Need Excel workbook to be in shared mode on SharePoint site

Question

I need some help with an Excel file I currently have on a SharePoint site. Prior to this year, I had my Excel workbook on a traditional network drive here at my work and I had the workbook in 'shared' mode to allow multiple users to enter data at one time. We are using Excel 365.

with the start of 2022, I was told my workbook needed to be moved to a newly created SharePoint site. When I moved the workbook to the new SharePoint site, my users started to receive error message when trying to open the workbook. We removed the workbook from SharePoint, turned off the legacy 'shared' mode, then re-uploaded the workbook back to the SharePoint site.

This seemed to solve the messages when opening the file, the downside is now only one user can be entering data into the workbook at a time. My question is this.....what do I need to do to allow multiple users to enter data in the workbook now that the workbook in on a SharePoint site? There is security access given to users to allow them to access the directory the file is located in. I don't know the name of every single user who may need to access the file as it changes due to job movement, new hires, and terminations.

Answer 1

Hi @scott luczu ,

There is some information that needs to be confirmed with you.

First, when only one user can enter data into the workbook, what about other users at the same time, is it read-only? What warnings or errors are displayed when opening?
Second, if you don't know the user's account in the site, how do you give them permission, they need at least edit permission.
Third. Is the office online or the client APP reporting an error? Please try both open methods and see if the same thing happens.
Fourth. Is check-in and check-out enabled for this workbook? If it's on, turn it off.

I did a test in my environment, but the situation is a little different than yours. I will show you my testing process for your reference.
I create a workbook in my traditional network drive. And set it to “shared” mode as below.

I upload it to site, and open it. You can see there is a warning in the interface. Then click “Turn Off” to turn off the feature.

Then create a group on the site level and assign it an “Edit” permission.

Then ,the user of group11 can edit the workbook at the same time.

Learn more about co-authoring, Please click https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/office/document-collaboration-and-co-authoring-ee1509b4-1f6e-401e-b04a-782d26f564a4
Thanks,
Yanli Jiang

===========================================

If the answer is helpful, please click "Accept Answer" and kindly upvote it. If you have extra questions about this answer, please click "Comment".
Note: Please follow the steps in our documentation to enable e-mail notifications if you want to receive the related email notification for this thread.