How to add members to a SharePoint Online group without sending notification

If you have worked with SharePoint in the past, you have more than likely had to get used to the bothersome notifications that come with being added to a group. Unbeknownst to the majority of users, there’s a means to silence those notifications. And that’s exactly what we’ll be discussing in this post.

Solution:

First, go to Office.com and open SharePoint
Open a SharePoint site
Access site permissions
Enter advanced permission settings
Select Grant permissions
Enter user’s name or email
Open the additional options
Uncheck send an email invitation
Assign a permission level
Select Share

Get Share P oint from $6.00 per month with Microsoft 365 Business Basic.

If you need any support, stick around for our image-guided walk-through of the process. Additionally, please note that you will need global or SharePoint admin permissions to follow the guide.

Quick links:

Inviting SharePoint Online site members without notifications
Can email notifications be completely disabled
End note

Inviting SharePoint Online site members without notifications

Step 1 – Open up your SharePoint Online site

The following steps should be fine, so long as you have adequate permissions. We recommend attempting this on a site of your own.

Step 2 – Access your SharePoint Online site’s site permissions page

Site permissions can be accessed via the cog icon in the top right of the page. Clicking the cog will produce a dropdown from which you can select Site permissions.

Step 3 – Enter your SharePoint Online site’s advanced permissions settings

At the bottom of the permissions list, you will find Advanced permissions settings. Click the hyperlink to proceed.

Step 4 – Select Grant permissions

From the top left of the advanced permissions settings, select Grant permissions to begin sharing your site.

Step 5 – Fill fields and uncheck the email notification toggle

The first field is intended for users’ names/emails. The second field should be ignored. Instead open the additional options and uncheck the Send an email invitation box. Lastly, apply an access level for your new members and click Share.

Can email notifications be disabled completely

The answer

Quite simply, no. Queries have been given to Microsoft about the possible creation of such a feature with no promising replies. In a post on their Forums, Microsoft stated that there is no such UI element or accessible setting that automatically disabled this functionality across each site.

What about Exchange Online PowerShell

While this may work for general Outlook or Office365 teams, nothing implies this would work for SharePoint sites- albeit we have been unable to test this for ourselves at this time. If you’d like to give it a shot, we urge you to leave a comment and tell us how it goes.

End note

Recap

To recount. Using SharePoint Online you’re able to create sites and invite others to said sites. Doing so creates an email notification they will receive. This can be avoided by granting your members access permissions without necessarily inviting them. This can be thought of as, adding them to the guestlist for a closed-off party, but not actually handing them an invitation.

Farewell

As usual, this section is dedicated to thanking readers for their support. We’d be pleased to know you found this post useful and/or informative. If you have any more Office 365 related queries, please consult our related articles (listed below). However, if you have other queries, consider looking at the rest of the site. We’re frequently posting new stuff each week and may just have the guide or troubleshooting tips you need. Regardless, we wish you a good day/night. Farewell readers.

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