How to Give OneDrive Access to Another User The Right Way

So you are an IT administrator or even a simple user who wants to know how to give OneDrive access to another user. Don’t worry, OneDrive data delegation is not a difficult process. Plus, it can be done even if the permission recipient is not a member of your organization.

All you have to do is follow a simple set of instructions, and it’ll be done sooner than you realise. Here we will teach you the two official methods, the first is the Admin Center approach, and the second is PowerShell. Also, we have included the process for personal account holders. However, before we discuss any of the methods, let us see what permissions/roles you need to grant a “user A” the ability to see the files of any “user B”.

What Permissions Do You Need to Give OneDrive Access to Another User?

Inside an organization, only those users who are the Global Admin or at least the SharePoint admin have the authority to grant a person access to someone else’s OneDrive account.

So, step zero is to check if you have such a role or not. A simple test is to try and log in to the M365 admin center/SharePoint Admin with your credentials. If you can, then well and good, you can move on to the next step. Otherwise, contact the personnel who have the said permissions.

Personal account holders need not worry about such a role. Like their OneDrive usage report, their sharing settings are also under their own control. The only thing they must have is the true ownership of a file that they are delegating. This means you can’t create a second layer of sharing on a file that was shared with them by someone else.

Another important fact to consider is with what permission level does file sharing happen in OneDrive?

There are two levels: View and Edit. As the name suggests, files shared with a view-only setting can’t be altered.  However, recipients can make copies of the original files and work on the copies. Edit type sharing allows the recipient to conduct all sorts of operations, including permanently deleting the files from the original account.

There is a third type of sharing called delegation. Here, the recipient becomes the new owner of all the files/folders that are inside an account. This type of sharing is available to admins to deal with scenarios where an employee leaves the organization.

Now that we know all about permissions, let’s see how they are used to grant access, and there is no better place to start than the admin center.

How to Give OneDrive Access to Another User in the Office 365 Admin Center?

Here you have two options: either use the default M365 admin center or the dedicated SharePoint Admin center:

Option 1: Log in to M365 Admin Center

• On the left-hand pane, expand Users > select Active users.
• From the user list, click on the one to give OneDrive access to another user.
• A flyout pane appears there; you need to go to the OneDrive tab and click “Create link to files.”
• This generates a link.

Note that with this link, only you, the admin, can enter their OneDrive. In a way, you have backdoor access to this person’s OneDrive.

To give access to someone else:

• Open the link, click on the Settings gear at the top right.
• Select ‘OneDrive settings’.
• Find ‘More settings’. Then, under ‘Users and Permissions’, click the ‘Site collection administrators’ link.
• Type name or email in the text box, select from the suggestions, and hit ‘OK’.

In this way, you can add more than one user as well, all of whom will have the same be able to access to access this user’s OneDrive data.

However, this method of delegation is only available for Global admins. If you are just a SharePoint admin, you must follow a different route.

Option 2: Launch the SharePoint Admin Center > More features > User profiles > Manage User Profiles.

• After you’re in ‘Manage User Profiles’, find the user by typing their name or email in the ‘Find profiles’ box and clicking ‘Find’.
• Hover over their name in the results and click the drop-down arrow that appears.
• From the menu, select ‘Manage site collection owners’.
• On the ‘Site Collection Administrators’ page, type the name or email of the person you want to add, pick them from the suggestions, and hit ‘OK’.

Next up, we have the code-based alternative.

How to provide OneDrive access to Other User Using PowerShell Cmdlets?

If you have prior experience with PowerShell, this method has the potential to be a lot faster than the GUI.

Note: These commands are for admins to grant others access to a user’s OneDrive. You must be a SharePoint or Global Admin.

Task 1: Grant a User Full Access (Delegation) to Another User’s OneDrive

This is the core delegation task, making one user a “Site Collection Administrator” of another’s OneDrive.

Note, this is just a sample script; you must modify and test it before deploying it to a live environment.

After granting the permissions, you can check who the current Site Collection Administrators are for a specific OneDrive.

The same disclaimer applies here as well: Test and modify before using.

Can Users Grant Permissions to Each Other Without Admins?

Yes, personal account holders do it all the time. Here is how you can do it as well:

Select your file(s), click on the Share icon in the top toolbar (it looks like a curved arrow going out of a box)

After that, type in the name/email address of the person you are sharing these files with. Toggle the pencil icon to change the permission level (there are just two options: edit or view only)

Add a message to the recipient (this is optional, but we recommend that you arrach a message so that the recipient knows this was a genuine request and not a mistake)

Double-check all details and hit send.

This is how you share with known/internal users.

Moreover, if you want unrestricted universal access to your files so that people outside your organization (or even you in certain emergency scenarios, like looking at the data without logging in) can use the files, make a link.

You can do this by clicking “Anyone with the link can edit”. The share box unlocks a few previously hidden options, such as expiry date and password (however, both of these are premium features only available if you subscribe to an M365 plan)

Users within an organization dont have to worry about the premium, as it is a given that they are in the premium tier.

Although link creation is available by default, many organizations/administrators choose to disable it to prevent accidental data leakage.

So if you are a user with a school or work OneDrive account and don’t see a share/link creation option, ask your admin to unlock it or let them do the delegation/sharing.

How Does the Recipient See the OneDrive Data Granted/Given/Shared to Them?

For the recipient, the most likely location they will find newly shared items is the Shared tab

This contains both types of files, the ones you share and the ones that are shared with you. Ask the recipient to filter out the “Shared with you” part.

However, this is not the case for the admins who obtain OnDrive access via the link creation method.

The recipient also gets a message in their email(most likely inbox, but can also get flagged as spam and may end up in the junk, so check there if you can’t find the items) regarding a new shared request; they can use the link present there to get to the shared item.

Troubleshooting

If you are on a personal account, and after selecting the files, the share icon seems to disappear, check if you are also including the Personal Vault.

Personal Vault is a highly secure secondary storage mechanism within personal OneDrive files. However, this means that the data you keep there is not shareable. If by mistake you hit select all, the Vault also gets selected, disabling the share icon. No such issue occurs in work/school accounts, as the Personal Vault itself is absent. If you are on an Apple computer and can’t share, try restarting OneDrive on Mac and see if it fixes your issue.

If you are a recipient and all of a sudden see that the shared files are missing from your account, the original owner may have revoked the sharing grant. Message/mail them to confirm if this is true and request a reauthorization if you still require access to that person’s OneDrive data.

Conclusion

Now, IT administrators have a complete understanding of how to give OneDrive access to another user. They can grant permissions to view someone else’s OneDrive data, even if the recipient is outside their organization.

We have given the step-by-step instructions to perform the task either with the Microsoft 365 admin center or with the help of PowerShell cmdlets. Use any way that seems more in line with your strategy.

However, if the main purpose of this access delegation is a transfer of items from one account to another, use the SysTools OneDrive to OneDrive migration solution instead.