Share Read-Only Content in SharePoint

Owned by
Mike Grosshandler
Last updated: Feb 13, 2024
4 min read

Background

By default, all members of a Microsoft Team can view, create, upload, edit, and delete any files within a Team.  Sometimes you need to share content with others, but not allow modification of your content.

Options

You can share read-only content with others that they will access via a website or within Teams.  

Share via a website

If you want the view-only users to access your content primarily in a web browser, you have some options:

Use a Communication Site

Use a SharePoint Communication Site to share content with people who should have read-only access.  Communication Sites are websites you manage yourself. 

To set this up:

  1. Request a Communication Site by submitting this form.
  2. Once your site is created, build your site and store and manage the files or folders you want to share as read-only with others in a document library in the site.
  3. To give access to your site, click the gear icon at the top right of your site, and choose Site permissions:
  4. Click Share site:
  5. Add users or groups. After adding each, click Read under the newly-added item to choose the appropriate permission level for them:  

    • Read permission enables users to view pages and list items, and to download documents
    • Full Control permission gives users full control over the site
    • Edit permission allows users to add, edit and delete lists; view, add, update and delete list items and documents

Communication sites can be where you store and manage your file/folder content, and they can be used to display content stored in another site or Team.

Use a Team Site


While a Team site can be used to share read-only content with people, a Communication site is often a better choice.

Users can access your content read-only via a website attached to your Team. You can create and manage your content collaboratively with others in that same Team and share the site only with read-only visitors.

To set this up:

  1. If you don't already have a Team, create one.  (When you create a Microsoft Team, an associated SharePoint Team Site is automatically created. )

  2. Add anyone who needs to be able to create and manage your content as a member of your Team.

    Important:

    Do not add the view-only users to the Team as members.  Doing this will give them full access to edit/delete your files.  Instead, you will give them read-only access to the Teams site.

  3. Store and manage the files and/or folders you want to share as read-only with others in any channel's Files tab.

  4. Access the Team site by clicking the ellipsis (...) button on the far right of the Posts section of your Team and choosing Open in SharePoint:
    Team Posts ellipsis button Open in SharePoint

  5. Set up the Team site it up to display whatever content you want.

  6. When you are ready to share your content, Share site only for the website with "Read" permissions, click the gear icon at the top right of your site, and choose Site permissions:

  7. Click Add members > Share site only:

  8. Add people you want to share with.  Make sure to change their access to Read instead of Edit by clicking Edit under the newly-added item and changing it to Read:


    This will give those users read-only access to the website, but not other Team resources such as calendars and conversations.

Share within Teams

If you want the view-only users to use Teams, which provides great functionality for chatting and collaboration, then you can leverage the private channel functionality within Teams. 

Private channels are only visible to people you specifically add to them - a subset of the full Team members. When you create a private channel in a Team, it asks who you want to invite to it.  Anyone you don't invite won't even know that channel exists and won't have any access to its content, including chats and files. 

To set this up:

  1. Add anyone who needs any kind of access to your content as a member of your Team.
  2. Create a private channel on your Team. Add only people who should be able to manage/create/edit the content stored here to this private channel.  
  3. Store the files and/or folders you want to share as read-only with other members of the Team in the Files tab of this private channel.

  4. From that private channel, create a read-only sharing link to the content.  This article describes how to do this in OneDrive, but the process is the same here.

    It is important to use this special read-only link to share since that embeds the read-only restrictions in the link.

  5. In the General (or another non-private) channel of your Team, create a website app tab, using the read-only sharing link.  This article shows how to add a website app tab in a Teams channel.

  6. Now, anyone on the Team who is not a member of the private channel will be able to access the content via that read-only link.  

    Members of the private channel will still be able to edit/modify that content from the same app tab.




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