Disabling or controlling the new SharePoint experience - Message ID: MC1240699‎

Question

Hi,

I have the following questions regarding the new SharePoint experience (Message ID: MC1240699). Particularly, I am interested to know if any other organisations have been successful in controlling the new SharePoint experience, even if they have not been able to fully disable it.

• Is it possible to disable this experience for all users?
• If the disablement is not possible, could you confirm that this experience does not grant additional access and permissions to users. That is, they will not be able to access resources and perform functions that they don't already have permission to do.
• Can these options offered in the new experience - Discover, Publish, Build, and OneDrive - be disabled by configuring Global Navigation?
• Can the apps offered in the new experience be hidden in the App Launcher?
• Are there any other options available to revert the experience to the previous one, or to disable or hide the apps?
• We are particularly concerned with the 'Build' and the 'Publish' options in the new experience. It appears that these options invite users to perform actions that they would otherwise be unaware of, despite having permission to perform these actions.

Kind regards,

Nish

Answer 1

Dear @Nishanth Chakkere Ramesh,

Below are direct, specific answers to your questions regarding the new SharePoint experience (Message ID: MC1240699).

Question 1: Is it possible to disable this experience for all users?

• No, there is no permanent option to disable or opt out of the new experience tenant-wide once General Availability (GA) is deployed.
• While administrators could manage preview availability via SharePoint Admin Center > Settings > New SharePoint Experience, Microsoft rolls this out automatically across all tenants as the standard UI update.

Question 2: Does this experience grant additional access or permissions to users?

No, absolutely not.

The new SharePoint experience is strictly an interface and navigation redesign. It honors all your existing:

• SharePoint site permissions (Owner, Member, Visitor)
• Role-Based Access Control (RBAC)
• Microsoft 365 Group creation policies
• Licensing restrictions (e.g., AI-assisted features in Build/Publish require an active Microsoft 365 Copilot license)

Users will not gain access to any sites, files, libraries, or administrative actions they were not already explicitly authorized to access.

Question 3: Can Discover, Publish, Build, and OneDrive be disabled via Global Navigation?

• No. Configuring Global Navigation on your organizational Home Site allows you to add custom links and branding to the top of the app bar, but it does not suppress or remove the native entry points (Discover, Publish, Build, and OneDrive).

Question 4: Can the apps offered in the new experience be hidden in the App Launcher?

• No. The Microsoft 365 App Launcher (waffle menu) and the SharePoint App Bar operate on separate configuration frameworks. Customizing visible tiles in the App Launcher does not alter or hide the navigation hubs within the SharePoint App Bar.

Question 5: What controls are available to restrict actions in 'Build' and 'Publish'?

While you cannot hide the visual tabs, you can control and restrict the actual capabilities behind them using administrative policies:

1. To restrict 'Build' (Site Creation):
   • Navigate to the SharePoint Admin Center > Settings > Site creation.
   • Disable the option "Let users create SharePoint sites" or restrict site/group creation to a specific Security Group.
   Result: Users will see the Build tab, but when they attempt to create a site or list, the platform will block the action or direct them to your organization's approval process.
2. To restrict 'Publish' (Pages, News, Communications):
   • Publishing capabilities rely entirely on site-level write permissions. Users assigned as Visitors (Read-only) across your sites will be unable to draft or publish pages or news.

If your primary concern is preventing unauthorized or unmonitored site and content creation prompted by the Build and Publish entry points:

• Ensure Site Creation is restricted to authorized administrative groups in the SharePoint Admin Center.
• Review site-level permission assignments (Site Owners vs. Visitors) across key communication sites.

Please let me know if these explanations are unclear or if you need further assistance.

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