Allow internal sharing but require approval for external sharing

[Gerry Morley]

Hi there

I'm new to SharePoint and have been testing the external and internal sharing features. I was wondering if you can help.

I have created a new separate site collection and a subsite within in for sharing data with external organisation. 

I'm looking for a way to allow sharing a file/folder/site with internal user without approval but require an access/approval request to be sent to an admin/manager when a sharing request with an external user is attempted - is this possible? I have setup bcc to be alerted on external sharing after the event - just looking to require approval before but allow internal sharing at the same time.

In my testing - it appears the "access request" settings when ticked to allow sharing by members - it allows sharing of files to both external and internal users. I can't seem to set SharePoint to require approval for external sharing requests only.

Any ideas?

Thanks and Kind Regards

Gerry

[#2]

How you configured the access request settings in your site collection and site? These settings come out of the box with SPO: https://support.office.com/en-us/article/Set-up-and-manage-access-requests-94b26e0b-2822-49d4-929a-8...

[#3]

Hi Juan Carlos, thanks for your reply - I have read the article. The access request settings when ticked to allow internal users to share files etc. means internal users can share with internal and external users without approval. I was wondering if there is a way to allow internal sharing but have an access/approval request email to be sent to admin when a user wants to share with external user?

Thanks
Gerry

[#4]

Sorry, but the access request process is the same no matter if we talk about internal or external users

[#5]

This is an interesting question. Not that I have the answer, because I don't, sorry.

As far as I can understand, you are not talking about the usual access request process, where an outside user requests access to a given site.

What you are talking about, is a user, who already has access, wanting to share something with someone on the outside. And in order for that to happen, someone has to see and approve that sharing request.

That is definitely interesting - it could make sense in certain situations. For us, in many cases, I would be worried that it would cause to much work for site owners and they would become a bottleneck. I mean, how do you handle the situation where, someone using the Outlook desktop client, wants to share a link to a file? Does that person have to request permission to send the link? And when does the site owner have to respond? What happens if the site owner can't respond immediately? Then you can't send the link?