Users Request Access to SharePoint Folder

Owned by Dan Jakubiak
Last updated: Oct 29, 2024
3 min read

Faculty, staff, and students may have users request access to certain folders instead of the entire SharePoint site by carefully accepting the Access Request.

Follow this guide when you receive an Access Request to your SharePoint site from a user who is someone who does not need, or should not have, full access to your site. Using the instructions below, you will place them directly into a previously-made custom SharePoint group. This grants them appropriately restricted access.

How will this work?

If a user visits a SharePoint site that they do not have access to, they cannot Request Access to anything other than the entire site (i.e. they cannot Request Access to a subset of the data). To work around this, you will create a User Group and accept their access request by following a specific process in your web browser instead of using the notification email that you receive.

1) Create a User Group

If you have not already, create a User Group that has access to only the folder(s) that are appropriate.

  1. For help in creating a User Group, visit: Create SharePoint User Group

  2. Set the group’s permission level: Manage Folder Permissions in SharePoint using User Groups

  3. This new User Group may gain permissions to other folders upon creation. Visit your root folders to ensure this group does not have access to folders that those users should not be accessing.

2) Accept access requests using a specific process

When you receive an email notification of someone requesting access to your site, and they should be in the new User Group you have created, do not use the email to accept their request.

  1. Once you receive a request for access, visit s.uconn.edu/sharepoint and sign in with your email and NetID password.

  2. Click on the appropriate SharePoint.

  3. Click on the settings gear in the top-right corner.
    Note: this icon takes another second to appear after the site has loaded.

    image-20240129-174442.png

     

  4. Click on Access requests in the banner under the site name. This button will only appear when you have requests waiting.

    image-20240129-173317.png

  5. Click on the ellipsis (…) of the access request.

  6. Click on the Permission drop-down to assign them to the appropriate User Group.

  7. Click Approve now that they are going to be placed into the appropriate User Group.
    You may return to your email inbox to delete the email if you have not done so already.

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