Providing permissions for Visitors to see page but not documents. If searched on the hub

[Chris_Clark1968]

Hi,

I have a site where documents can be viewed by everyone, if a search is performed.

The Visitor permissions as Everyone except external users, which is need to allow users to see the site.
The site does have unique permissions,

What is the best way to stop Visitors from accessing documents.

Do I need to stop inheriting permissions??

I tried to remove the access to an individual folder via the Manage Access process but when removed 'Everyone Except External Users' they are not able to access the site itself?

[#2]

@Chris_Clark1968 If you are trying to hide the documents from specific document library (or folder), you have to stop inheriting the permissions for that particular document library (or folder) and have unique permissions.

Check this documentation once: Customize permissions for a SharePoint list or library 

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[#3]

@ganeshsanap 

Thank you for your prompt reply.  

The inheritance permissions is something I don't use myself.  It was a site set up by  colleague who as subsequently left.  Do you use it or recommend to use it??

I'll remove the inheritance from the site.

I'm getting the owners of the site to put documents in to folders.  Tidy up the site...

 Could I amend the access directly from the Document / Folder Manage access option??

[#4 · Accepted solution]

@Chris_Clark1968 If you grant visitors/read permissions to "Everyone" on whole site and your library is inheriting permissions from the site, all users will be able to see those documents in the search.

To avoid this issue, you have to use the unique permissions for your document library / folders so that all users will not see the documents in the search.

It is fine to use the unique permissions on libraries and also folders (for less number of folders). However, I will advice you to check the below Microsoft official documentations once for recommendations:

1. Manage large lists and libraries 
2. SharePoint Limits - Unique security scopes per list or library 
3. Living Large with Large Lists and Large Libraries - community article 

If the folders or libraries with unique permissions are growing in your site, you can separate the structure in multiple document libraries to avoid issues with the unique permissions.

Also, when you share the Document / Folder using "Manage access" option, it creates unique permissions on that particular document / folder (by stopping permissions inheritance from document library). Hope it helps!

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[#5]

@ganeshsanap 

Thank you for your reply and the links to the documents.

This as helped greatly