SharePoint Online: What PowerShell can detect cases where an item has the same permission as its parent, delete unique permissions, and have it inherit permissions from its parent?

Question

Hi

In my SharePoint Online document libraries, several items (files and folders) have unique permissions while they should inherit from their parent folder as their parent folders have exactly the same permissions.
What PowerShell can detect each such case where an item has the same permission as its parent, delete unique permissions, and have it inherit permissions from its parent?

Thanks.

Answer 1

@frob

Based on your description, I understand that you want to delete all unique permissions for files and folder in a document library.

1.Remove unique permissions for all folders in a document library.

#Set Variables  
$SiteURL = "https://crescent.sharepoint.com/sites/marketing/2018"  
$FolderURL = "/Shared Documents" #Document Library Site Relative URL  

#Connect to PnP Online  
Connect-PnPOnline -Url $SiteURL -Interactive  #-Credentials (Get-Credential)  

#Function to reset permissions of all Sub-Folders  
Function Reset-SubFolderPermissions($FolderURL)  
{  
    #Get all sub-folders of the Folder - Exclude system folders  
    $SubFolders = Get-PnPFolderItem -FolderSiteRelativeUrl $FolderURL -ItemType Folder | Where {$_.Name -ne "Forms" -and $_.Name -ne "Document"}  

    #Loop through each sub-folder  
    ForEach($SubFolder in $SubFolders)  
    {  
        $SubFolderURL = $FolderUrl+"/"+$SubFolder.Name  
        Write-host -ForegroundColor Green "Processing Folder '$($SubFolder.Name)' at $SubFolderURL"  

        #Get the Folder Object - with HasUniqueAssignments and ParentList properties  
        $Folder = Get-PnPFolder -Url $SubFolderURL -Includes ListItemAllFields.HasUniqueRoleAssignments, ListItemAllFields.ParentList, ListItemAllFields.ID  

        #Get the List Item of the Folder  
        $FolderItem = $Folder.ListItemAllFields  

        #Check if the Folder has unique permissions  
        If($FolderItem.HasUniqueRoleAssignments)  
        {  
            #Reset permission inheritance  
            Set-PnPListItemPermission -List $FolderItem.ParentList -Identity $FolderItem.ID -InheritPermissions  
            Write-host "`tUnique Permissions are removed from the Folder!"  
        }  

        #Call the function recursively  
        Reset-SubFolderPermissions $SubFolderURL  
    }  
}  

#Call the function  
Reset-SubFolderPermissions $FolderURL  

2.Remove unique permissions for all files in a document library.

#Set Variables  
$SiteURL = "https://crescent.sharepoint.com/sites/Marketing"  
$ListName = "Documents"  

#Connect to PnP Online  
Connect-PnPOnline -Url $SiteURL -Credentials (Get-Credential)  

#Get all list items in batches  
$ListItems = Get-PnPListItem -List $ListName -PageSize 500  

#Iterate through each list item  
ForEach($ListItem in $ListItems)  
{  
    #Check if the Item has unique permissions  
    $HasUniquePermissions = Get-PnPProperty -ClientObject $ListItem -Property "HasUniqueRoleAssignments"  
    If($HasUniquePermissions)  
    {         
        $Msg = "Deleting Unique Permissions on {0} '{1}' at {2} " -f $ListItem.FileSystemObjectType,$ListItem.FieldValues["FileLeafRef"],$ListItem.FieldValues["FileRef"]  
        Write-host $Msg  
        #Delete unique permissions on the list item  
        Set-PnPListItemPermission -List $ListName -Identity $ListItem.ID -InheritPermissions  
    }  
}  

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