Summary SharePoint MCP (Model Context Protocol) tools may be missing in Copilot Studio due to Copilot Frontier access settings. Enable SharePoint MCP tools by configuring access in Microsoft 365 Admin Centre under Copilot Control System. Grant “All Users” access to Web Apps in Copilot Frontier settings. Tools typically appear in Copilot Studio within minutes after enabling. Table of Contents The Problem What Are SharePoint MCP Tools Solution: Enable Copilot Frontier Access Step-by-Step Configuration Verification References The Problem When building agents or custom copilots in Copilot Studio, you may find that SharePoint MCP tools are missing from the available connectors or tools list.

SharePoint’s content type publishing model underwent a significant transformation in 2021-2022, shifting from a “push everywhere” approach to a more efficient “pull as needed” model. This change optimizes synchronization by ensuring content types are only updated on sites where they’re actively in use, reducing unnecessary load and improving performance across large tenants. This guide explains how the new model works and what it means for SharePoint administrators and site owners.

When automating SharePoint site configurations with PnP PowerShell, it’s essential to check whether a feature is already active before attempting to enable it. This prevents unnecessary errors, improves script performance, and ensures idempotent operations. This guide demonstrates best practices for checking feature status and conditionally enabling features in SharePoint Online. Table of Contents Why Check Feature Status First? Understanding SharePoint Features Prerequisites Basic Feature Check Pattern References Why Check Feature Status First?

Sensitivity labels in SharePoint Online provide visual indicators through watermarks to help users identify classified content. However, the default diagonal watermark layout can present usability and accessibility challenges. This guide explores watermark configuration options, addresses common user concerns, and provides solutions for managing watermark display in SharePoint documents. Table of Contents Understanding Sensitivity Label Watermarks Watermark Layout Options User Experience and Accessibility Concerns Configuring Watermark Layout at Tenant Level Managing Watermarks at File Level Conclusion References Understanding Sensitivity Label Watermarks Sensitivity label watermarks are visual indicators that appear on documents to display the classification level of content.

Certificate-based authentication is a secure method for connecting to SharePoint Online and Microsoft 365 services using service principals and automated scripts. This guide demonstrates two methods for generating self-signed certificates using PowerShell and how to use them with PnP PowerShell for SharePoint authentication. Table of Contents Why Use Certificate-Based Authentication? Prerequisites Method 1: Using New-SelfSignedCertificate Method 2: Using New-PnPAzureCertificate Locating Your Certificate Exporting Certificates Registering Certificate with Entra ID App Connecting to SharePoint with Certificate Best Practices Troubleshooting Conclusion References Why Use Certificate-Based Authentication?

Managing Entra ID (formerly Azure AD) app permissions across SharePoint sites is crucial for maintaining proper security governance. This guide demonstrates how to audit and revoke app permissions using PnP PowerShell, ensuring your SharePoint environment remains secure and compliant. Table of Contents Problem Statement Understanding the Challenge Prerequisites The Solution Script Breakdown Important Considerations References Problem Statement When managing Entra ID applications with SharePoint access (especially those using Sites.Selected permissions), you may need to:

Problem Statement Mass applying sensitivity labels programmatically using Microsoft Information Protection SDK (MIP SDK) or PowerShell, the sensitivity label column appears blank in the document library UI, even though the metadata value is correctly set in the backend. This is a display refresh issue where the applied sensitivity labels has not synced to the SharePoint metadata. Root Cause When sensitivity labels are applied programmatically (via PowerShell, Graph API, or migration tools), the metadata is present in the file but not displayed in the interface.

Problem Statement When using the KQL query ContentClass:STS_List_DocumentLibrary without additional filters, some document libraries (like “Shared Documents”) are not appearing in search results, even though they exist and contain content. Initial Troubleshooting Steps Taken 1. Hidden Site-Level Visibility Setting Action: Visited https://<your-site>/_layouts/srchvis.aspx and enabled “Always index all Web Parts on this site” Status: ✅ Enabled - Monitoring for 24-48 hours to see if this resolves the issue Result: No effect on bringing the shared documents search result

Overview When moving files in SharePoint, understanding how permissions are handled is crucial for maintaining proper access control. The behavior varies significantly based on several factors, including whether you’re moving a single file or multiple files, and whether you’re moving within the same site or across different sites from the User Interface. This post is based on experiments done in October 2025 and things may change in the future. The “Keep Sharing with Same People” Option Important: The option to unselect the move of permissions appears only when a single file is selected to be moved to a different SharePoint site.

Table of Contents Problem Statement Solution Overview Prerequisites Implementation Guide Step 1: Get Site and List IDs Step 2: Test with Graph Explorer Step 3: Initial Search Implementation Step 4: Handle Pagination Complete Code Examples Performance Considerations Conclusion Problem Statement After importing 10,000+ records into SharePoint using Power Automate bulk import techniques, we encountered Power Apps delegation limits that prevented effective searching and filtering of large datasets. There is the option of using Power Automate to get the results, however it adds more artefacts to a simple app designed for search.

Table of Contents Issue Overview Expected vs Actual Behavior Steps to Reproduce Issue Overview When SharePoint document libraries are configured with the “Open in client application” setting, users may experience unexpected behavior where new files open in the same browser tab instead of launching the desktop application as intended. Issue Summary: Expected: Files should open in desktop applications (Word, Excel, PowerPoint) Actual: Files open in the same browser tab instead of launching client apps Affected: SharePoint document libraries with “Open in client application” enabled Scope: Potentially affects user productivity and workflow expectations Expected vs Actual Behavior Expected Behavior When a SharePoint library is set to “Open in client application”:

The Issue SharePoint’s “Limited Access User Permission Lockdown Mode” feature introduces an unexpected side effect that can frustrate users and disrupt workflows. When this security feature is enabled, users who receive sharing links with edit permissions find themselves unable to edit files in desktop applications, despite having the necessary permissions. What Happens Expected Behavior: User receives an edit link, opens the file in Word/Excel/PowerPoint desktop app, and can modify the document.

Table of Contents Introduction Business Scenario CSV Data Structure Step-by-Step Implementation 1. File Upload Trigger 2. Get File Content 3. Parse CSV Data 4. Filter Data 5. Extract Unique Combinations 6. XML Grouping 7. Concatenate Users 8. Create SharePoint Items Complete Flow Overview References Introduction This guide demonstrates how to use Power Automate to group CSV data and concatenate users by Team and Channel using XML processing techniques to save to a SharePoint list.

Table of Contents Introduction Prerequisites Implementation Guide Creating Your Agent Configuring TypeSpec Files Setting Up Authentication Testing & Troubleshooting Conclusion References Introduction Following on my blog post Declarative Agents: Azure OpenAI API Key Auth with TypeSpec, I decided to try out how to authenticate to Ms Graph using sample Tasks Agent using TypeSpec for Microsoft 365 Copilot that connects to the Microsoft Graph APIs created by Sébatien Levert. Why This Matters: Copilot out of the box can not retrieve data from SharePoint List.

Table of Contents Introduction CSV vs Tab-Delimited: Which to Use? Step-by-Step Flow Setup 1. Trigger: File Upload 2. Settings (Parse JSON) 3. Get File Content 4. Parse CSV or Tab-Delimited Data 5. Generate SharePoint Data 6. Batch Processing and Create Items Full Flow Diagram References Introduction Importing large amounts of data from CSV or tab-delimited files to a SharePoint list is a common business need. This guide explains how to build a Power Automate flow for bulk import, highlights key challenges, and provides practical tips for reliable results.

Table of Contents Introduction Why Tab-Delimited Files? Step-by-Step Guide 1. Prepare Your Data 2. Import from Excel Table (Alternative) 3. Build the Flow for Tab-Delimited Files Batch Processing with HTTP Request (Alternative) Tips & Troubleshooting Outcome Comparison Conclusion References Introduction Importing large datasets into SharePoint lists can be tricky, especially when dealing with CSV or tab-delimited files. This guide walks you through a reliable Power Automate approach, highlights common pitfalls, and shares practical tips for handling big data without premium connectors.

Introduction I had to display SharePoint site owners withinin Power Apps for the selected SharePoint site for the end users who to reach out for any questions on the site. It was not possible using the Office365Groups which allows to interact with Ms Graph. I could not use the solution from https://reshmeeauckloo.com/posts/powerapps-list-owners-m365groups/ to help. I had to resort to Power Automate (Flow) with an HTTP request to SharePoint, parse the results, and return the owners to Power Apps to achieve the solution.

Introduction When building Power Apps with SharePoint lists, you may encounter delegation warnings especially when using the Search function on large datasets. This post explains why delegation matters, how it affects your app, and practical workarounds to enable effective searching. The Delegation Problem By default, if you create an app using the built-in template connected to a SharePoint list, the gallery’s Items property might be set to: Search([@FolderMappingDetails], SearchInput1.Text, Title, Title) This triggers a delegation warning because the Search function is not fully delegable to SharePoint.

Introduction Dropdown controls are essential for filtering and navigation in Power Apps. A common requirement is to display only distinct values from a data source (like a SharePoint list) and include a default ‘All’ option for easy selection. This post shows how to build a Power Apps dropdown with unique values and a default ‘All’ using PowerFx. Scenario Suppose you have a SharePoint list called FolderMappingDetails with a column named Database.

Introduction Searching for files using the Document ID field in SharePoint can be challenging, especially when the ID contains hyphens (-). Hyphens are interpreted by SharePoint Search as a “NOT” operator, which can unintentionally exclude results and make it difficult to locate documents by their full ID. Why Is This Happening? The Document ID is a unique identifier for files, but by default, searching for an ID like M3DJHK53YMAX-2114042065-47 using the standard search box (with or without quotes) may not work as expected due to the hyphen’s special meaning in search queries.

Introduction There are multiple ways to create Microsoft Teams using PnP PowerShell, each offering different levels of control over naming conventions. This post explores 3 distinct methods and compares their capabilities for customizing Site Title, Site URL, and M365 Group names. When a Microsoft Team is created, a SharePoint site and M365 Group are automatically created in the backend. You may want to implement different naming conventions for each component:

Introduction SharePoint search is powerful, but searching by date ranges can be surprisingly tricky. Many users struggle with date-based queries, especially when trying to find documents modified or created within specific timeframes. This guide provides tips to use SharePoint/M365 search capabilities with date fields: write, LastModifiedTime, Created. The Challenge with Date Searches Date searches in SharePoint have several gotchas that can frustrate users: Format requirements - SharePoint expects specific date formats (American format UTC , i.

Introduction SharePoint site designs are powerful tools for automating site configuration, but they’re typically applied during site creation. What if you need to apply Microsoft’s out-of-the-box site designs to existing sites using automation? The PnP PowerShell, CLI for M365 and other PowerShell module cover applying custom site designs only. We can leverage a PowerShell hack using REST API calls to achieve this functionality. Thanks to Arash Aghajani who pinpointed on feasibility and requested for it to be natively available within PnP PowerShell.

Introduction One of the most frustrating experiences for SharePoint users is when a document link that worked perfectly yesterday suddenly returns a 404 error today. This scenario is all too common, especially after migrations or when documents are renamed or moved. Understanding how SharePoint links work and their limitations is crucial for effective document management. The Problem: Broken Links After File Changes This raises an important question: Why do SharePoint links break when files are renamed or moved?

Introduction Adding a SharePoint document library as a tab in Microsoft Teams is a common requirement for collaboration scenarios. While Teams provides an out-of-the-box (OOTB) experience for this, automating the process via PowerShell or Microsoft Graph can be tricky due to limitations. Thanks to Tiago Duarte through the discussion within the bug he raised , he found out a solution for it using Ms Graph PowerShell and I attempted to achieve same using PnP PowerShell.

Introduction In SharePoint on premises, administrators could log directly onto servers to inspect the crawl log and monitor search indexing. In SharePoint Online, this is no longer possible, making it tricky to track crawl activity and diagnose indexing issues. Fortunately, PnP PowerShell provides the Get-PnPSearchCrawlLog cmdlet, which allows you to inspect crawl activity programmatically. Certain activities can significantly increase the load on SharePoint’s crawl and indexing processes, such as: Migrating large volumes of content into the tenant Enabling OneDrive for Business Enabling or disabling Restricted Content Discoverability (RCD) to control content visibility for Copilot (see Microsoft docs) Forcing reindexing of libraries or sites, for example after changes to the search schema or to resolve search issues To avoid overloading your tenant and causing delays (such as intranet news not appearing promptly), it’s essential to plan these activities carefully—ideally performing them in phases or batches.

Introduction During a recent community discussion, Suhail Sayed presented an interesting challenge that many organizations face during SharePoint tenant migrations. The problem? Converting sharing links to their canonical URLs when documents are migrated between tenants. The Challenge When migrating SharePoint documents from one tenant to another, organizations often encounter a specific issue with document references: The Problem Scenario: Source tenant: Documents contain reference links to other documents Migration requirement: Update these links to reflect the new tenant Complication: Links were created using the Share option, not the Copy Link option Why This Matters: When you generate a link using SharePoint’s Share function, it creates a unique link with a randomly generated ID that redirects to the correct canonical URL.

Introduction Recently, I was asked how to export the first-level folders in document libraries using PnP PowerShell site provisioning cmdlets. While Get-PnPSiteTemplate allows exporting SharePoint site configurations, it doesn’t directly cater to folders. After experimenting with various options, including Add-PnPDataRowsToSiteTemplate, I discovered the solution: the Add-PnPListFoldersToSiteTemplate cmdlet. The Challenge The initial attempt involved using the Add-PnPDataRowsToSiteTemplate cmdlet with a CAML query to filter folders and it did not work. Add-PnPDataRowsToSiteTemplate -Path Site.

Introduction During a discussion in a WhatsApp community group, a question arose about configuring a Copilot Studio agent for HR-related queries. The scenario involved country-specific policies stored in separate SharePoint folders. The challenge was ensuring that the agent dynamically retrieves content relevant to the user’s location. For example, if someone from the UK asks about maternity leave, the agent should only pull information from the UK folder, not from other countries.

📝 Introduction Renaming a SharePoint Hub Site URL or title is not a straightforward process. A hub site can not be renamed directly. Instead, the hub site needs to be unregistered before performing the rename, and then re-register it as a hub. This ensures the integrity of the hub structure and keeps associated sites intact. This post provides a step-by-step PowerShell script using PnP PowerShell to automate the process, including cleanup of redirect sites and validation of associated sites.

Introduction Document Sets in SharePoint are a powerful way to manage groups of related documents as a single entity. They enable you to apply metadata, workflows, and permissions to a collection of documents, making them ideal for project folders, case files, or any scenario where you need to keep related content together. This post shows how to automate the configuration of Document Sets across multiple libraries using PnP PowerShell. Why Use Document Sets?

Introduction In a previous post, I detailed the steps for Building a Copilot Agent with Microsoft 365 Agents Toolkit and Microsoft Graph Plugin to list my ToDo Tasks. However, I encountered issues with the CreateTask function when using an OpenAPI spec generated with Kiota. Upon investigation, I identified the problem as being related to the handling of complex objects, particularly those involving dates. Even after simplifying the object structure, the CreateTask function continued to fail.

Introduction When working with the UserInformationList in SharePoint via Microsoft Graph, you might encounter challenges when trying to search or filter user information. This post highlights the issues I faced while attempting to use $search and $filter queries on the UserInformationList, along with examples and insights within M365 Copilot declarative agent. Issue 1: Search by Email Did Not Work I attempted to search for a user by their email address using the $search query, but it did not return any results.

Introduction In this blog post, I demonstrate how to create an OpenAPI specification for interacting with a SharePoint list using Microsoft Graph for integration with Microsoft 365 Copilot Declarative Agents. The list in question was created using the tracker template. This approach allows you to define and document API interactions, making it easier to integrate with tools like Microsoft 365 Agents Toolkit (previously known as Teams Toolkit) or Copilot for automation and extensibility.

Introduction In this blog post, we’ll explore how to trigger a single Power Automate flow from multiple SharePoint libraries, lists, and sites. This approach is particularly useful for standardizing workflows across different document libraries and sites, avoiding the need to replicate flows multiple times. This not only simplifies maintenance but also streamlines deployment. The For a selected file or For a selected item trigger action is key to achieving this. While the Manually trigger a flow action was considered, it does not pass the necessary context (site URL, library ID/name, and item ID) to the flow, making it unsuitable for this scenario.

Introduction Managing multiline text fields in SharePoint can be tricky, especially when certain field properties are not visible or editable at the library/list level, even though they are available at the site level. For example, at the site level, you can configure properties such as: Append Changes to Text Number of Lines Field Type: Plain Text, Rich Text, or Enhanced Rich Text However, these settings may not appear at the library/list level, as shown below:

Managing permissions in SharePoint can be challenging, especially when users are granted access through various means such as direct permissions, shared links, SharePoint groups, or M365 groups. To simplify this process, you can use the effectivepermissions endpoint to retrieve and analyze permissions assigned to users at the site, list/library, and item/file/folder levels. This blog post demonstrates how to use PowerShell to identify and retrieve effective permissions for end users across SharePoint sites.

Introduction This guide walks you through creating a Copilot agent using Microsoft 365 Agents Toolkit (previously known as Teams Toolkit) and Microsoft Graph API. By leveraging OpenAPI specifications, Kiota, and Microsoft 365 Agents Toolkit, you can build a plugin to interact with Microsoft Graph endpoints. I used the blog post Copilot Graph API QnA Plugin by Franck Cornu as inspiration with some variation to apply it to get my ToDo tasks.

Introduction When building a Copilot agent using Microsoft 365 Agents Toolkit (previously known as Teams Toolkit), you may encounter certain errors that can hinder your progress. This blog post highlights common issues and provides solutions to help you resolve them effectively. Common Issues and Fixes 1. name_for_human Exceeds 20 Characters Issue: You may encounter the following error when the name_for_human field in the ai-plugin.json file exceeds 20 characters: name_for_human in PluginManifestDocument has characters beyond the length 20 that MAY be ignored.

Searching Sensitivity Labels in SharePoint Sensitivity labels are a powerful tool for protecting documents, offering features like watermarks, encryption, and access control at the file level. However, the default Sensitivity column in SharePoint has limitations—it cannot be filtered, indexed, or bulk updated. This blog post explores ways to search for sensitivity label values in SharePoint and highlights some challenges and potential solutions. Challenges with Sensitivity Labels in SharePoint The crawled managed property InformationProtectionLabelId refers to the sensitivity label’s GUID/ID, which is not user-friendly for end users to easily search.

Power Automate: Retrieve SharePoint Library Internal Name When working with Power Automate, you may encounter scenarios where you need the internal name of a SharePoint library. For example, when creating a file in a library using Power Automate, the internal name is often required. Instead of manually adding the internal name as an environment variable, you can dynamically retrieve it using the Send an HTTP Request to SharePoint action. This blog post demonstrates how to retrieve the internal name of a SharePoint library using its ID or display name.

PnP PowerShell: Enabling and Configuring Document ID in SharePoint The Document ID feature in SharePoint is a powerful tool that assigns a unique ID to files, making it easier to reference and track documents. The script within the post activates and configures the Document ID feature using PnP PowerShell. Additionally, it covers the Set-PnPSiteDocumentIdPrefix cmdlet, which simplifies the process of setting a custom prefix for Document IDs. Why Use Document IDs?

Monitoring Storage Quotas with PowerShell Managing storage quotas in Microsoft 365 is critical to ensure uninterrupted service and optimal performance. This blog post demonstrates how to use a PowerShell script to monitor storage usage across SharePoint Online sites and identify sites nearing or exceeding their storage quotas. Script Overview The script connects to the SharePoint Online admin center, retrieves site storage details, calculates the percentage of storage used, and generates a report for sites exceeding 80% of their allocated storage quota.

Power Automate: Save Run Flow URL to SharePoint List Item When running a Power Automate flow, capturing and saving the flow’s run URL to a SharePoint list item can simplify troubleshooting and auditing. This allows you to easily revisit the flow run details in case of failures or for review purposes. However, note that flow run URLs are only available for 30 days, so older links may no longer work.

Latency Issues Accessing Microsoft 365 Sites - SharePoint, Admin Center When using a SaaS (Software as a Service) product like Microsoft 365, troubleshooting performance issues can be challenging due to the lack of server-level access. This limitation makes it difficult to analyze network traffic or monitor server resources like CPU, RAM, or storage, which could impact the performance of SharePoint sites. We were experiencing errors, timeouts, delays, and non-functional features for users.

Introduction In SharePoint Online, the filter pane is a powerful feature that allows users to quickly filter and find relevant data in libraries and lists. However, by default, not all fields are visible in the filter pane. To enhance usability, you can pin specific fields to the top of the filter pane using PowerShell or the REST API. This blog post demonstrates how to use PowerShell and the REST API to pin fields to the filter pane in SharePoint libraries.

Introduction Managing files in SharePoint libraries can be challenging, especially when dealing with test data or bulk operations. For instance, you may need to find and delete files containing specific names or patterns to reset a testing environment. This blog post demonstrates how to use PowerShell to locate and delete files in SharePoint libraries, including associated data in lists, to streamline the testing process. In this example, we had PDF files containing a series of receipts that were split into individual files using Power Automate with the Encodian connector.

Introduction Understanding how a SharePoint site was created is crucial for governance, compliance, and troubleshooting. In Microsoft 365, SharePoint sites can be created through various methods, such as Microsoft Teams, Viva Engage, the SharePoint Admin Center, and more. However, identifying the exact creation source can sometimes be challenging. For example, exporting the list of active sites from the SharePoint Admin Center may not always provide accurate information. Communication sites, for instance, may incorrectly show their creation source as “Microsoft M365 Group,” even though they can only be created from the SharePoint Admin Center.

Introduction Embedding a Copilot Studio Agent within a SharePoint page can significantly enhance user experience by providing seamless access to AI-powered assistance directly within the context of a SharePoint site. While there are examples of achieving this using SPFx (SharePoint Framework), I wanted to explore whether this could be done using out-of-the-box (OOB) features without custom development. In this blog post, I will walk you through the steps to embed a Copilot Studio Agent into a SharePoint page using the Embed Webpart and site settings.

Introduction Balancing AI safety measures and practical functionality for SharePoint Agents is key for some use cases due to the lack of customisation of the inbuilt content safety against the four categories: harm, self-harm, sex, and hate. A particular use case we wanted to explore was its use for mental health support agents in the form of virtual mental health first aiders. My partner in crime Lee Ford and I explored what we could do without tripping the Responsible AI principles and flagging Content Safety categories.

Introduction SharePoint Agent is the easiest way to get started with building your own grounded Agents from your SharePoint data. The possibilities are vast, from HR agents to legal agents. If more configuration and features are required, the Copilot Studio or Azure AI Foundry could help. Each SharePoint site comes with its own default Agent scoped to data within the site. As of today (i.e. March 2025), the default SharePoint agent can’t be modified.

Introduction Default sensitivity labels can be set at the document library level in SharePoint to help manage and protect your data. However, there are some limitations and issues that you should be aware of like the default sensitivity label does not automatically update existing files within SharePoint and there might be delay in applying the sensitivity label within M365 app. This is described in the documentation for Configuring a default sensitivity label for a SharePoint document library.

Introduction Updating the default sharing link from the User Interface at both the site level and tenant level to Specific People (only the people the user specifies) might not work always as expected. This issue could be due to the outdated setting DefaultSharingLinkType being updated behind the scenes. I tested this on a Team site by updating the default sharing setting from the SharePoint Admin Centre to “People you choose”. However, the default sharing link for new sharing links did not reflect this setting.

Introduction There are situations where you might want to reuse the M365 Group principals to assign permissions to other sites without creating additional Entra ID groups. This can be useful for: Adding M365 group members to a SharePoint site, such as an intranet site for ‘Human Resources’ managed by the ‘Human Resources’ M365 Group/Teams or a hub site managed by a ‘Service Desk’ M365 Group/Teams. Adding M365 group members to custom or out-of-the-box SharePoint groups, such as adding particular M365 group owners or members to custom groups created for additional libraries within a different site.

Introduction The SharePoint Home Site experiences have moved to Viva Connections and is managed from the Microsoft 365 admin centre through the Viva Connections admin centre I started exploring how to manage these SharePoint Home Sites/Viva Experiences using browser’s developer tools, considering I had little luck with the SPO PowerShell, PnP PowerShell, and CLI for M365. These PowerShell experiences will be updated at some point to work with the updated Viva Connections Experience.

When working with SharePoint lists, there might be times when you need to restore items to a previous version. Whether it’s due to an error, unwanted changes, or simply needing to revert to an earlier state, SharePoint’s versioning feature is a lifesaver. I used the script to undo bulk changes made by a Power Automate flow after the process failed halfway due to some data needing correction. For data integrity, the bulk update needed to be undone before running the Power Automate flow again after the data corrections were made.

Introduction When working with files in SharePoint, the drive ID and drive item ID are essential parameters for further manipulation using Microsoft Graph API. The drive ID is a base64 encoded string composed of the site ID, web ID, and list ID for a particular SharePoint library. For more details, refer to Microsoft Graph: Encoding and decoding the drive ID by Mikael Svenson. The item ID part appears to be a base32 encoding of the SharePoint item’s unique ID, though the exact mechanics are still being explored.

Introduction By default, guest access for Microsoft 365 groups is enabled within the tenant. This can be controlled either to allow or block guest access at the tenant level or for individual Microsoft 365 groups / Teams. For more information, check out Manage guest access in Microsoft 365 groups. PowerShell Script to Prevent Guest Access Below is a PowerShell script that allows you to disable/enable guest access for specific Microsoft 365 groups.

Introduction With the release of SPFx 1.20.0 in September 2024, I decided to upgrade an existing SPFx solution to the latest version following a post by Microsoft 365 & Power Platform Community on Linkedin This process can be challenging, especially when dealing with dependency version conflicts. In this blog post, I’ll walk you through the steps to upgrade your SPFx solution to version 1.20.0, including installing Node.js 18.18.0, using the CLI for Microsoft 365 to generate upgrade instructions, and addressing common issues.

Introduction The SharePoint Framework (SPFx) 1.20.0 has been generally available since September 2024. However, if you work with SPFx, you might encounter issues when trying to use the latest version. SPFx still requires Node.js 18.x.x. In this blog post, I’ll walk you through the steps I took to install Node.js 18.20.4 using NVM, install the SPFx toolchain, and troubleshoot an issue where the project scaffolding defaulted to an older version of SPFx.

Introduction As part of Microsoft 365 Copilot readiness, you may want to find where “Everyone and “Everyone except external users” claims are granted permissions which is a cause of oversharing. This blog post will guide you through using PowerShell to manage and audit the “Everyone” and “Everyone except external users” claims within your SharePoint site collection. For more insights on why the “Everyone except external users” group is riskier than “People in your organization,” refer to Copilot for Microsoft 365 Data Ready – Where “Everyone except external users” group is more risky than “People in your organization” links!

Introduction Have you ever encountered the frustrating situation where the Restore a library link in SharePoint is missing or inconsistently available? This can be a significant issue when you need to restore a library urgently. The Problem Typically, you would expect to see the link ‘Restore This Library’ in the SharePoint interface: Restore library However, in some cases, this link might be missing: Restore Library Missing The Workaround After some investigation, I discovered a workaround.

Introduction Have you ever encountered a situation where the search results in SharePoint show incorrect document titles and modified dates? This can be frustrating, especially when you rely on accurate metadata for document management. In this blog post, we’ll explore why this happens and how to resolve it. Problem Statement A business user reported that the search results for a particular document displayed the wrong name and modified date. Upon investigation, we found that the title and modified date were being pulled from the document properties rather than the metadata shown in the SharePoint library.

Microsoft has introduced Enhanced Version Controls, previously known as Intelligent Versioning, as part of its public preview in May 2024. This feature, detailed in the Microsoft 365 Roadmap 145802, aims to help administrators manage file versions more effectively, reducing storage costs by removing unnecessary versions. Extract from the Roadmap We are introducing new version controls that help tenant and site admins or document library owners reduce the storage footprint driven by low value file versions.

Managing sharing settings for SharePoint sites is crucial for maintaining a secure and well-governed environment. With the help of PowerShell, administrators can efficiently retrieve and manage these settings across their SharePoint Online tenant. This ensures that sensitive information is not overshared and that your organisation’s data remains secure. Importance of Reviewing Sharing Settings Reviewing sharing settings is essential to prevent oversharing, which can lead to data breaches and unauthorized access to sensitive information.

Sharing lies at the heart of collaboration within SharePoint, facilitating seamless communication and teamwork. However, effective management of sharing settings is crucial to maintain data security and prevent unintended exposure. This is particularly important in light of tools like M365 Copilot. An extract from Announcing SharePoint advanced management innovations for the AI and Copilot era “With Copilot and AI, security has become a concern. Not because Copilot allows people to access anything more than they could previously; it just allows them to find information they have access to faster.

How to Use the Instagram Basic Display Connector in Power Apps and Power Automate Instagram is a popular social media platform with over 1 billion monthly active users. It is a great platform for sharing photos and videos, and many businesses use it to promote their products and services. With the Instagram Basic Display (IndependentPublisher) connector, you can now easily retrieve data from Instagram accounts and use it in Power Apps and Power Automate.

When working with large SharePoint sites, checking for unique permissions can be a time-consuming task. This blog post explores methods to optimize PowerShell scripts for fetching property HasUniqueRoleAssignments to determine unique permissions, including using PnP PowerShell and the SharePoint REST API. We compare their performance and highlight the advantages and limitations of each approach. Using PnP PowerShell PnP PowerShell provides an efficient way to interact with SharePoint Online and retrieve list items to check for unique permissions.

If you have built Power Platform solutions using SharePoint as a datasource, you may want to export the list structure along with its data from the source environment (e.g., DEV) and deploy it across different environments such as Test, UAT, and PROD. Fortunately, the PnP Provisioning from PnP PowerShell provides this capability. Power Platform solutions can be deployed using pipelines after the SharePoint structure is deployed. Export Structure and Data from SharePoint Lists PnP PowerShell makes this process straightforward with Get-PnPSiteTemplate:

The SharePoint - Move file action can be used to move files, however the file can’t be moved if the file was accessed by the current Power Automate flow for any processing reslutng in a locked file error. { “status”: 400, “message”: “File ‘Shared Documents/Attendances/To Be Processed/Attendance -16072024.xlsx’ cannot be moved because it is in locked mode.\r\nclientRequestId: d6df7566-881f-4f14-8548-c5fac1eda46d\r\nserviceRequestId: 606841a1-40f0-9000-9c69-507df9b21720” } Handling Locked Files There are two options to handlelocked files when using SharePoint - Move file action:

Gaining an overview of what takes up space in a SharePoint site is crucial for monitoring large files or a significant number of versions. Unfortunately, the storage metrics link, <siteurl>/_layouts/15/storman.aspx, won’t work for libraries with more than 5,000 files without nested folders. While this might go against information architecture principles, creating folders is an option to avoid the list view threshold error. Here’s a PowerShell script to help you get storage metrics for your SharePoint site:

The Highlighted Content Web Part and the News Web Part in SharePoint can be used to display news on a page. Both webparts serve different purposes and have distinct features. One particular difference is the display of author in News Webpart and display of editor in the Highlighted Content Web Part. The Highlighted Content Web Part displays editing details like editor and last updated date with the news information. Unfortunately there is no option to change it to the author name.

This post covers how to leverage SharePoint REST API to create and publish a news link from Power Automate using the Send an Http request to SharePoint action. Within a Power Automate flow follow the steps below to create and publish a news link details. Send an Http request to SharePoint action renamed to Get Page Details. Site Address : site url Method : GET Uri : /_api/web/lists/GetByTitle(‘Site%20Pages’)/items(10) Parse JSON renamed to Parse Page Details JSON Add the action Parse JSON and refer to the content from previous steps

This post covers how to leverage SharePoint REST API to get user details from Power Automate using the Send an Http request to SharePoint action. Within a Power Automate flow follow the steps below to retrieve a user details. Send an Http request to SharePoint action renamed to Get Page Author Details Site Address: https://test.sharepoint.com Method: GET URI: _api/Web/GetUserById(14) Here’s the output from the API: Here’s the output from the API:

This post covers how to leverage SharePoint REST API to get users from a SharePoint group from Power Automate using the Send an Http request to SharePoint action. In the example below a SharePoint Group has been defined for approvers of a particular process and needed to be retrieved to be assigned an approval task. Within a Power Automate flow follow the steps below to retrieve users from a SharePoint group.

Effective oversight of sharing links and sharing information are paramount to ensuring data security, compliance, and optimal collaboration experiences. As organisations migrate to M365 environments, they inherit powerful collaboration tools that facilitate seamless sharing of documents and resources. However, without proper governance, these capabilities can lead to unintended consequences such as data breaches, compliance violations, and loss of intellectual property. Sharing is a powerful feature for collaboration. However depending on how items, files or folders are shared, a sharing link might be created or unique permissions on these items are created.

This post outlines how to use Power Automate to update author and editor of a Page within SharePoint using the Send an Http request to SharePoint action. Within a Power Automate flow, follow the following steps Add Send an Http request to SharePoint renamed to Update Author Properties Property Value Site Address The SharePoint site URL Method POST Uri See Uri below Headers See Headers table below Body See Body below Uri _api/web/lists/GetByTitle(‘Site%20Pages’)/items(1)/ValidateUpdateListItem()`

As part of the M365 Copilot rollout , questions were raised on the /portals/Community and /portals/hub as both ‘Everyone Except External Users’ was granted access raising concerns on the content on the site. These are legacy sites and are currently inaccessible. Historically, these sites were accessible via the legacy SharePoint admin centre, however, they are not available through the modern SharePoint admin centre interface. Thanks to Gregory Zelfond’s blog post What are all these site collections in SharePoint?

There is limited space allocated to the tenant. To ensure business continuity and smooth ongoing operation, it is imperative to keep an eye on its usage and take relevant actions suited to the circumstances. By default a SharePoint site is allocated 25 TB by default and OneDrive for Business site is allocated 1 TB by default. These settings can be amended manually to a different quota to control SharePoint site. The script will help to proactively monitor percent used against quota for each SharePoint site.

SharePoint Online offers the useful feature of news links to avoid duplication of news articles and promote existing posts across different sites. This is especially beneficial when news creation is enabled for various departments or directorates, allowing them to share significant news organization-wide. However, the News WebPart might display both the news links and the original articles, resulting in duplicated content. To manage this, you can utilize the OriginalSourceUrl column, which stores the link to the source news article.

#Parameters $SiteURL = “https://contoso.sharepoint.com/teams/app-ar" $ListName = “Remittances” $dateTime = (Get-Date).toString(“dd-MM-yyyy”) $invocation = (Get-Variable MyInvocation).Value $directorypath = Split-Path $invocation.MyCommand.Path $fileName = “\RemittanceDuplicateReport-” + $dateTime + “.csv” $OutPutView = $directorypath + $fileName Connect-PnPOnline -url $SiteURL -Interactive $ListItems = Get-PnPListItem -List $ListName -PageSize 500 | Where {$_.FieldValues.Month -eq ‘202402’ } #Array for Results Data $DataCollection = @() ForEach($Item in $ListItems) { #Collect data $Data = New-Object PSObject -Property @{ SourceRef = $Item[“DocumentSourceReference”] GroupingRef = $Item[“GroupingReference”] Provider = $Item[“Provider”].

Maintaining up-to-date list items, especially when dealing with choice fields, can be a daunting task sepcially after choice field values are updated. We need a way to update these old values to the correct new ones. The Challenge SharePoint lists use choice fields to categorise items. Over time, the need to update these choice values can arise, whether due to changes in terminology, business processes, or error correction. Manually updating these values across numerous list items is not only time-consuming but also prone to human error.

Overcoming SharePoint’s List View Threshold with CAML Queries in PowerShell Encountering the list view threshold error in SharePoint when dealing with lists exceeding 5,000 items is a common challenge. Using CAML queries within PowerShell scripts offers a server-side solution to efficiently filter and retrieve data, yet is prone to the list view threshold error. Sample script This is the sample PowerShell script querying the specified SharePoint list using CAML query.

Find orphaned choice values in SharePoint list/libraries using PowerShell One common issue is orphaned choice values in SharePoint lists which may affect subsequent update to the list item. This can occur when list items contain values that are no longer valid according to the list’s choice field values. This post covers a PowerShell script to identify these orphaned choice values in SharePoint lists to either update them or add them back to the list of choice field values.

Update SharePoint Site Logo and Thumbnail with PowerShell In SharePoint Online sites, the distinction between the Site Logo and Site Thumbnail is crucial. The site logo appears in the site header, while the site thumbnail is used in search results, site cards, file copying/moving, and other areas. Both site logo and thumbnail are part of SharePoint branding. This post covers how to update the site logo and thumbnail across multiple SharePoint sites within a hub using PowerShell.

Update Content Type of List Items in SharePoint List A content type in SharePoint is a reusable collection of metadata (columns) allowing to organise, manage and handle content in a consistent way. If the content type of files and items need to be updated because of required changes how particular content have to be managed, it can be a daunting laborious task if done manually. PowerShell can help automating the update of content types and corresponding metadata (columns).

Importing Dates and Numbers from Excel file into SharePoint list with Power Automate Transferring data from Excel to SharePoint lists can encounter format issues, especially with datetime and number fields. This post covers solutions to some challenges particularly related to dates and numbers. The flow is quite simple with an action to read contents from excel file and an action to create items into a sharepoint list. Handling DateTime Fields When importing datetime data with the “List rows present in a table” action from the “Excel Online for Business” connector, you might encounter format related errors.

Power Automate flow succeeded despite failure to update multi line text field within a SharePoint Library Updating multi-line text fields in a SharePoint Library from Power Automate flows, especially when the content exceeds 255 characters might fail if the field is not updated to allow unlimited length. This can cause workflows to fail silently. In a recent scenario, an action was added to a Power Automate flow to update a SharePoint Library’s multi-line text field named ‘ErrorLog’ with error details captured during the flow’s execution.

Publishing Major Versions of Files in SharePoint with Power Automate This post covers how to publish major versions for Office documents (Word, Excel, or PowerPoint) in SharePoint using Power Automate, especially after an approval task using the checkin and publish REST endpoints. This applies to libraries having minor versions enabled Just for context, a Power Automate approval flow with trigger for a selected file needed publishing for the selected file as major version after being approved.

Column Validation for Sort Code and Account Number in SharePoint Column validation provides a solution to validate data for data integrity. This post covers column validation for Sort Code and Account Number in SharePoint. Validation for Sort Code =AND(LEN([Sort Code])=6,ISNUMBER([Sort Code]+0)) The above formula checks The length of the sort code must be exactly 6 digits. The sort code must be a number. Validation for Account Number =AND(LEN([Account Number])=8,ISNUMBER([Account Number]+0))

Streamlining SharePoint Template Usage: A Guide to Opening DOTX Files as DOCX Encountering issues with opening “.dotx” templates in SharePoint is a common scenario that can disrupt your workflow. Typically, when you attempt to open a “.dotx” file in SharePoint, it opens in edit mode for the template itself, rather than generating a new “.docx” document as expected. This behavior diverges from the experience in Windows File Explorer and can hinder productivity.

Empowering Secure Collaboration: Configuring OneDrive Tenant Settings with PowerShell OneDrive makes it easy to collaborate by sharing files and folders with others. OneDrive is the storage space for personal productivity and not meant for collaboration. Data stored within OneDrive are Files shared to chats within Teams Files shared with end user by other OneDrive users. OneNote Personal lists and Document storage Shortcuts to SharePoint sites/libraries Favourites Loops within chats Streams In this article, we’ll explore into how PowerShell can empower SharePoint administrators to configure OneDrive sharing settings proactively at the tenant level, addressing oversharing concerns for the M365 Copilot rollout.

Counting Files and Folders within SharePoint Libraries using PnP PowerShell This post shows a PowerShell script using PnP PowerShell module to count the number of files and folders within a SharePoint library. It might be useful doing an inventory of file count. $SiteURL = "Counting Files within a SharePoint Library using PnP PowerShell" # Generate a unique log file name using today's date $dateTime = (Get-Date).toString("dd-MM-yyyy") $invocation = (Get-Variable MyInvocation).Value $directorypath = Split-Path $invocation.

Retrieving File Count and Size of a folder within a SharePoint Library using PnP PowerShell This post covers a PowerShell script that uses the PnP PowerShell module to retrieve the file count and total size of a specific folder within a SharePoint library. #Parameters $SiteURL = "https://contoso.sharepoint.com/sites/company311" $FolderSiteRelativeURL = "Shared Documents/Test1" #Connect to PnP Online Connect-PnPOnline -Url $SiteURL -Interactive #Get the folder $Folder = Get-PnPFolder -Url $FolderSiteRelativeURL -Includes ListItemAllFields #Get the total Size of the folder - with versions Write-host "Size of the Folder:" $([Math]::Round(($Folder.

Empowering Secure Collaboration: Configuring Microsoft Loop Sharing SharePoint Tenant and Site Settings with PowerShell Guest users can be invited to collaborate within Microsoft Loop in the tenant. Refer How to work with guest users using Microsoft Loop how sharing within Loop works. This post focuses on using PowerShell to control the Microsoft Loop sharing settings to help securing data especially with M365 Copilot which can expose data not previously accessible by other means.

Sharing Options Updates - Send Email button greyed out Starting from March 2024, there has been a notable change in SharePoint’s sharing options. If a user is not allowed to share on a SharePoint site (for instance, when a user is a member and only owners have sharing privileges), the Send Email button appears greyed out. Additionally, a warning message is displayed: Sharing is limited on this item. You can only copy links for people who have existing access, and you can’t invite anyone new.

Query Unique Permissions in SharePoint using CSOM and PnP PowerShell Managing permissions in SharePoint is a critical aspect of maintaining data security and compliance within organisations. However, as SharePoint environments grow in complexity, manually auditing and managing permissions becomes increasingly challenging. To address this challenge, PowerShell scripts can be leveraged to automate the auditing process, providing administrators with valuable insights into permission structures across SharePoint sites and libraries. What do SharePoint permissions have to do with Copilot for Microsoft 365?

Retrieving SharePoint Site URL for Teams Channels Have you ever needed to construct the SharePoint site URL for a private or shared channel using just the channel name? This post will guide you through the process using Microsoft Graph endpoint and PnP PowerShell though PowerShell. You may need the details for these reasons To specify within a retention policy Purview Retention Policy Questions from the Field eDiscovery Extract from eDiscovery of private and shared channels “Each private and shared channel has its own SharePoint site that’s separate from the parent team site.

Troubleshooting NVM Setup Issues for SPFx Development I have not used my dev machine for SPFx development for over a year. Before diving into any new SPFx development, I followed the typical procedure of installing the latest Node.js version 18.19.0 supported by the current SPFx version (1.18.2) using nvm (node version management).nvm allows to maintain different development environment. nvm install 18.19.0 Following this, I proceeded to install the SPFx toolchain:

Get Folder Item properties using PnP PowerShell : Get-PnPFolderItem versus Get-PnPListItem Introduction In this blog post, we will explore an alternative approach to retrieving folder item properties using PnP PowerShell. We will discuss the limitations of the Get-PnPFolderItem cmdlet and demonstrate how to use Get-PnPListItem to overcome those limitations. The Limitations of Get-PnPFolderItem The Get-PnPFolderItem cmdlet is not suitable for working with large libraries. When attempting to retrieve items from a large library, you may encounter the following error message:

Automating Site Reindexing with PowerShell Introduction Keeping your SharePoint environment up-to-date is crucial, especially after making schema changes. One important aspect of maintaining accurate and relevant search results is to regularly reindex sites, libraries, or lists. In this blog post, we will explore a streamlined approach using PnP PowerShell to automate the reindexing process. By leveraging this script, you can ensure that your search results reflect the latest changes in your SharePoint environment.

For many organizations, maintaining a consistent brand identity across SharePoint sites is crucial. The distinction between “Site Logo” and “Site Logo Thumbnail” is essential, as they serve different purposes across SharePoint and the Microsoft 365 ecosystem. The site logo appears in the site header, while the site logo thumbnail is used in search results, site cards, when copying/moving files, and other critical areas. It plays a vital role in helping end users differentiate between various SharePoint Online (SPO) sites and Teams.

Unveiling Audit Logs with PnP PowerShell for the last 7 days Understanding and tracking activities within your M365 environment is crucial for maintaining security and compliance. Audit Logs offer a wealth of information, and in this post, we’ll delve into the methods to retrieve and analyze them. Specifically, we’ll focus on leveraging the Office 365 Management Activity API reference through the Get-PnPUnifiedAuditLog PnP PowerShell cmdlet. It is a great alternative if you are only a SharePoint Administrator with no global admin or Purview Audit logs access.

Recreating Deleted Owners Group for M365-Connected SharePoint Sites If out-of-the-box (OOB) groups such as owners, members, or visitors have been deleted accidentally from your SharePoint site, this article may assist you in recovering those vanished groups specifically for M365 linked Team site. I recently encountered a distress call from an end user facing data access issues on a SharePoint Team site. To my dismay, I discovered that the SharePoint Owners group had been accidentally deleted, prompting me to seek and implement a solution to restore access.

Updating Approval Details in SharePoint Library using ‘Send HTTP Request to SharePoint’ in Power Automate In Power Automate, there are two methods for updating file properties: Send HTTP Request to SharePoint Update File Properties While the latter suffices for most cases, I opted for the “Send HTTP Request to SharePoint” in specific scenarios: To avoid triggering a new file version using system update. When modifying system columns such as author or modified date.

Leveraging ChatGPT to Generate Test Data for SharePoint Lists Using PnP PowerShell Utilizing ChatGPT to generate test data for various applications is a powerful capability. After stumbling upon the sample script Create test users using MS Graph API from list or ask ChatGPT to generate test users by Valeras Narbutas on creating test users with MS Graph API, I decided to explore using ChatGPT to generate a list of data. This script harnesses OpenAI’s ChatGPT model to effortlessly generate a list of wellbeing activities.

Optimising Large List Updates with PnP Batch: Handling Throttling and Enhancing Efficiency In this article, we explore how to efficiently update a large SharePoint list containing approximately 60,000 items using PnP-Batch. Updating such a substantial number of items individually can be time-consuming and prone to throttling issues. Prior to using PnP Batch , it was taking more than 12 hours to update 60k one by one. The article highlights the benefits of using PnP Batch, which significantly reduces the time taken for updates by sending fewer requests.

Troubleshooting SharePoint Storage Reports with PowerShell As the amount of data stored in SharePoint grows, it becomes important to monitor and manage storage usage. In this blog post, we will explore how to generate storage reports for SharePoint sites using PowerShell. These reports will provide insights into the storage usage of sites and individual files, including file versions and the size of the recycle bin. However the reports can only give a glimpse of at least 60-90% of storage.