How to share files from SharePoint site with collaborators without giving them access to the whole site

Question

I am a Site Owner on a SharePoint site that I built for my office team. I want to share specific files that live on our Site with collaborators who are in the same institution but not on the SharePoint site. I cannot share the whole site with them as we have some confidential content on the site. But I am getting this error when I try to share these files. This is a file I created so I am the owner of the folder. I'd appreciate any support that can be provided!

Answer 1

Dear @Hannah Thompson, 

I hope you're having a nice day. Thank you for reaching out to the Microsoft Q&A forum and for sharing your concerns. 

I understand how inconvenient it must be to maintain confidentiality while trying to share specific files from your SharePoint site with collaborators who are not site members. Based on the error message you've received, this issue is typically caused by restricted sharing settings, either at the site level or across your organization. 

To share individual files without granting access to the entire site, please follow the steps below: 

Note: These actions require SharePoint Administrator or Global Admin permissions. 

1/ First, I recommend checking whether the Limited-access user permission lockdown mode feature is active on your site. This feature can prevent sharing even for Site Owners. 

Go to your SharePoint site. 

Click the gear icon (⚙️) > Site Information.

   

Select View all site settings. 

 

Under Site Collection Administration, click Site collection features. 

Locate Limited-access user permission lockdown mode and click Deactivate. 

2/ Check Site-Level Sharing Settings 
Ensure your site allows sharing with users outside the site membership. 

Go to the Microsoft Admin center > SharePoint Admin Center 

Navigate to Sites > Active Sites. 

Select your site and click Sharing. 

Set the sharing level to “New and existing guests” or “Anyone”. 

Save your changes. 

3/ Check Organization-Level Sharing Settings 
If site-level settings are correct, but sharing is still restricted, your organization may have global sharing limitations. 

Go to the Microsoft 365 Admin Center. 

Navigate to Settings > Org Settings > SharePoint. 

Under user sharing, ensure sharing with guests or anonymous users is allowed. 

Additionally, you can configure more advanced external sharing options depending on your organization’s policies and compliance requirements. 

Additional information is available in the following resource: 

Sharing options are grayed out when sharing from SharePoint Online or OneDrive - SharePoint | Micro… 

Limit sharing in Microsoft 365 | Microsoft Learn 

You can try these workarounds and update us. While our initial response might not always resolve the issue right away, your input and any additional details you can share will really help us work together toward a solution. Your cooperation means a lot, and it helps us ensure that we can deliver the best possible support tailored to your situation. 

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