Problem: “Anyone with the link” is greyed out in the SharePoint Online Share window!
“Anyone with the link” is a sharing option in SharePoint Online that allows users to share files or folders with anyone who has the link, regardless of whether they have a SharePoint or Microsoft account. This option is helpful to quickly and easily share files with external partners, customers, or other stakeholders. There are a few potential causes for the “Anyone with the link” option being greyed out in SharePoint Online. Here are a few solutions to try:
As a first step, we need to enable sharing with anonymous users at the tenant level. Here is how to enable external users with anonymous links in the SharePoint Online tenant:
- Login to Office 365 Admin Center >> SharePoint admin center(https://YOUR-TENANT-admin.sharepoint.com).
- Click on “Sharing” from the left navigation >> Move the slider to the top and set “Most permissive – Anyone – Users can share files and folders using links that don’t require sign-in.”
- Click “OK” to save your changes.
This enables “Anyone” to share in SharePoint Online for guest users without any invitations at the organization level.
Enable Sharing Settings to “Anyone” for the Site Collection
Once the external sharing with anonymous access is enabled at the tenant level, we have to make sure it’s enabled at the site collection level.
- In the SharePoint admin center, click on “Sites” >> “Active sites” from the left navigation.
- Search and select the site where you want to set the sharing policy.
- Click on the site name, and click on the “Policies” tab in the property pane, Click on “Edit” under “External Sharing”
- In the External sharing options, choose “Anyone” and click Save.
PnP PowerShell to Enable Guest Sharing for a Site Collection
As a site owner, You can use the below PowerShell script to enable external sharing to “Anyone”.
#Parameter$SiteURL= "https://crescent.sharepoint.com/sites/marketing"#Connect to PnP OnlineConnect-PnPOnline -Url $SiteURL -Interactive#Set Sharing Settings to Enable Anonymous sharingSet-PnPTenantSite -Url $SiteURL -Sharing ExternalUserAndGuestSharing
Make sure the “Limited-access user permission lockdown mode” Feature is disabled!
Once you enable the sharing settings to “Anyone” both at the tenant and the site collection level, the next thing to do is Disable “Limited-access user permission lockdown mode.”
- Go to your SharePoint site collection, Click on Settings Gear, click on “Site Information,” > and click on the “View All Site Information” link.
- Under the site settings page, click on “Site Collection Features”.
- Click on the “Deactivate” button next to the “Limited-access user permission lockdown mode” feature and confirm the prompt on the next page.
This fix is applicable for OneDrive for Business as well.
Conclusion
In summary, “Anyone with the link” is a sharing option in SharePoint Online that allows users to share files or folders with anyone who has the link to access the resources anonymously. This option is helpful for quickly and easily sharing files with external partners, customers, or other stakeholders. If it’s not enabled, check the sharing settings at the tenant and site collection. Also, check the said feature above.
