Customize permissions for a SharePoint list or library

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Important: While SharePoint allows considerable customization of site permissions, we highly recommend using the built-in SharePoint groups for communication sites and managing team site permissions through the associated Microsoft 365 group. You can add, change, or remove permissions for an individual document or folder by following methods mentioned in Share files or folders in Microsoft 365 . This allows for much easier administration.

By default, all sites, lists, and libraries in a site collection inherit permissions settings from the site that is directly above them in the site hierarchy. This is called permission inheritance. Permission inheritance means a site inherits permissions from the root site of the site collection, and a subsite inherits permissions from its parent site. Folders, lists, and documents inherit permissions from the site that contains them, and so on.

Permission inheritance can save time for site administrators, especially on large or complex site collections. However, at times, you may need to change permissions so that you can expand access to invite others to share information or restrict access to a site . As an administrator or owner of a library, list, or survey, you can change permissions in various ways (i.e. assigning unique permissions, changing permission levels, or removing user permissions), to let the right people access the data they need data while restricting others. This article shows you how to get to the Permissions page and break inheritance, and then provides the steps to assign or change permissions.

First, you need to get to the permission page.

Get to the permission page

These instructions apply to Microsoft Lists, SharePoint in Microsoft 365 , SharePoint Server Subscription Edition , SharePoint Server 2019 , and SharePoint Server 2016 .

View the Permissions page in SharePoint

For a list or library

1. Go to the library or list and open it.
2. Select Settings

, and then Library settings or List settings . Depending on your SharePoint version, you may then need to select More library settings . Depending on your SharePoint version, if you don't see Settings

, choose the Library or List tab to open the ribbon, and then select Library Settings or List Settings on the ribbon.

For a survey

1. Open the survey.
2. Select Settings .

Select the dropdown, and select Survey Settings .

About unique permissions for individual items

When you go to the Permissions page, you may see one or more messages at the top of the page like this:

Here's what each message means:

• Some items of this list may have unique permissions which are not controlled from this page. Show these items. This means that, at some time in the past, an individual item within the list, library, or survey was shared with others. When you click Show these items , you will see an Exceptions dialog box showing which items they are. If you are an owner of the item, click Manage permissions for each one to make changes.
• There are limited access users on this site. Users may have limited access if an item or document under the site has been shared with them. Show users . This means that if an item has been shared with a user, but the entire list, library, or survey has not, then their access is limited to the one item that has been shared with them. Click Show users to see who they are. When you share an item with a user, they are given limited access to the site in order to give them access to the item. If you un-share the item, the user will continue to have limited access to the site (and you will see this message), however, they will not have access to any items not shared with them.
• This library inherits permissions from its parent. (name of site) . This means that inheritance has not yet been broken for the list, library, or survey. See Break permission inheritance below for how to do this.

Break permission inheritance in SharePoint

Now you've got to the Permissions page. Next, you will need to break permission inheritance before you can assign unique permissions, change permissions levels, or remove user permissions to a list, library, or survey. When you break permissions inheritance for a list, library, or survey and then define new permission settings, the list (or library) becomes a parent for items in it. Items under that parent now inherit the new permission settings (unless the items have uniquely defined permissions.)

To break inheritance and assign unique permissions, follow these steps:

1. Go to the list, library, or survey and open it.
2. Go to the Permissions page using the steps in the previous section .
3. To break permissions inheritance from the parent, select Stop Inheriting Permissions .

• When a list or library contains more than 100,000 items, you can’t break permissions inheritance on the list itself. Nor can you re-inherit permissions on the list itself.
• When a folder contains more than 100,000 items, you can’t break permissions inheritance on that folder itself. Nor can you re-inherit permissions on that folder itself.
• Items within the library or folder hitting the limit (say a single file or folder) won't be impacted—so you could still, for example, break inheritance on any single file inside a library with greater than 100,000 items.
• When a user shares a document or other individual item, inheritance is automatically broken for that item. Inherited permissions are copied to the item, and permissions for the users with whom the item was shared are added. If changes in permissions are made to the parent item, those changes are not applied to the item.

Assign unique permissions in SharePoint

Once you've broken inheritance using the steps in the section above, follow these steps to grant unique permissions:

1. Go to the list, library, or survey and open it.
2. Go to the Permissions page using the steps in the previous section .
3. Select Grant Permissions on the Permissions tab.

In the Share. dialog box, make sure Invite people is selected, and then type the names of the people or group you want to grant access to in the Enter names or email addresses. box.

In some cases, you might want to create a Windows Active Directory security group and grant access to a library or list for all the people in the Windows security group. For example, you might want to grant your whole team access to a list by adding the team security group to a SharePoint group. Then, when new people join your team, you grant them appropriate permissions by just adding them to the appropriate Windows security group. To learn more about Windows Security groups, see Active Directory Security Groups .

Note: You cannot grant access to a distribution group that is not a Windows security group.

Change permissions levels in SharePoint

You must break inheritance from the parent site before you can change unique permissions. Once you've broken inheritance using the steps in the section above, follow these steps to change permissions:

1. Go to the list, library, or survey and open it.
2. Go to the Permissions page for the list, library, or survey using the steps in the previous section .
3. In the Name list, select the checkbox next to the name of the user or group that you change permission levels for.

Select Edit User Permissions .

Under Permissions , check the box for the permission level you want for the users or groups you selected.

For more information about permissions levels, see Understanding permissions levels in SharePoint .

Remove user permissions in SharePoint

You must break inheritance from the parent site before you can remove user permissions. Once you've broken inheritance using the steps in the section above, follow these steps to remove user permissions:

1. Go to the list, library, or survey and open it.
2. Go to the Permissions page for the list, library, or survey using the steps in the previous section .
3. In the Name list, select the checkbox next to the name of the user or group that you want to remove permissions from.

Note: When removing the permissions, the user or group permissions will be removed in all the children, including those with broken permission inheritance. Restoring them will not be possible.

The permissions page updates to show that the group or user no longer has permissions to the list.

Restore inheritance to delete all unique permissions in SharePoint

When you break permissions inheritance between a site, folder, list, library, list item, or document and its parent, you can restore inheritance at any time, which removes any custom permissions you set.

1. Go to the list, library, or survey and open it.
2. Go to the Permissions page for the list, library, or survey using the steps in the previous section .
3. On the Permissions tab (for a list or a library), select Delete unique permissions .