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,

According to our research, there are some features like “Views, Approve and Check in & Check out” may affect the view of a list for users.

For example, numbers of items to be displayed in the SharePoint Online list depends on the number defined at the Item Limitin the View.

So to narrow down whether the issue is related to these features or not, I would suggest you go to the affected list> List settings >Permissions for this list>Check permissions for your users.

If they have the related permission, that means the issue may be related to that features.

And if you need further help, could you please share some sample screenshots of these affected lists for a better understanding?

Best Regards,

May

Answer 3

Hi Aimee, 

May I know if you need further help? If so ,please feel free to contact me.

Best Regards,

May

Answer 4

Hi May,

I checked the permissions, and they should be showing everything. I even did a test where I assigned them full control. They were still not able to see any of the previous invoices. If I made them an "owner", then they were able to see everything.

Answer 5

Hi Aimee，

Thank you for updating.

To narrow the issue, I would recommend you **Delete unique permissions for the problematic list (**Navigate to the problematic list page>Settings).

And then add a user to the Site Member Group. (Navigate to the site Home page>Settings)

If the user in the site member group can see the previous items, that means there may be something wrong with the custom permission level.

Otherwise, could you please share a sample screenshot of the problematic list? And please mask the URL to protect your privacy.

Best Regards,

May