SharePoint List External User Contribute but not allowed to View Other Person's Entry

Question

I have a SharePoint List with unique permission set.

External person with external domain can enter their each day working duration and after entry of each line item columns, he or she will not be able to edit.

The same External person only allowed to view own entry but not other person's entry (should not be able to remove filter as well), how should I set this?

Answer 1

Dear C_i,

From the information you provided, you seem to want the external users to do the following.

1. The external users can create a new item in the list, but they can't edit the created item after creating it.
2. The external users can only view their own created items and can't remove the filtered view.

If yes, the default item-level permission can only let users see their own created items but can't disable their ability to edit the items.

First set the item-level permission as follows via Settings>List Settings>Advanced Settings.

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To make them only read their own created items, you need a custom permission level. You as an administrator, you can click on Settings>Site Permissions>Advanced permissions settings>Permission Levels>click on Read>copy the Read permission level by clicking on Copy Permission Level>name the new permission level such as CustomPermission>only check Add items.

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Go back to Site Settings>Site Permissions>Advanced permissions settings>Create Group>name the group such as External Group A>don't check any permission level>Create>New>Add users to this group>add all external users you want to create a new item on the list.

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Go back to the list>Settings>List Settings>Permissions for this list>set the list as the unique permission and grant the custom permission level Custom Permission to the external group External Group A.

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To verify the result, filter the list on the All items view and save the filter view as the default view, then use the external user accounts to access the list to see the outcome.

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If you need some automatic process, you can also set this with Power Automate. But you need to first get the custom permission id and then use API in the flow. If you need the flow solution, welcome to let us know and we'll try to help you further.

Thank you for your time and effort.

Sincerely

Cliff | Microsoft Community Moderator

Answer 2

This is very clear. Thanks.

may I ask, can I dont set external user permission at site level and just do it at list level?

"Settings>Site Permissions>Advanced permissions settings>Permission Levels>click on Read>copy the Read permission level by clicking on Copy Permission Level>name the new permission level such as CustomPermission>only check Add items."

Also, just to understand a bit, how Power Automate can help in this? Sorry, I only use Power Automate to generate regular reminder emails, don't know Power Automate is so powerful.

Answer 3

Dear C_i,

Thanks for your updates and kindness.

The custom permission level needs to be created on the Site Permission page. But it doesn't mean that you set the permission level on external users on the site level. It just creates a custom permission level. You can use it on the site level or the list level or the item level and so on.

After creating the custom permission level on the Site Permission page, you can grant it as the unique permission on the external users on the list level.

For the second question, the answer is Yes. The flow can disable the users' edit permission on their created items and grant the Read permission as the unique permission on them on the created items automatically instead of using the built-in item-level settings.

Generally, it is simple if you just want to do that with the permission level change from Edit to Read. You can use the Stop sharing an item or a file connector and the Grant access to an item or a folder connector to do that.

For your reference: Manage list item and file permissions with Power Automate | Microsoft Learn

As you also needs to prevent users from clearing the default filter, the custom permission level is required. The two connectors above can only work with the Read and Edit permission level, so it may be a little difficult in your current situation. You need to use the Send an HTTP request to SharePoint connector with Rest API in the flow to grant the custom permission level as the unique permission on the external users automatically.

For your reference: Solved: Change Permissions for SharePoint List item on New... - Power Platform Community (microsoft.com)

Working with the SharePoint Send HTTP Request flow action in Power Automate | Microsoft Learn

Power Automate is powerful and can work with most of the Microsoft 365 services as an automatic solution on some specific requirements in SharePoint Online and other services.

If you need to achieve the requirement with other data source, you may need to use Power Automate.

If you only let external users work on the list itself, the way I provided above is the simplest way.

Welcome to share some updates at your convenience if you need further help on this issue.

Thank you for your time and effort.

Sincerely

Cliff | Microsoft Community Moderator

Answer 4

Hi Cliff,

Wish to understand a bit more, if I set custom permission at Site Permission page, how can I prevent the external user from accessing site level content?

Answer 5

Dear C_i,

After you create a custom permission level, you can use it on the site level or the list level or the item level and so on.

You can just only grant the custom permission level to the external users with the unique permission on the specific site list. You can create a SharePoint group, add multiple external users to the group and grant the custom permission level to the group on only the site list with the unique permission.

Then all the external users in the group can only access the site list and can't access other site content.

To grant the permission level with the unique permission, you can go to the settings of the list>Permissions for this list>Stop Inheriting Permissions.

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Customize permissions for a SharePoint list or library - Microsoft Support

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Welcome to share some updates at your convenience if you need further help on this issue.

Thank you for your time and effort.

Sincerely

Cliff | Microsoft Community Moderator