Upload without view

[KenStewart]

We have a need for uploading confidential files from external users (guests) to a central location. They should not be able to view the files uploaded by other users, i.e., only the owner (uploader) would have view permission on their files. This is easy to do in DropBox, but we don't know if it can be done in SharePoint. Can it and, if so, how can it be done?

[#2]

We have a DropOff library in SharePoint and a rule can be written in to move the uploaded document to desired library. Alternatively, we can create view with filter set as created by is equal [ME] to avoid users to see other’s content.

[#3]

That's great, Nitesh. I'm new to SharePoint. Can you describe these in more detail or point me to a source of information? Thanks very much for your response.

[#4]

This method isn’t easy and requires everyone to have an account and access to your SharePoint. It’s nothing like Dropbox where you just toss out a link and collect data. OneDrive announced at SPC that they will be launching the same functionality in the near future but that won’t do you any good now

Depending how many people you have you can use the above method but you’ll have to get them all invited to your site etc. and it’s security by obscurity.

I would recommend item level security. But again everyone will have to be invited to your SharePoint site a certain way since I think this might only work with lists.

Anyway here that is. https://sharepointmaven.com/how-to-enable-item-level-permissions-in-sharepoint/

How many people would need to be uploading?

[#5]

Be carefull with item level permissions in SharePoint, there is a limit of 5000 unique permissions per document library

[#6]

Thanks, Chris and Juan. We intend to invite or otherwise restrict by group about 25 employees who work externally on government systems and do not require licenses for our O365 E3 tenant. They will access this folder for the long term, so it's not an undue investment to configure them individually. This approach is also governed by our security posture in satisfying Department of Defense DFARS/NIST requirements. In general, we do not want to allow public access to SharePoint or other cloud resources. We'd also like to determine if an O365 group would be suitable for our purposes or if an Azure AD group would be more appropriate.

[#7]

@KenStewart   There are several options as colleagues discussed here.

If you would like to create a separate SharePoint site and upload documents that can be shared 

or even you can create a separate document library and stop inheriting permissions and make item level permission and use this as your repository .

There is other option too but in such case you will not use Document Library but you will use List and attach document to list and then from Advanced settings you can specify the permission as in this screenshot.

You can also create flow and control permissions from it.

[#8]

@KenStewartThe DropOff library is a feature that is associated with the Content Organizer, see https://support.office.com/en-us/article/Configure-the-Content-Organizer-to-route-documents-B0875658... for some instructions.

The one key trick to making this work is to enable external sharing for the site so that all of the guests have access.

[#9 · Accepted solution]

Many thanks, John and Dean. I'll look into these.

[#10]

There's a 3 click answer - go to library settings and set it so that users can only see items that THEY create. The caveat is that for people on your side to see everything, they will need to have higher level permissions, like designer or something. Super easy, doesn't require any special rules or training. And can be easily undone by reversing the setting.

[#11]

Thanks, Rachel. I found these under Advanced Settings, and I'll do some testing.

[#12]

I tried most of these solutions and ended up using the approach first suggested by Nitesh. I used Flow to move the file and also generate a customized email notification. Many thanks to all.