SharePoint Site Administrators Can Now Control Restricted Content Discovery
Restricted Content Discovery (RCD) is a feature that blocks access by Microsoft 365 Copilot and agents to the files stored in a SharePoint Online site. Instead of relying on tenant administrators, site administrators can now enable or disable RCD. It’s a natural evolution of what is an essential feature to keep sensitive and confidential information being leaked inadvertently by AI. https://office365itpros.com/2026/01/13/rcd-site-level/A Method to track current and upcoming changes to M365 Products
Good evening (from Ireland at least), I've spent most of today traipsing down a variety of dead-ends and soon-to-be-discontinued features looking to create a useful location where I can find/send all new updates to products that I can peruse and ultimately highlight ones that may be of particular importance in my organisation. I've had a long chat with Copilot today and while I've made significant progress in some areas (had upwards of 30 great questions according to Copilot! ;P), when it comes to the final product, there's always some missing connector, or some RSS feed that is no longer supported. What I'm looking for here is any input on how you manage to stay ahead of changes and I'll share everything I'm doing and have learned as well, in the hope that the discussion is somewhat mutually beneficial. What I do: Message Centre: Manually check the Message Center (under Service Health in M365 Admin Center). You can sort by product here and by relevance which is quite handy. Link: https://admin.cloud.microsoft/?#/MessageCenter (Access to the M365 Admin Center on your tenant is required for this). Today I found out you can also send emails to yourself (and Teams channels) here so awaiting the next message to see if this has worked. Unfortunately, there doesn't seem to be a way of migrating past messages over so I'll have to go through these myself first. Road Maps: These have been the bane of my day. Currently, I actively check the road maps of the products I manage but going forward, I'd like to be able to track major changes to products used in my organisation so I can give users a heads up. I initially tried Power Automate to send updates to myself, however, it's not a feature widely used in our org yet and isn't well supported, so I wasn't too surprised when my efforts were blocked by existing policy. Not long after, I found RSS feeds, which seemed to be the answer to my problems. I created RSS Feeds for each of the Road Maps that I found useful, assured by Copilot that these would work. The assurance wasn't fell founded however as, true to form, once I showed Copilot by errors, they remembered that they were there all along! :') I'm yet to find a useful solution here beyond my current efforts so any assistance would be greatly appreciated. Community Blogs The final recommendation was these Community Blog posts which, to be fair, I've had immense success with to date. However, there is a slight issue with filtering. While I did finally get the RSS Feed to work on something (the Tech Comm M365 RSS Feed), it did then proceed to send me a mass of emails on every topic under the Sun & Moon. I've decided to return to the drawing board tomorrow with this, but I'm content in knowing that RSS isn't just a myth at least. I think what I'd like here is just to receive notifications when approved Blogs are posted (i.e., Monthly OneDrive Updates and the equivalent for other products). OneDrive Office Hours: This is a fansastic resource I do use every month as it gives you the opportunity to get in contact with the people who know the most about the product and the issues you're facing. I've spent weeks in a ticket before, only to raise it in one of these meetings and get a solution that took half an hour to set up. You'll get a yes or a no, but at least you'll have an answer. Copilot Chat: I don't have the full Copilot license because I haven't had a need for it yet. Everything I've wanted to do, I've been able to do in Copilot Chat. We haven't yet looked too much into Agents, and as a Public body, aren't going to rush into it until we know it's viable and can be supported. In the interim, I'm happy to test the waters with Copilot Chat asking it for Monthly Summaries on a variety of products, time frames, etc. It isn't perfect but it's faster than I am. It can find the sources for me and I can take it from there. As an organisation, we'll be pushing out all users on the most recent version (-1) on the Monthly Enterprise Channel. This means that they'll be supported whilst also being shielded from any brand new features. Our team will be on the most recent version and will be able to note any upcoming changes ahead of time. These are what I'm using so far but would be very grateful for any further input. Thanks in advance, Chris Martin
Conditional formatting in SharePoint lists using JSON
I have my conditional formatting working if I only refer to one number. As can be seen in the image below if the cell I want to format has the number "1" in it the formatting works. I would like the same formatting to work if for example the number was less than "2" or between 3 and 5. I've tried several options with starting with "=if...", but it either breaks the conditional formatting or doesn't make a change. I have been able to find an example that matches the attributes. Full disclosure the conditional formatting continues so I can apply different colors to other individual numbers. I'm hoping the if I resolve on the set of numbers the others will follow the same framework.
OneDrive/SharePoint permission problem
Hello, the problem is that we have a user which wants to share file(s) with another user. If he shares the file and he gives him permissions for read and write the he is still not allowed to open it, even if he askes for permissions an those will be granted it still does not work. This works (or does not work) with several files, but not with all. If those files ares shared with other users it works instantly. We have another user with this problems, the only thing they have in common is, that both were deactivated over a period of I think 5-6 months or even longer. It is not with every file, and it does not matter if those files were uploaded in SharePoint or OneDrive and it does not really matter who uploaded it. If I e.g. downloads a file which does NOT work and I upload it again it works. I am not sure if I described it properly, but this problem only appears for 2 users which were disabled and unlicensed for a longer period of time. Is the only way to fix this to delete the account and create a new one, so that a whole new User ID is created and nothing is related to the old user or is there a proper way to handle it, because to delete the account and create a new one is more or less the last thing I want to do. Thanks in advanceHow to Design a Future-Proof SharePoint Information Architecture
A future-proof SharePoint Information Architecture balances business needs, user experience, and technical scalability. In this blog, we’ll explore what future-proofing really means, common pitfalls to avoid, and step-by-step technical guidance to design an IA that stands the test of time. https://dellenny.com/how-to-design-a-future-proof-sharepoint-information-architecture/
Teams, SharePoint, Viva Engage - which to use for dept comms?
I lead a 300‑person department, and I’m looking for guidance on the best Microsoft tool(s) to improve employee engagement and awareness across our organization. Right now, most of our communication happens in Microsoft Teams (channel posts, group chats), but we have dozens of channels and each group has its own space, which makes it hard to share department‑wide news, cascade annual strategic initiatives, report monthly progress, and celebrate wins or employee recognition. We don’t currently have any SharePoint sites built out, and we’re not using Viva Engage or communities. For those who’ve tackled similar challenges: Which Microsoft tools or combinations have worked best for broad communication, engagement, and consistent messaging across a large department? I’d love to hear what’s been effective for you. Thanks in advance for any insights!Quickly add approval workflows to any list or library in Microsoft 365
Leverage the power and simplicity of lightweight approvals on any list or library with a few simple clicks! SharePoint and Teams seamlessly integrate across files, lists, loops, and pages. And now, we’re excited to release the latest integration. SharePoint + the Teams Approvals app bringing you fast, easy approval-tracking business solutions – to any list or library. A single toggle gets you started: Create, approve, reject, and cancel – without leaving your content or the context of your conversations. Whether you need to approve a purchase order, a vacation request, project milestones, or a blog post, Approvals in lists and libraries help streamline the process and collaboration among your team members.Five things for IT administrators to know about agents built in SharePoint management
Every day, customers add over two billion files to SharePoint and create two million new SharePoint sites. Agents built in SharePoint unlock this vast knowledge by providing quick access to insights and knowledge, driving higher productivity and smarter business decisions. Even though it's only been a few months since general availability, it’s been amazing to talk to customers who are using agents in so many unique ways – from making safety information available quickly to front line workers to gaining new insights from digitized research records. I was inspired by the creativity of our SharePoint community in the recent SharePoint Hackathon – be sure to check out the finalists in the “Most Creative Use of agents built in SharePoint” category! Over the next several months, we’re excited to continue to invest in the user experience and response quality of agents built in SharePoint. Expect to see agents built in SharePoint in Copilot Chat, stronger integration with Teams, and deeper monitoring and analytics capabilities - all designed to help anyone get started quickly with AI on their content. With the growing usage of agents, robust governance is crucial to maintain data security, compliance, and optimal usage. Agents built in SharePoint have built-in governance controls to help organizations manage their creation, access, and usage effectively. Read on to discover best practices in managing agents built in SharePoint and how effective governance can enhance your organization's efficiency. Need more guidance? Microsoft Learn has all the details on agents built in SharePoint governance. Short on time? Check out this short video outlining agent built in SharePoint governance. How are agents built in SharePoint governed? Agents built in SharePoint are represented as .agent files in each site's document library or the Copilots folder. As such, site permissions define who can access or edit .agents on a particular site. The .agent file can be grounded to specific SharePoint sites, folders, and files and responds to inquiries based on the askers’ permissions. 1: A .agent is managed as a file with the ability to delete, copy, and control access Site permissions can be used to control both access to the knowledge of the agent and the agent itself. Microsoft Purview provides a scaled lens to help look at .agent activity across a tenant and multiple sites. Where to implement controls Who takes the action Actions to be taken SharePoint admin center Admins Limit access to a site with overshared content and further control accidental content discovery. Find more details in this article. License service plans Admins Edit service plans under the Microsoft 365 Copilot license to enable or block certain users from using Copilot experiences in OneDrive and SharePoint. Site permissions Site owners Set permissions on the SharePoint site to indicate who can access or create files, including agents, using site permissions. Limit site access to a specific group by setting up a Microsoft 365 group, setting the site as private (team sites only), and controlling group membership. Agent picker Site owners Designate specific agents on a site as ‘approved’ via the agent picker. Approved agents always appear in the top section of the agent picker. See how it’s done in this article. .agent file permissions Site members with edit permissions Set permissions on the .agent file to indicate who can access or edit the agent. How can admins monitor usage? Administrators have a few ways to monitor the usage of the agents that are created by their site owners and site members. Site owners and site members can check file statistics on any .agent file they have permissions to view, including views and unique viewers. To find files for a specific agent, they can search using the agent's name (e.g. *.agent). They will only see the agents they have permission to view. Learn more about viewing agent usage with File Statistics. As a site owner, you can also view popular files used on your sites via the site usage analytics page, including popular agent files as well as other content. Learn how to access site usage analytics. SharePoint and global admins can get a summary of the number of agents on sites created in a specified time period through the Tenant-wide usage report available in SharePoint Advanced Management. These reports will soon be visualized on the Agent Insights reports, but you can get started now with the Start-SPOCopilotAgentInsightsReport and Get-SPOCopilotAgentInsightsReport cmdlets. 2: Sample agent built in SharePoint report PowerShell output Compliance and global admins can see agent usage details, including which users interacted with the agent, as well as where and when the interaction took place using Purview .agent audit log. Audit records also include references to files, sites, or other resources that Copilot and AI applications accessed to generate responses to user prompts. 3: Sample audit log on Purview. It is our priority to deliver even richer analytics across Copilot Analytics dashboard (480726), Microsoft 365 Admin Center (480729), SharePoint Online (480725), and SharePoint Advanced Management (486861) in the coming months. What are the options for managing costs of agents built in SharePoint? Agents built in SharePoint can be utilized under two billing models, offering flexibility for your organization: Microsoft 365 Copilot licensed users: Creating, reasonable use, and sharing agents built in SharePoint are included as a feature within the Microsoft 365 Copilot license. Consumption-based pricing for non-Microsoft 365 Copilot users: For users without a Microsoft 365 Copilot license, consumption-based pricing enables the ability to only pay for the messages consumed. Starting April 1, 2025, the cost of an interaction with an agent built in SharePoint will be reduced and consume twelve (12) messages, so customers will be billed at $0.12 per interaction with agents built in SharePoint. Learn more about consumption-based pricing for agents built in SharePoint in this article. The two billing models are not mutually exclusive and can both be implemented in the same organization. Coming soon, for those leveraging the consumption-based option, organizations will be able to set up departmental billing and apply budget limits at a tenant level [Roadmap ID not yet available, check back here soon]. Departmental billing allows organizations to manage their costs effectively by providing the ability to create multiple billing policies that can be used for different departments. This enables better financial management and cost allocation across different areas within an organization. Budget allow organizations to set a maximum spending limit for the entire tenant, ensuring that the organization does not exceed its budget and avoids unexpected charges. In the meantime, learn more about monitoring consumption rates of agents built in SharePoint and creating budgets in Microsoft Cost Management in this article. More granular controls for SharePoint admins are being explored to provide greater flexibility at the site or department level for configuration based on specific use cases. Stay tuned to your message center for updates on future billing controls. How can admins disable agents built in SharePoint? As an admin, you’re familiar with using Restricted Content Discovery to protect SharePoint sites that have the highest risk of oversharing or require accurate permissions. Agents built in SharePoint follow this policy by removing the Copilot icon from the suite navigation bar and removing this site from being added as a knowledge source for all agents built in SharePoint. Users won’t have access to use the ready-made agent, create new agents on the site, or use that site’s content in any other agent built in SharePoint. Because agents built in SharePoint are a .agent file, removing a specific agent built in SharePoint is as simple as deleting the .agent file or changing its sharing permissions. Additionally, admins can use the SharePoint Online Management Shell command to manage trial access to agents built in SharePoint. What enhancements are coming? Right now, we’re focused on implementing more granular billing controls, advanced analytics, and further enhancing the collaboration experience with agents built in SharePoint. Here are some roadmap features to keep an eye out for: Monitoring and analytics Ability to view agent usage stats per site on source files citations (via SharePoint Online) - 480725 Ability to view agent usage statistics across all SharePoint sites (via Microsoft 365 Admin Center) - 480729 Ability to view agent insights for SharePoint Administrators (via SharePoint Advanced Management) - 486861 Ability to view agent analytics on Microsoft Viva Insights (Copilot Analytics Dashboard) - 480726 Billing Ability to set up departmental billing and apply budget limits – [Roadmap ID not yet available, check back here soon] Agents built in SharePoint in Teams Ability to use agents built in SharePoint in Teams mobile group chats and meetings – 481823 Ability to chat one-on-one with agents built in SharePoint in Teams chat - 481825 Ability to use agents built in SharePoint in Teams channels - 481822 Ability to add multiple agents built in SharePoint in Teams chats and meetings - 481826 Ability to access agents built in SharePoint from the Teams app store - 481824 Other capabilities Ability to use agents built in SharePoint in Copilot Chat – [Roadmap ID not yet available, check back here soon] Ability to manage agents built in SharePoint as shared apps in the Integrated apps section of the Microsoft 365 admin center - 487857 Ability to for site page authors to add agents built in SharePoint using an agent web part, enabling end users to interact with agents built in SharePoint directly from the site pages - 481512 Ability to allow files from OneDrive as a grounding source - 480728 In summary In introducing agents built in SharePoint, we aimed to solve the most fundamental, age-old business challenge: Get the right information to the right people at the right time to make the greatest impact on the customer. To fully leverage the value of these agents, consistent content management processes are essential for maintaining policy, security, and compliance. As you implement the best practices outlined here, please share your questions and feedback. We’re listening and committed to continuous improvement. Stay tuned for the exciting features we have on our roadmap! I look forward to sharing more information in the coming weeks on additional capabilities to help your organization surface, share, and act on content. Don't forget, agent built in SharePoint promotion ends June 30, 2025 An agent built in SharePoint promotion is currently available, which provides any organization with at least 50 Microsoft 365 Copilot licenses to receive 10,000 queries monthly for non-licensed users to consume. To read more about our limited time promotion, please refer to this blog. Explore deeper with MS Learn Optimizing content for Microsoft 365 Copilot and agents built in SharePoint Microsoft 365 Copilot - best practices with SharePoint Optimize SharePoint Content Retrieval in Your Agent Get ready for Microsoft 365 Copilot with SharePoint Advanced Management Billing Microsoft 365 pay-as-you-go pricing Get started with agents built in SharePoint Set up agents built in SharePoint for pay-as-you-go billing Governance controls Manage access to agents built in SharePoint Manage agents for Microsoft 365 Copilot Restrict SharePoint site access Restrict discovery of SharePoint sites and content Admin center site permissions reference Learn about data loss prevention Create and manage insider risk management policies Learn about Microsoft Purview | Microsoft Learn Trial access Manage trial access to agents built in SharePoint with PowerShell Analytics Monitor agent built in SharePoint UsageConsumption-based pricing for agents built in SharePoint
Learn more about the pay-as-you-go pricing model as it relates to SharePoint agents in Microsoft 365. Last month, we introduced consumption-based pricing for SharePoint agents. This new billing model offers greater flexibility for organizations looking to start using SharePoint agents. The pay-as-you-go (PAYGO) meter enables customers to pay only for the messages they consume, providing an alternative to a per user/per month license. This model is designed to accommodate varying usage patterns, making it ideal for businesses with fluctuating demands.
