Direct Access vs. Sharing Link in SharePoint Online

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[structuralcad]

Intuitively, Direct Access would mean the user can only access the folder or file that you supply access to. In my testing, that's exactly how it works. In my SharePoint document library, I want an external user to access the Project1 folder so I assign Direct Access to her in Manage Access. The user will only be able to see Project 1. They can't see any of the other folders until they have been assigned through Direct Access. What does this have to do with whether or not they have access to the site? If they don't have site access initially, it will be granted to them once they sign in but they still can only see the assigned folder.

[michallopianowski]

Greg, great stuff. I think I use your site more than any other to find SharePoint answers. Thanks for all your sharing efforts. I created a plan in planner which obviously created an Outlook Group. I then put some files into the associated Document Library. I was then searching for one of the documents and it was not coming up in the search results, even though I could see the file in the library. When I selected that file, in the information pane on the right hand side, it states "This item in not shared", however when I click on "Manage access" it shows that the Owner has direct access, which is me. All the other files in the library show me uniquely as having access apart from ownership. My question is why is it not appearing in search results even though I am the owner of the site and the document, and I am the one who uploaded. By the way, it is a pdf file. Is this just a glitch in the system?

[spkendrick]

I created 5 separate sites in sharepoint and want everyone in the organization to have access to the files in those sites. Do you have a video for that?

[tsarrite]

Love your videos.
Currently when you click "Manage access' the layout is different.

[surajvermanaysan]

Thanks you so much for excellent video.. sir

[clayjohnson]

So I work for a company and we need 3 pcs to be connected to a few folder where we can work on this and any changes we do to these files they are updated and anyone can access them one at a time. The direct access allows this to work. Some of these folder are design folder for cabinets for the production software. Just wanting to make sure this would work for what we want it to do. MS How to are a but convoluted. thanks

[spkendrick]

In 2024 this looks a little different i think. Great videos, but i think Microsoft has changed the layout of sharepoint slightly

[sabrrrnamae]

very helpful video! i would just like to ask if we can change the permission level given using direct access? currently its Contribute, but i want it to be Edit. thanks!

[PaulHeine-eryn]

Which has precedence -- direct access or share? If you share a link with read-only access but the recipient has edit-level direct access, which one wins?

[JohnQ]

Why can't you just send someone a link to a file they already have access to it? Why must a link also contain added permissions?

[GIJensen]

thank you for the video Maven. Let me ask you a question. When I share a file or folder via link I can disable the possibility to download the file. I am missing the option when I grant direct access.

My situation is following: I have made several security groups in the admincenter, representing the different departments in our company with the colleagues as members.

My problem:
- When I grant access via direct access, I am able to grant the access to the security group but I am not able to disable the download option.
- When I grant access via link, I am not able to grant access to the security group, but only to MS Teams group or single users. with this option I can disable the possibility to download the file.

Question: Is it possible to grant access via direct access AND disable the downloadoption without geeting deeper into the settings menu?
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