How to automatically remove access from certain subfolders within a SharePoint document library

Question

Hi All,

I am trying to automatically remove access from subfolders that are located in a "Job Folder" in a document library.

Here is the folder that we use as a template to make more "Jobs"

Inside this folder are 4 subfolders

The access to the bottom two folders needs to remain the same because everyone needs to access those folders, but for every "Job'" we need to remove site members and visitors from being able to access the top two folders.

Is there any way to automate this instead of going into each "Job" and removing the access from the two top folders? I have tried to use desktop flows in power automate but they are not consistent when removing access.

Answer 1

Hi @Austin Admin ,

You could remove group from Folder Permissions using PowerShell as a workaround.

PowerShell commands:

#Load SharePoint CSOM Assemblies  
Add-Type -Path "C:\Program Files\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\Web Server Extensions\16\ISAPI\Microsoft.SharePoint.Client.dll"  
Add-Type -Path "C:\Program Files\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\Web Server Extensions\16\ISAPI\Microsoft.SharePoint.Client.Runtime.dll"  
   
Function Remove-SPOGroupPermissionsFromList()  
{  
  param  
    (  
        [Parameter(Mandatory=$true)] [string] $SiteURL,  
        [Parameter(Mandatory=$true)] [string] $FolderURL,  
        [Parameter(Mandatory=$true)] [string] $GroupName  
    )  
    
    Try {  
        #Get credentials to connect  
        $Cred= Get-Credential  
        $Credentials = New-Object Microsoft.SharePoint.Client.SharePointOnlineCredentials($Cred.Username, $Cred.Password)  
    
        #Setup the context  
        $Ctx = New-Object Microsoft.SharePoint.Client.ClientContext($SiteURL)  
        $Ctx.Credentials = $Credentials  
        $Web = $Ctx.web  
    
        #Get the Folder  
        $Folder = $Web.GetFolderByServerRelativeUrl($FolderURL)  
        $Ctx.Load($Folder)  
        $Ctx.ExecuteQuery()  
        
        #Break Permission inheritence - Keep all existing list permissions & Don't keep Item level permissions  
        $Folder.ListItemAllFields.BreakRoleInheritance($True,$False)  
        $Ctx.ExecuteQuery()  
        Write-host -f Yellow "Folder's Permission inheritance broken..."  
         
        #Get the SharePoint Site Group object  
        $Group =$Web.SiteGroups.GetByName($GroupName)  
        $Ctx.load($Group)  
   
        #Get permissions assigned to the folder  
        $Ctx.Load($Folder.ListItemAllFields.RoleAssignments)  
        $Ctx.ExecuteQuery()  
   
        #Check if the Group has permission on the list  
        [Bool]$GroupFound = $False  
        ForEach($RoleAssignment in $Folder.ListItemAllFields.RoleAssignments)  
        {  
            $ctx.Load($RoleAssignment.Member)  
            $Ctx.ExecuteQuery()  
   
            #remove Group permission from folder  
            If($RoleAssignment.Member.LoginName -eq $Group.LoginName)  
            {  
                $Folder.ListItemAllFields.RoleAssignments.GetByPrincipal($Group).DeleteObject()  
                $Ctx.ExecuteQuery()  
                $GroupFound = $True  
                Write-host "Group Permissions Removed from the List Successfully!" -ForegroundColor Green   
            }  
        }  
        #If Group doesn't exist in list permissions  
        If($GroupFound -eq $False) { Write-host "Group Not found in List Permissions!" -ForegroundColor Red}  
    }  
    Catch {  
       write-host -f Red "Error Removing Group permissions from the Folder!" $_.Exception.Message  
    }  
}  
   
#Config Variables  
$SiteURL="https://xxx"  
$FolderURL="/xxx/xxx"  
$GroupName="xxx"  
   
#Call the function to remove Group permissions from a list  
Remove-SPOGroupPermissionsFromList -SiteURL $SiteURL -FolderURL $FolderURL -GroupName $GroupName  

For Reference: Remove Group from Folder Permissions using PowerShell
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