Share a folder on OneDrive with view only and not allow downloads

Question

I have Microsoft Office 365 Premium. I need to share a OneDrive folder with people. I am changing the access to Can View. However, I do not want the people to be able to download the files. The documentation says that I should click Block Download, but that is not an option. Can I turn this option on? Thanks for your help.

Answer 1

The Block download / Can't download option is only available for OneDrive for work or school (business) accounts. It is not available for personal/home Microsoft accounts, even if the subscription is Microsoft 365 Family or Personal.

For a home OneDrive account:

• Setting permission to Can view (or clearing Allow editing) will prevent others from editing or deleting the content, but they can still download or copy the files.
• The Block download / Can’t download control cannot be turned on because it is not supported for consumer OneDrive.

To reduce risk when sharing from a home account, limit access using Specific people and Can view so only named recipients can open the link, but download blocking itself is not possible.

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References:

• Block downloads for view-only files in SharePoint and OneDrive
• Share files and folders in Microsoft OneDrive
• Share files with my team members
• Secure your docs only to specific people
• See who a file is shared with in OneDrive or SharePoint
• Sharing files, folders, and list items
• Limit sharing in Microsoft 365

Answer 2

Hi. I'm Brian and I'll try to help.

Even if you could block downloading, there's no way to prevent someone from saving it to their computers. As long as they can display it on their screen, they can, at the very least, capture an image if it and at worse, may be able to copy the data to their clipboard and paste it into their own document.