SOLVED

Having read only access to a group form in Forms

Brass Contributor

 Is it really not possible to add a form to a group and restrict access to group members as read only/fill-able rather than full owner access?

If so is it possible for this feature to be added, member/owner/guest form access permissions.

As it stands anyone in a public folder has the ability to make changes to a distributed form and also share it for co-editing access. As an added issue the form does not seem to be able to be returned to a user private form or moved to a private group. 

I have already had a response from a member of the MSTech community who advised me that it cannot be done, so i am hoping this reaches someone who is able to add this feature into MSForms.

If anyone has any ideas feel free to reply to the post and we'll see how we go.

Thank you,
J_Porter

13 Replies

@Jacob_Porter I am having the same frustration. My colleagues are accidentally editing the form, and thus messing it up. They need to be able to fill out the form, but I need the form itself to not be edited by anyone but me. Arrrgh!!

 

I agree. And I dont want all users in the group/team to be able to see all the results. We should be able to limit them to only seeing their own submission results and/or no results at all.
best response confirmed by Jacob_Porter (Brass Contributor)
Solution

Jacob_Porter_2-1613601281638.png

@Michael Waters You're the only one who replied.
This is an update from Microsoft this morning, This will resolve my problem.

Thanks Microsoft!

Regards,
J_Porter

@Jacob_Porter  thats interesting, but doesnt seem to be something that will help my situation.

These are "Teams" that have group forms in them as opposed to group forms in a public group.

I still want ability to make the form read only to people in the Team and restrict them from seeing all the results.  And then allowing certain people to edit the form and see all the results.  Who knows... maybe the description is about public groups, but they will make some other adjustments also... ?

 

Thanks

 

@Michael Waters 
I see,
You have the forms added to the Team as a Channel Tab I assume.
It depends how you added them to the team.
A Team in Teams is recorded as a group in Office Admin and will be able to be selected as the group for a form in Forms.
If the Group the form is added to is the same group that was generated by the Teams team you would be able to link it to the team and have team members with access.
This change by Microsoft only affects public groups and by extension this would include public Teams teams.
If you've added a Tab the channel as a forms - collect responses then they will only be able to fill out the form, but if it's been set as a collaborate you'll likely need to remove and re-add the Tab

Jacob_Porter_0-1613609540154.png

Again this will only assist in access management for Public Teams and Groups, and the changes aren't scheduled to take effect until late March.

The Form security is managed by the Group and the share access management, The distribution format can vary from links to page embed and Team Channel Tabs.

I hope this assisted but maybe I've got the wrong idea. 
Does this line up with your scenario?

 

I'm having the same issue.  We have an all staff team and are running a consultation with staff.  As we wanted to be able to view the results in a live document, we created an excel doc in the files section then created the form from that.

 

Although we could shut off access to the results document to all staff except the Team owners, we don't have any way to restrict access to the form structure at all.  It would be good if we could stop people being able to edit the form in the same group.  The form can't be moved out of the group because it's tied to that Team's files.

 

Does anyone know if Microsoft intends to give more finite permission control to Forms?

@JenLavery Microsoft appear to have this planned for rollout in March. See my post that I marked as the resolution, it would resolve my issue and it seems like what you are looking for.

@Jacob_PorterHow about a simple file key, whats in the file doesn't matter, just the fact that it exists.

Not overly secure if a non-admin figures out your method/key etc.

Or may not suit your needs at all but might also give you other ideas for thinking outside the box.

 

Public Function FileExists(ByVal path_ As String) As Boolean
FileExists = (Len(Dir(FilePathName)) > 0)
End Function

 

Put the file on the PC who is to be admin.

Then simply on your form.

 

 

OnCurrent

If FileExists = True then

Call procedure to Unlock/enable controls

else

Call procedure to Lock/Disable controls

End

 

 

The other way is a lot more involved to create log-in forms, tables of usersnames/passwords/permissions etc then its contained within the DB itself.

 

Create the Form in SharePoint and then add the share link as a webpage in Teams. Or, create the form in Teams as a tab - tab will have edit capabilities & responses. Then delete the tab, then add a new Form tab selecting the same form - this time no edit or response.
This is still a problem; and the Microsoft solution does not resolve the whole problem. If Form is moved to a Group site, still members can view and edit the form like an admin, too. Does not retrict admin access. :( :(
And it's already 2023.
This is a big issue for us as well. We have control over the response sheet, but no way to prevent people from editing a company-wide form.

The only resolution I have come up with is to make a SharePoint group specifically for the Forms and move them all there but provide links otherwise. This seems a rather dumb way to do it, but it would allow us to only have a few people with the ability to edit the Forms.
That is what we are going to do as well I think. Thanks!
1 best response

Accepted Solutions
best response confirmed by Jacob_Porter (Brass Contributor)
Solution

Jacob_Porter_2-1613601281638.png

@Michael Waters You're the only one who replied.
This is an update from Microsoft this morning, This will resolve my problem.

Thanks Microsoft!

Regards,
J_Porter

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