Turn Off Anyone Links for One SharePoint Online Site

To disable Anyone links for a single SharePoint Online site, lower that site’s external sharing level to New and existing guests or more restrictive, and leave the organization-level setting as it is. Microsoft documents that Anyone with the link is available only when the external sharing setting is Anyone, and that a site’s setting can be the same as or more restrictive than the organization’s, so the tightened site can no longer offer Anyone links while other sites keep theirs.

Before you start: roles and how site sharing relates to tenant sharing

To change external sharing for a specific SharePoint site, you must be at least a SharePoint Administrator in Microsoft 365; site owners cannot change these settings. Sharing by site users then follows the level you set. Change the sharing settings for a site

SharePoint and OneDrive have organization-level external sharing settings, and each site has its own setting under that. Microsoft documents that a site’s setting must be at the same or a more restrictive level than the organization-wide setting; you cannot make a single site more permissive than the tenant. Manage sharing settings for SharePoint and OneDrive

Microsoft’s external sharing levels are:

• Anyone: unauthenticated access via Anyone links, plus sharing sites with guests who authenticate.
• New and existing guests: guests must sign in or verify their identity with a code.
• Existing guests: only guests already in your directory.
• Only people in your organization: no external sharing.

Confirm your organization-wide SharePoint external sharing level

Before you change one site, confirm the SharePoint setting at the organization level, because the options available per site depend on it. Manage sharing settings for SharePoint and OneDrive

1. Open the SharePoint admin center.
2. In the left navigation, expand Policies and select Sharing.
3. Under External sharing, note the level set for SharePoint.

Because a site can only be at the same or a more restrictive level than the organization, the organization-level setting decides which options a site can use. A tenant at Anyone lets you pick any of the four levels for a site. A tenant at New and existing guests offers no site the Anyone option, so the sites in that tenant cannot create Anyone links in the first place.

To disable Anyone links only for one site, leave the organization-level SharePoint setting where it is and tighten that site’s level.

Turn off Anyone links for one SharePoint Online site

To remove the option to create Anyone (anonymous) links on a particular site, lower that site’s external sharing level to New and existing guests or more restrictive.

1. Go to Active sites in the SharePoint admin center, signed in with an account that has admin permissions for your organization. Change the sharing settings for a site
2. Select the site you want to lock down. For a Teams private or shared channel site, select the link in the Channel sites column, then select the channel site.
3. On the site pane, select the Settings tab, then choose More sharing settings.
4. Under External sharing, select one of these options for the site:
   • New and existing guests: guests must sign in; users can still invite new guests.
   • Existing guests: only guests already in your directory.
   • Only people in your organization: no external sharing from this site.
5. Select Save.

Microsoft documents that the Anyone with the link option is available only when the external sharing setting is Anyone. Manage sharing settings for SharePoint and OneDrive With the site at New and existing guests or lower, that condition is no longer met on this site, while the organization-level setting still allows Anyone links on sites that keep it.

Choosing the right site-level sharing option

Use this table to choose the setting for the site.

Site external sharing option	What users can do on this site	When to use it
New and existing guests	Share the site, files, and folders with external users who sign in.	You need external collaboration on the site and want every external user to authenticate.
Existing guests	Share only with guests already in your directory.	Restrict the site to a known set of partners or external accounts.
Only people in your organization	No external sharing.	Sensitive or internal-only sites where no external access is allowed.

To disable Anyone links while keeping external collaboration, New and existing guests is usually the right choice.

What happens to existing Anyone links on this site?

Microsoft documents that when you restrict or turn off external sharing, guests typically lose access within one hour of the change. Manage sharing settings for SharePoint and OneDrive

The pages cited here do not describe existing Anyone links in the specific case where only the site’s setting changes while the organization stays at Anyone. Before you rely on the change for important content, test a small sample of existing Anyone links from that site in a private (InPrivate or Incognito) browser window after the change, and tell the content owners what you observed.

Verify Anyone links are disabled in the site’s Share dialog

After tightening a site, check from the site itself that users can no longer create Anyone links.

1. Go to the SharePoint site and open a document library.
2. Select a file and choose Share.
3. Next to Copy link, select the Link settings gear. Share SharePoint files or folders
4. Check that Anyone with the link is not offered. The options you see follow the level you set for the site.

You can also reopen the site in Active sites, go to Settings > More sharing settings, and confirm the site’s External sharing option is set as expected. Change the sharing settings for a site

What does this change mean for Teams files and Copilot?

Microsoft states that the SharePoint external sharing setting applies to all site types, including sites connected to Microsoft 365 groups and Teams. Manage sharing settings for SharePoint and OneDrive Files in a team’s channels are stored in the connected SharePoint site, so tightening that site’s level covers those files as well.

Groups and Teams guest sharing settings also affect connected SharePoint sites, so when guests need access through Teams, check the group’s guest settings as well as the site’s external sharing level. Change the sharing settings for a site

Copilot in SharePoint works with SharePoint content such as files, pages, lists, and libraries, and agents that use SharePoint content respect the end user’s permissions; sharing an agent does not grant full access to SharePoint sites. Get started with Copilot in SharePoint Share and manage agents built with Microsoft 365 Copilot Requiring every external user on a site to sign in is one less way for content to leave the tenant unnoticed. For a broader review of permissions and oversharing before enabling Copilot more widely, see the SharePoint Copilot readiness checklist.

Common issues when tightening sharing on one site

A few practical problems show up when you lock down a single SharePoint site without changing the tenant.

• You cannot select New and existing guests for the site. The available site settings depend on the organization-level setting. If the tenant is already at Existing guests or Only people in your organization, no site can be more permissive than that. Change the sharing settings for a site
• Site owners expect to change external sharing but cannot. Only a SharePoint Administrator can change a site’s external sharing setting; site owners cannot.
• Guests in a Microsoft 365 group still cannot access the site. Group settings can prevent guest members from accessing group resources even when external sharing is on for the site, so you might need to adjust the Microsoft 365 group’s guest access settings as well.
• Specific external domains cannot be used. Allowed or blocked domains configured at the organization level in SharePoint, and in Microsoft Entra ID, affect site sharing and file and folder sharing. Manage sharing settings for SharePoint and OneDrive

If you find yourself making many one-off exceptions, your tenant-wide model for external collaboration probably needs review. That is where structured SharePoint external sharing governance and, if needed, SharePoint governance consulting help.