A complete guide to monitoring and managing external sharing in SharePoint

One of the essential features of SharePoint Online is the ability to share resources. Users can exchange files, directories, and websites with one another. Admins must keep track of external file accesses and sharing events if your company has allowed external sharing. External sharing events should be monitored to avoid unwanted access.

This post will cover all the necessary points required to manage and monitor your SharePoint external sharing successfully. I’ll be explaining a few key features of SharePoint’s external monitoring features, such as the external sharing report, so you have all the know-how needed to monitor your company’s external sharing.

  1. How do I view external sharing in SharePoint Online
  2. How do I monitor external sharing in SharePoint Online
  3. How to use the external sharing report in SharePoint
  4. How do I view external access in SharePoint

We’ve also created a video going through all of the points above, so please feel free to give it a watch on our YouTube channel here:

Above are some of the key points that will help you better understand how to monitor and manage external sharing in SharePoint.

How do I view external sharing in SharePoint Online

Users may securely share files saved in SharePoint or OneDrive for Business sites with team members, colleagues, external suppliers, or partners when external sharing is allowed. You can view external sharing for sites in your site panel. Follow for more information on how you can achieve this.

Step by step guide – How do I view external sharing in SharePoint Online

  • First sign in to Office 365.
  • Use the app launcher and navigate to “SharePoint”, and click on it.
  • In SharePoint go to the Site where your files are located.
  • Click on Settings (gear icon).
  • After that click on “Site usage”.
  • Scroll down to “Shared with external users”.

That’s it, you will now be able to view externally shared content in SharePoint. The site usage section allows you to get a snapshot of all externally shared content.

In-depth – Step by step guide – How do I view external sharing in SharePoint Online?

  • First sign into Office 365.
  • Use the app launcher and navigate to “SharePoint”, and click on it.
  • In SharePoint, go to the Site where your files are located.
  • Click on Settings (gear icon).
  • After that click on “Site usage”.
  • Scroll down to “Shared with external users”.

Scroll all the way down to the Shared with external users area, past the basic site statistics. In reverse chronological order, the snapshot displays all of the individual files and folders shared externally by users.

How do I monitor external sharing in SharePoint Online

In many businesses, an external sharing report is required. We may either browse Audit logs for a list of all externally shared resources or set up an alert policy to get E-mail notifications as soon as they occur. Using Microsoft 365 compliance center to keep track of external content sharing will help you to monitor external sharing. Follow through for more information.

Step by step process – How do I monitor external sharing in SharePoint Online

  • First sign in to your Office 365 account.

Use your account details or if you have a current Skype account with the Office account in question, you can use this.

  • Use the application launcher to navigate towards “Admin”.
  • Click on “Show All” to reveal “Admin centers”.

If, for example, the admin center material you need is pinned to the main menu, you may not need to choose “Show all.” In this situation, just go to the next step and remove the blocked user.

  • Under “Admin centers” click on “Compliance”.
  • Click on “Policies”.
  • Now click on the dropdown for “Alert”.
  • Now click on “Alert Policies”.
  • Now click on “New alert policy”.
  • Name and other parameters must be provided.
  • Create the policy with the activity “Shared File Externally” selected.
  • Click on “Finish” to create the final policy.

That’s it — you will now be notified via email if users share with external users. Furthermore, you will also get a notification if an external user accesses, deletes, or uses a file in any way.

How to use the external sharing report in SharePoint

A report on external sharing across your whole tenant cannot be generated natively. Instead, you must build and download individual reports for each SharePoint site collection:

Open the website on which you wish to write a report.

  • To enter the Settings menu, select the cog symbol, then Site usage.
  • Click Run report after scrolling down to the section Shared with external users.
  • Select a place for the report to be saved, then click Run Report.
  • Go to the place where you saved the report in SharePoint Online.
  • Filter out default records (such as site Owners, Members, and Visitors) from the CSV report in Excel:

There is no external sharing report in SharePoint Online by default. Instead, you may use the SharePoint admin center to create a useful summary. To receive a complete view of external sharing throughout your Office 365 tenant, you’ll need to construct this summary individually for each site collection, integrate the results, and then manually filter out External and Anonymous shares (since SharePoint creates sets of permissions for site Owners, Visitors, and Members based on your security policy). You’ll also have to take some extra work to match sharing links to specific users because Microsoft 365 produces several audit records for a single sharing occurrence.

How do I view external access in SharePoint

Ok so you have got all the information about monitoring and managing the current external access but how do you view external access in your SharePoint account? Follow through for more information.

  • First, sign in to your Office 365 account.
  • Use the app launcher and navigate to admin.
  • Click on “Show All” to reveal “Admin centers.”
  • Under “Settings” click on “Org Settings”.
  • Now click on “Security and Privacy”.
  • Finally, click on “Sharing”.

Once those steps are complete you will be able to view external access to SharePoint and other linked sites. Users can access the domain of preference as external embers and Office 365 logs this activity onto the sharing portal. This permission is reserved for globally administrative individuals.

That’s it for this Blog thank you for taking time out to read our content, please feel free to email our team about how it went if you followed the steps or if you need more help with the questions we answered in this Blog.

Saajid Gangat

Saajid Gangat has been a researcher and content writer at Business Tech Planet since 2021. Saajid is a tech-savvy writer with expertise in web and graphic design and has extensive knowledge of Microsoft 365, Adobe, Shopify, WordPress, Wix, Squarespace, and more! You can connect with Saajid on Linkedin.

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