Forum Discussion
Site Owner Cannot See Folder Unless in Incognito
This is a very weird issue that I have never seen before.
We have about 40 team sites that all have the same Document Library folder structure. I am Site Administrator and have no troubles. I have another user who is the Site Owner. In a regular browser session, she can no longer see a single folder ('Ads') in any of the sites.
HOWEVER, if she opens an incognito browser, she CAN see the folder. So weird.
I have no idea what could cause this, or how to go about continuing to troubleshoot. I have tried sharing the folder directly to her and also removing all unique permissions on the folder. I tried running the SP Self Service diagnostic on one of the sites and no issues were found.
It's not a passing issue as we first noticed it over a year ago and have just been working around it, hoping it would sort itself out at some point.
Anyone ever experienced anything similar?
1. Clear Browser Data: Perform a hard refresh (Ctrl+F5 or Cmd+Shift+R) in normal browsers to clear cache, cookies and locally stored data (Chrome: Settings > Privacy & Security > Clear Browsing Data).
2. Disable browser extensions: Temporarily disable all extensions (especially security and ad blockers) and test if they return to normal.
3. Verify user permissions: Recheck folder permissions by going to Folders > Click > Manage Access Permissions.
Verify that the user is explicitly granted permissions and has not been overridden by inheritance.
Use the Check Permissions utility to verify by entering the user's email directly.
4. Check List View Settings: Go to Document Library Settings and check to see if there are views filtering the folder to temporarily create a new view, making sure it does not contain metadata filtering criteria.
5. Test other devices/browsers: Confirm whether the problem is limited to a specific browser or device, and rule out local environment problems.
6. Reset browser settings: Reset to default settings (Chrome: Settings > Advanced > Reset Settings).
2 Replies
Oh man, #2 was it. I don't use any browser extensions so I never thought of that. My user's ad blocker was being super literal and blocking the folder named 'Ads'.
What a weird thing. Thank you for responding!
1. Clear Browser Data: Perform a hard refresh (Ctrl+F5 or Cmd+Shift+R) in normal browsers to clear cache, cookies and locally stored data (Chrome: Settings > Privacy & Security > Clear Browsing Data).
2. Disable browser extensions: Temporarily disable all extensions (especially security and ad blockers) and test if they return to normal.
3. Verify user permissions: Recheck folder permissions by going to Folders > Click > Manage Access Permissions.
Verify that the user is explicitly granted permissions and has not been overridden by inheritance.
Use the Check Permissions utility to verify by entering the user's email directly.
4. Check List View Settings: Go to Document Library Settings and check to see if there are views filtering the folder to temporarily create a new view, making sure it does not contain metadata filtering criteria.
5. Test other devices/browsers: Confirm whether the problem is limited to a specific browser or device, and rule out local environment problems.
6. Reset browser settings: Reset to default settings (Chrome: Settings > Advanced > Reset Settings).
