to clear the  permissions from the current users.

4. Choose Grant permissions to invite and assign the specific Permission Level (Created according to above suggestion.) to your users. See screenshot:

 

And if you want let users only have the permission to view items in the List, just assign them the Read permission. 

And the following screenshots shows the result for the users with different Permission Levels to access the List.

For users only have the specific Edit permission level:

For users only have the Read permission level:

 

If you need further help, please feel free to contact me.

Best Regards,

May

Answer 3

Hi May,

I was able to get it to where people cannot delete items or columns, so thank you for that!

I am not able to get it to where people can only see certain lists though. I do not have a Stop Inheriting Permissions button. When I go into the Permissions for this list, below is what I see.

I am able to remove user permissions, but when I do that, it deletes all access for that user. They aren't even able to access the list they do have access to. I am the creator of the SP site, so I should have full access to everything.

Answer 4

Hi Aimee,

Thank you for clarifying.

According to your screenshot, it shows that you have stopped Inheriting Permissions of this list. Since if you click the Delete unique permissions button, and it will display Stop Inheriting Permissions in this area.

If you want to let people only see a certain list, you should stop inheriting permission of your whole site. And then assign them the access to the certain list. If you want to manage several lists, you should assign users the permission levels for those list.

As you mentioned, you deleted all access for that user, so they aren’t able to access the list they do have access to. So, I would suggest you assign them a permission level again. And please make sure the permission level has cheeked options as below to make sure they can assess your sites.

 

If you need further help, welcome to contact me. I will try my best to help you.

Best Regards,

May

Answer 5

Hi May,

The issue I'm having is that I am wanting everyone to have access to the SP site, as I have documents and news for everyone to view. I am able to assign access to people to certain lists, but then they aren't able to access the rest of the site to see everything else. Is there a way to grant them access to see the site, documents, and news but restrict the lists they see?

Thanks for your help!

Aimee