Restrict Access function in Word not showing, and Restrict Editing not finding users on our Domain

Question

Having an issue in Word where i'm trying to restrict access to certain people to allow them to be able to edit a doc.

In Restrict Editing, where you select the area to want to lock down from being edited and then select the users you don't want to have editing rights, it brings up the error "Some of the users you have entered could not be added to the list b/c their names could not be verified".

It notes to enter the user as follows DOMAIN\name; someone@example.com

I've tried adding someone from our company every which way I can think of and yet it still doesn't pick them up in Word, Excell is fine.

I also don't have the option under File>Info>Protect Document>Restrict Access. Restrict Access is missing altogether. We have Office 365 Business Premium Subscription so unsure why it doesn't exist.

Have tried to permission users in SharePoint as well and it's not working, everyone can open and save the doc and keep editing.

Any ideas would be very welcome here.

Answer 1

Dear Jenm_78

Good day! Thank you for posting in Microsoft Community.

Based on your description, it seems that when you use the Restrict Editing function in Word and type the user name you got the error message.

1. For the Restrict Access function in Word, if you want to use Restrict access function to documents, you should Restrict access to documents with Information Rights Management in Word, which installation to be used. For your reference: Restrict access to documents with Information Rights Management in Word (microsoft.com)
2. if you want to restrict editing for some users in the documents, it would probably be easier to make use of a password for editing the document, too.

In Review tab>Restrict editing>Select the Yes, Start Enforcing Protection button.

Enter and then reenter a password in the Start Enforcing Protection dialog box.

Select the OK button to close the Start Enforcing Protection dialog box.

3.For the error message you got when use restrict editing function, to help us narrow down the behavior , we would like to collect more detailed information about the situation you are experiencing. Please kindly share with us the information below:

1. First please make sure these users in domain/admin group, you could not get the add users function to work unless they were a member of the domain/admin group. I also suggest you check users' permission in your environment.
2. Could you tell me where did you store this file in your environment?
3. Does other users in your organization have the same behavor in Word when use restrict editing function？
4. Can you tell us your Word product information? Go to Word>File>Account then share a screenshot to us.
5. Please kindly share a screenshot of the error message you got to us.

We’re looking forward to your reply and will continue to help you all the time!  If there are any misunderstanding or unclear, you can post back in your free time.

Your understanding and patience will be highly appreciated. I hope that you are keeping safe and well!

Sincerely,

Stacey | Microsoft Community Moderator

Answer 2

Thanks Stacey,

The first step sounds exactly like what I'm after. I've downloaded & installed the Windows Rights Management Services (RMS) Client Service Pack 1 (SP1), restarted my laptop however I don't get the option to "Restrict Permission by People" under "Protect Document". It's not there as an option so not sure what else is required to get RMS working. I will have our IT double check what I've done here.

We could protect with a password however was hoping not to choose that option as a password can easily be passed onto other staff we want to restrict access to so it's not our ideal solution.

For option 3 -

1. I'm unsure what domain/admin group" is referring to?" The users i'm wanting to restrict access are all inside of our business & part of our domain.
2. The file is stored on SharePoint. Users generally access the files using file explorer which links up to SharePoint. They don't typically use the online version of a doc.
3. Actually i've just logged in as another user & can see "Restrict Access" is at least showing under Permissions, however it said to connect to Rights Management Servers to get access, and then threw the error out that the machine isn't set up for IRM. So I've downloaded the above service pack to try and get that sorted out.
4. 
5. This is what I get when using the "Restrict Editing" feature. It's possible i'm not typing in the users username or email address exactly how they've asked for it, but we've tried every option we can think of. Normally you would start putting in a users email address or name and it will finish it off for you as they're on our domain.

Thanks for looking into this for me!

Jen

Answer 3

Dear Jenm_78

Thank you for your quick response and we also apprecite you spent your precious time doing the tests and providing the detailed screenshot and the information to us.

Per our tests again, we still can't reproduce the same result as yours, we can use the Restrict access function as below:

Since you mentioned the problem is only happened to Word document. there have one reason why user cannot see Restrict Access option is if someone access to a document, you have effectively lost all control over it. To confirm this situation, can you tell me if the file you opened is a shared file？

Other side, may I know does other users in your organization also can't see this option in your organization?

Welcome to update the latest situation to us, we'll continue to help you all the time.

Sincerely,

Stacey | Microsoft Community Moderator