Give Someone Access to One Folder

This article explains why giving one person access to a single folder inside a standard channel usually causes more problems than it solves, and describes four better ways to reach the same result. It also covers what to record when a custom folder permission genuinely is required.

Questions

• How do I give someone access to only one folder in my Microsoft Team?
• Can I hide a folder from some members of my Team?
• How do I let a colleague in another department see one folder without joining our Team?
• The permissions on my folder stopped working after the files moved. Why?
• Should I use a private channel or folder permissions?
• How do I give someone read-only access to a folder?
• I set folder permissions months ago and now nobody can tell who has access. How do I check?
• As a Team owner, how do I share one project folder with a person outside Bowdoin?
• Can I stop Team members from editing a folder of templates?

Environment

Changing who can reach a folder in a Microsoft Team is a Team owner task, and every alternative to a folder permission is a Team owner task as well. Members can share individual files they can already reach, but members cannot change who has access to a channel.

• Applies to owners of a Microsoft Team at Bowdoin. Creating channels, adding members, and changing folder permissions all require Team owner permissions.
• Everyone in a Team can see every file in every standard channel, and rearranging folders does not change that.
• Custom folder permissions are set in SharePoint rather than in Microsoft Teams, so the task requires opening the Team's SharePoint site.
• Adding someone to a private channel requires Team owner permissions, and the person must already be a member of the Team.
• Supported on Bowdoin-issued computers running macOS Sequoia (15.x), macOS Tahoe (26.x), or newer, or Windows 11, and on the current version of iPadOS. Personal devices are best-effort only.
• Sign in at office365.bowdoin.edu for the web version of Microsoft Teams or SharePoint.
• Not in scope: checking who can already reach a Team's files, which is covered by Review Who Can See Your Team's Files in the Related Articles section.

Resolution

Why per-folder permissions cause trouble

Permission inheritance can be broken on a folder in a standard channel, so that one person has access to that folder alone. Bowdoin's guidance is to avoid breaking inheritance, for three reasons.

• Custom folder permissions are invisible in Microsoft Teams. Microsoft Teams shows no sign that a folder has custom permissions. The next Team owner sees an ordinary folder and has no way to know the folder behaves differently.
• Custom folder permissions break when files move. A file dragged out of a folder with custom permissions takes on the permissions of wherever the file lands. Files people believed were restricted quietly become visible to the whole Team, and nobody is notified.
• Custom folder permissions multiply. Each shared file or folder creates its own permission scope. Microsoft recommends staying under 5,000 unique permission scopes in a document library for good performance, and a folder that already holds more than 100,000 items cannot have its inheritance broken at all. Long before a library reaches those numbers, nobody in the department can say who can see what.

Four better options, strongest first

Four alternatives cover almost every request, ordered from the most durable to the lightest. Use the first one that fits the situation.

1. Add the person to the Team. If the person is a Bowdoin colleague who works with your department regularly, adding them is almost always the right answer. It takes one action, it is visible in the member list, and it survives files being moved. For the steps, see Manage Membership of a Team or Channel in the Related Articles section.
2. Create a private channel. If a subset of your Team needs a space that others should not see, create a private channel. A private channel's files are stored on a separate SharePoint site that only the channel's members can reach, so the restriction is real rather than cosmetic. Members of a private channel must already be members of the Team.
3. Create a shared channel. If the person should not join the Team at all, a shared channel gives them one channel and nothing else. They can see and take part only in the channel they are added to, and other Team members cannot see that shared channel unless they are members of it. A shared channel is the cleanest way to work with another Bowdoin department on a single body of work.
4. Share the specific files with a link. For a short task or a handful of documents, send a link instead of changing any structure. A link is the lightest option and the easiest to undo. For the steps, see Share a File or Folder from Teams or OneDrive in the Related Articles section.

When read-only access is what you actually want

Sometimes the request is not about hiding a folder but about stopping people from changing it: a folder of templates, a finished report, a set of forms. Everyone in the Team should see the folder, and nobody should edit it. Read-only access is a different tool from a custom permission. For the steps, see Make a Microsoft Teams Folder Read-Only in the Related Articles section.

If the concern is instead that members are sending files outside the department, limit who is allowed to share rather than restricting a folder. For the steps, see Restrict Microsoft Teams File Sharing to Team Owners Only in the Related Articles section.

If a custom folder permission is genuinely required

A small number of situations leave no alternative. Open a ticket with the Bowdoin College Service Desk first and describe what you are trying to achieve, because a private channel or a shared channel usually turns out to be the better fit.

1. Set the permission on a folder rather than on individual files. One shared folder that files are then moved into creates one permission scope, while sharing a thousand files individually creates a thousand permission scopes.
2. Set the permission before putting any files in the folder.
3. Record the folder's full path, who has access and at what level, why the exception exists, who approved it, and the date to review it.
4. Keep the written record in the channel, where the next Team owner will find it.
5. Check the result from the outside in after any permission change, so you can confirm that the people you intended are the only people with access. For the review steps, see Review Who Can See Your Team's Files in the Related Articles section.

Additional Help

If you need further assistance, you have several options:

• Bowdoin Bot: Chat with Bowdoin Bot directly from any KB page for instant answers.
• Phone: Call the Bowdoin College Service Desk at (207) 725-3030.
• In person: Visit the Tech Hub in Smith Union during business hours.
• Submit a ticket: Request assistance through the Service Catalog.

Additional Resources

• Manage permission scopes in SharePoint
• Standard, private, or shared channels in Microsoft Teams
• Shared channels in Microsoft Teams
• Customize permissions for a SharePoint list or library
• Teams and SharePoint integration