O365 Groups - Read Only Files are opening up in Edit mode

Bronze Contributor

Hello,

We just noticed that group files marked as Read Only are opening up with Edit mode and users are able to make changes. This is not good. How can we fix this? Is a ticket necessary?

 

23 Replies
What do you mean by files marked as read only ? In a group all members can edit all files in that group.

Sorry, what I mean is a group members shared a Read Only link to someone outside of the group and that user was able to edit. Is this supposed to happen?? If so, I really need to understand how that could be a good thing.

 

Is it a public group or a private group ? Public groups allow anyone to edit.
So if the group is a private group and you give a non-member a "Read-only" link to a document then they won't be able to edit the document? But since it is public, no matter what type of link you give them they can edit?
Should be. We tell everyone to create private groups as I can't really see a use case for public groups. In a public group 'everyone excluding external users' can contribute, edit, delete etc.

Have looked at the pemissions on the this file to see how they are setup.  

To your point @Steven Collier I'm wondering if it would just make sense if Groups are private by default? If being public gives everyone the opportunity to collaborate documents that are in read view then they should leverage Yammer. I can't really justify a reason for a public group in O365 Groups. Maybe MS could give admins the option to "hide" the option to make public? Just thinking out loud not sure if this makes sense.  

Here you go. In this case the settings were Read and the user was able to Edit the content. Based on what @Steven Collier it looks like this was supposed to happen because the group was public.

I dont know, maybe public groups makes sense in other companies, just not ours..in the roadmap there is stuff coming to create a trigger for the creation of new groups so perhaps the default can be set with that.

I think Public Groups should operate like Team Sites.

  • Members can edit docs.
  • Visitors can view docs. 
  • Visitors can request to be members of the Group. 
  • Admins can approve requests to be members. 

But then we have to be careful not to complicate Groups. The concepts are simple to those of use more familiar with owning a Team site. Not so much the regular user who just wants to get some people together to work on something. It would be good to have the option.

@Darrell Webster to your point...we continue to mull over how to position groups in our organization. We are thinking of positioning groups more for private use than public use. Here's a venn draft of what our company is thinking (what do you think) I'd love your thoughts on this.

Hi Lillian. I like your diagram. I also want to hear more from Steve Collier and others too with similar opinions. Perhaps we can go one step better. Does anyone on the thread want to get together online and have a quick informal chat about using public/private Office 365 Groups, Team Sites and Yammer? We can record our discussion and share it here for the network to benefit from.
Today? (Too short notice?) Next week?

I certainly hope this will change when Groups sites become SharePoint team sites.

 

I don't necessarily have an issue with this behavior as the default (though it's certainly counter-intuitive), but if the site owners are able to change the library settings then it would address it.

great idea - I'm in (next week is better) I'm currently out of the office and would like for my colleague @DeletedUser_6884 to me included.

 

My schedule is pretty flexible after Monday August 15th. Thanks!

How does this time look for you, Lilly and Kevin. If it's available for you both we'll set it and publish the online meet up so others can join. Just focusing on discussing public or private Groups and use cases.

Munich, Germany
Tue, Aug 16, 8:00pm - 9:00pm (CEST)

London, United Kingdom
Tue, Aug 16, 7:00pm - 8:00pm (BST)

EDT, Eastern Time (US)
Tue, Aug 16, 2:00pm - 3:00pm (EDT)

Austin, United States
Tue, Aug 16, 1:00pm - 2:00pm (CDT)

Seattle, United States
Tue, Aug 16, 11:00am - 12:00pm (PDT)

Auckland, New Zealand
Wed, Aug 17, 6:00am - 7:00am (NZST)

Next week is tough for me due to some training I'm invovled with. The following Tuesday works for me at that time.

Lilly, is this new time good for you too?
Munich, Germany
Tue, Aug 23, 8:00pm - 9:00pm (CEST)

London, United Kingdom
Tue, Aug 23, 7:00pm - 8:00pm (BST)

EDT, Eastern Time (US)
Tue, Aug 23, 2:00pm - 3:00pm (EDT)

Austin, United States
Tue, Aug 23, 1:00pm - 2:00pm (CDT)

Seattle, United States
Tue, Aug 23, 11:00am - 12:00pm (PDT)

Auckland, New Zealand
Wed, Aug 24, 6:00am - 7:00am (NZST)