How can you Allow Editing but Prevent Downloading and "Opening in Excel" on One Drive for a Excel file

Question

Hello,

I've been struggling to make a Excel document I am sharing locked. Essentially I want to be able to share the Excel file on One Drive so it can be accessed by my team. I want them to be able to EDIT the document however I do not want to allow them to Download or Open the document on their personal machines. Essentially I want the Excel file to be locked to One Drive but remain Editable ONLY IN ONE DRIVE.

I've tried the various thing about adjusting the "Permissions" in the Site Settings/Site Permissions. However this still did not prevent the shared user from simply opening the file in Excel on their machine and saving it. Here is what the permission level I allowed for this user:

I unchecked "Use Client Integration Features" to see if this would disable being able to open it as Excel or PDF on their local machine. After doing this the user kept getting the following message:

Is there any way to allow users to access this Excel document, Edit it, and not allow them to save it or "open" it on their local machine which will then let them save it. See picture here to see this access still exists despite all of the above steps.

Answer 1

Dear @MP,

Thank you for reaching out to Microsoft Q&A forum.

I understand your specific requirement: you want team members to edit an Excel file directly within OneDrive or SharePoint Online while strictly preventing them from downloading, copying, or opening it in the desktop Excel application.

From my research, the issue is that the standard SharePoint/OneDrive permission system (even when customizing settings like "Use Client Integration Features") does not provide the granular control necessary to allow editing and simultaneously block the "Download" or "Open in Desktop App" actions, as those actions are necessary functions of the Edit permission level.

The most reliable solution is to use Microsoft Sensitivity Labels, part of Microsoft Purview Information Protection, to apply encryption and policy restrictions directly to the Excel file. Sensitivity Labels can enforce view/edit permissions while denying download and export. However, note that users could still attempt to save a copy unless the label explicitly denies Extract/Copy and Print rights for the designated group.

To implement this, please contact your IT administrator. They can:

• Create a custom Sensitivity Label in the Microsoft Purview compliance portal.
• Configure the label to allow view/edit only and deny download, export, print, and copy.
• Publish and apply the label to the Excel file in OneDrive or SharePoint Online.

For reference: Create and publish sensitivity labels | Microsoft Learn
Once your IT administrator has created a label, you can apply it to your Excel file by going to Home > Sensitivity.

If you need further assistance, I recommend that the Global Admin in your organization create a service request with Microsoft Support. A technical support engineer can perform a remote session to investigate the situation, verify the backend configurations to provide a targeted solution, and run any necessary synchronization tools to resolve the problem. If the issue requires further attention, they can escalate it to a specialized team for deeper analysis. Ask The Global Admin in your organization to create a service request with Microsoft support to get advanced technical assistance and diagnostics. For detailed instructions on how to get support, please refer to Get support - Microsoft 365 admin. If you don't know who your IT administrator is, please refer to this article: How do I find my Microsoft 365 admin? - Microsoft Support 

For additional assistance, use this link to find the appropriate contact number: Global Customer Service phone numbers - Microsoft Support 

I truly hope you get your issue resolved swiftly. Please know that even though I can't directly intervene, directing you to the correct, specialized support is the most effective help I can provide from my position. Thank you for your patience and understanding. I'm looking forward to your reply.  

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