SharePoint Permissions: Read Vs View Only – What’s the Difference?

Wonder, What is the difference between Read and View only permission in SharePoint?

Here is the difference between Read and View Only:

With view only permission, users can not View/Download the documents into the client applications, like Microsoft Excel! (But downloading the documents is possible, like saving the document to their local system, Right-click >> Save As. Also they can view the documents online, if office web apps is available.)

SharePoint Permissions: Read Vs View Only Difference

Lately, found another interesting difference: Users with View only permissions are not able to find the documents in search results! Also, if they type the URL of the document directly in the browser or click on the file name they gets access denied!!

sharepoint view only access denied

Related Post: SharePoint 2010 Permission Levels – Explained

Salaudeen Rajack

Salaudeen Rajack - SharePoint Expert with Two decades of SharePoint Experience. Love to Share my knowledge and experience with the SharePoint community, through real-time articles!

3 thoughts on “SharePoint Permissions: Read Vs View Only – What’s the Difference?

  • damn sharepoint, super confusing

    Reply
  • Can you pls. tell me what do you mean by ”
    users can not View/Download the documents into the client applications, like Microsoft Excel!”?

    Reply
    • Say, you have view only access to a Excel file. You will not get the options to open the file either directly or in Microsoft Excel!

      If you try to enter the file URL in browser, You will get access denied error.

      Reply

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