Overview of Loop workspaces storage and permissions

• Applies to:

  Microsoft Teams

Where the loop content was originally created determines its storage location. See the Loop Storage section in Summary of governance, lifecycle, and compliance capabilities for Loop for a diagram and more information.

Loop app's usage of organization's storage quota

Loop app workspaces are stored inside your tenant. Loop workspaces and pages count against your tenant's storage quota, starting November 2023. During the Loop app's Public Preview in 2023, Loop app content did not use your existing storage quota.

Content permissions mechanism

Each Loop app workspace uses storage for the workspace in SharePoint Embedded. Additionally, the Loop app creates a roster for that workspace to govern access to the full workspace. When pages are shared from the workspace, we create a sharing link using your company's default sharing link type as configured for OneDrive and SharePoint.

Sharing the workspace in Loop adds the user to the workspace roster. All workspace roster members have access and "editing" permissions to all the Loop pages in that workspace.

There's a distinction between sharing a specific Loop page with a user versus inviting them to a Workspace.

When you invite a user to a workspace, that user has access to all the pages in that workspace. Loop only supports inviting users to a workspace via this Workspace roster management flow, which enables access and sends an email invite to the invited users.

When you share only a Loop page, you're giving users access to that specific page exclusively (not the whole workspace). The user can choose to use a company share link or people-specific share link; unless their tenant admin disabled some of the share link types. When sharing a page, you can choose to grant the user "edit", or "read only" access.

Guest/External sharing

You can share Loop workspaces, pages, and components with users external to your company (guests) so they can collaborate with you. There are a few requirements that must be met for guest sharing to be possible:

• Your organization must allow sharing files with guest users. Learn how to manage this policy.
• The user you're sharing with must have a guest account in your tenant or Business-to-Business Invitation Manager is enabled.
• Your organization doesn't have sensitivity labels configured. Loop external sharing won't work for companies with sensitivity labels configured. Once sensitivity labels for Loop workspaces, pages, and components are generally available, then external sharing for companies with sensitivity labels configured will function.

Workspaces can only be shared with users that have an existing guest account in your tenant. If Business-to-business Invitation Manager is enabled, users can share a page or component with a guest user, which will enable the flow to create a guest account for the user.

If the above conditions are met, then you can share with guest users by:

1. Navigate to the Loop workspace or page you want to share (or, navigate to the Loop file within OneDrive).
2. Open the share menu in the top right of the screen within Loop (or, open the share menu next to the file while viewing it within OneDrive).
3. Choose if you want to share the workspace or page (only applies within Loop).
4. Enter the user's email address you wish to share with.
5. Select Send or Invite.

Sharing with external participants is done through "Share with specific people" links. Company-wide share links won't work with external participants. You must designate the guest user explicitly in the share dialog.

When a guest user accesses the Loop workspace, page, or component from the link from your organization, they sign in and access the shared content using their guest account. They'll need to utilize the share link again to access the Loop workspace, page, or component in the future, as the content from your organization won't be accessible via their standard account.

If you would like to disable guest sharing of Loop workspaces independently of your organization-level OneDrive and SharePoint sharing setting, please see set sharing capabilities of applications and use Owning App ID: a187e399-0c36-4b98-8f04-1edc167a0996.

Loop workspace membership and Microsoft 365 groups

Loop workspaces currently have one type, with membership visible and manageable within the Loop app by the workspace owner. However, there's no integration with Microsoft 365 groups or Security groups.

Currently, owners can't assign new members as owners. If the owner leaves the company, the workspace becomes ownerless. Administrators can't assign new owners to ownerless workspaces.

PowerShell support for number of owners on a SharePoint Embedded container isn't yet available. Once it is, to find ownerless workspaces, query Loop workspace containers in SharePoint Embedded. For more information, see Consuming Tenant Admin, and Get-SPO Container. The Loop Application ID is listed in Summary of governance, lifecycle, and compliance capabilities.

There are other types of groups and membership lists in the Microsoft ecosystem, such as Microsoft 365 groups and Security groups. Currently, Loop workspace membership does not use these groups or lists.

Storage management after user departure

In the Loop app

The Loop app is designed for shared workspaces and personal workspaces.

Shared workspaces are permissioned with a roster and continue to exist even if someone leaves the company. However, if the creator of the workspace is the person who left the company, then others can't delete the workspace.

Personal workspaces are also permissioned with a roster, but there's only one person in them by design. When a user leaves a company, their personal workspaces become ownerless.

In Loop components created in Microsoft 365 outside of the Loop app

Loop components created outside of the Loop are stored in the OneDrive of the person who created the component. Therefore, if that user leaves the organization, the standard OneDrive IT policy is applied.

Management of Loop app's storage

See available admin capabilities section of the Summary of governance, lifecycle, and compliance capabilities for more information.

Pricing and licensing model for Loop app

Refer to Loop access via Microsoft 365 subscriptions.

Related topics

Summary of governance, lifecycle, and compliance capabilities