Delete Unique Permissions (Reset Broken Inheritance) in SharePoint 2013/2016 using PowerShell

We have a requirement to reset customized permissions of a large set of SharePoint libraries and documents. We can reset the permission inheritance and delete unique permissions for a site/web/folder/item level where the inheritance is previously broken. E.g., for a library:

  1. Go to your library, click on Library Settings.
  2. In the settings page, under users and permissions, click on “Permissions for this document library”
  3. Click on the “Delete Unique Permissions” button in the ribbon from the Inheritance group.

For site level, You have to do this from Site settings >> Site Permissions Link. And for folder/list item/file level, You can do the same by: Click on the “Shared with” button from the ribbon (you can get the same from the items context menu) >> Click on Advanced >> and click on “Delete unique permissions”.

sharepoint remove unique permissions

The permission levels are set to be Inherited from the parent, and the permission level is updated to reflect the changes. Alright!

Needless to say, picking up each and every individual library and file to remove unique permissions is tedious; I wrote this PowerShell script to do the magic! Here are my PowerShell scripts to delete unique permissions at web, list, folder, and list item levels.

Important: SharePoint 2013 permissions are inherited from Web level. So, If you break or reset inheritance at top level – All lists, libraries, folders and files will inherit permissions as in the parent web – customized permissions on list/folder/item level will go lost!

Reset Inheritance at site level using PowerShell:

Add-PSSnapin microsoft.sharepoint.powershell -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue

#Variables for Web URL, List Name
$WebURL ="https://intranet.crescent.com/marketing"

#get the list object
$web = Get-SPWeb $WebURL

# Check if web has Unique permission - Root webs always uses Unique permission
if ( ($web.HasUniqueRoleAssignments) -and ($web.IsRootWeb -eq $false ) )
 {
      #Reset broken inheritance
      $web.ResetRoleInheritance()
      Write-host "Broken Inheritance Reset on web:" $web.URL
 }

SharePoint reset broken permissions on a list:

Add-PSSnapin microsoft.sharepoint.powershell -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue

#Variables for Web URL, List Name
$WebURL ="https://intranet.crescent.com/marketing/"
$ListName ="Invoices" 

#get the list object
$List = (Get-SPweb $WebURL).lists.TryGetList($ListName)

# If List Exists with Unique permission
if ( ($list -ne $null) -and ($list.HasUniqueRoleAssignments) )
 {
      #Reset broken list inheritance
      $list.ResetRoleInheritance()
      Write-host "Broken Inheritance Reset on List:" $list.Title
 }

 <#To Reset Folder level inheritance, Use:
 foreach ($folder in $list.Folders) 
   {  
        if ($folder.HasUniqueRoleAssignments) 
        { 
            Write-Host "Resetting Folder inheritance at:" $folder.Url   
            $folder.ResetRoleInheritance()  
            $folder.Update() 
        } 
   }
 #>

Delete Unique permissions on all lists:

Add-PSSnapin microsoft.sharepoint.powershell -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue

#Variable for Web URL
$WebURL ="https://intranet.crescent.com/marketing/"

#get Web object
$Web = Get-SPWeb $WebURL

#Get Lists with Unique permissions - Exclude Hidden lists
$ListColl =  $web.lists | Where-Object  {  ($_.HasUniqueRoleAssignments -eq $true)  -and ($_.hidden -eq $false) }

#Enumerate through each list and reset permission inheritance
foreach($list in $ListColl) #if($list) #Exists
 {
      #Reset list inheritance
      $list.ResetRoleInheritance()
      Write-host "Broken Inheritance Reset on List:" $list.Title
 }

Remove unique permissions on List Items:

Add-PSSnapin microsoft.sharepoint.powershell -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue

#Variables for Web URL, List Name
$WebURL ="https://intranet.crescent.com/marketing/"
$ListName ="Invoices" 

#Get the list items with Unique permissions
$ListItems = (Get-SPweb $WebURL).lists.TryGetList($ListName).Items | Where {$_.HasUniqueRoleAssignments}

# If List Exists with Unique permission
Foreach($ListItem in $ListItems)
 {
      #Reset broken list item inheritance
       $ListItem.ResetRoleInheritance()
      Write-host "Broken Inheritance Reset on List Item:" $ListItem.URL
 }

We can also delete unique permissions of all list items in a single line as:

(Get-SPweb "https://intranet.crescent.com/marketing/").Lists["Invoices"].Items | Foreach-Object{ $_.ResetRoleInheritance() }

Related Posts:

Unique permissions are performance killers, in general! So, Avoid wherever possible!!

Salaudeen Rajack

Salaudeen Rajack - Information Technology Expert with Two-decades of hands-on experience, specializing in SharePoint, PowerShell, Microsoft 365, and related products. He has held various positions including SharePoint Architect, Administrator, Developer and consultant, has helped many organizations to implement and optimize SharePoint solutions. Known for his deep technical expertise, He's passionate about sharing the knowledge and insights to help others, through the real-world articles!

17 thoughts on “Delete Unique Permissions (Reset Broken Inheritance) in SharePoint 2013/2016 using PowerShell

  • Hi, great script, but am trying to run it on a large list. Could you help with limiting the runs/batching? TIA.

    Reply
  • Hi salaudeen,
    Reset broken inheritance on folders does not work, as some user creates folder with unique permission.
    Thanks

    Reply
  • salaudeen could you plz suggest me like
    How to make share point 2010 individual subsite and its/list’s/lib’s read only mode

    Reply
  • How do I make this get the site URL from a CSV file? I have hundreds of sites I need to perform this on.

    Reply
    • 1. Create a CSV File with List of Site URLs
      2. Read the CSV File from PowerShell, Loop through the Rows
      3. Reset Permission Inheritance.

      #Get Data from CSV File
      $CSVData = Import-CSV -path “C:SitesData.csv”

      #Iterate through each Row in the CSV
      foreach ($Row in $CSVData)
      {
      #Get the Web
      $web = Get-SPWeb -identity $CSVData.SiteURL

      # Check if web has Unique permission
      If ( ($web.HasUniqueRoleAssignments) -and ($web.IsRootWeb -eq $false ) )
      {
      #Reset broken inheritance
      $web.ResetRoleInheritance()
      Write-host “Broken Inheritance Reset on web:” $web.URL
      }
      }

      Reply
  • How can I make this read a CSV of sites. I have hundreds I need to reset inheritance

    Reply
  • Hello Saladeen,

    How can we use this script or what modification needs to be made, to include subsites?

    Regards,
    Abrar Ahmed

    Reply
  • Can this work for OneDrive?

    Reply
  • I am using powershell v5 but unfortunately the script isn’t working. I checked to see if I had the Get-SPWeb cmd installed by running the cmd to get all of my commands and didn’t see it in the generated list. Any ideas?

    Reply
  • I’ve been having issues running this on powershell. Can you help me get to the point where I can run this script?

    Thanks!

    Reply
    • Change the $WebURL variable in the script to your SharePoint site URL, Login to your SharePoint WFE, Run the script with either PowerShell ISE or from PowerShell console.

      Reply

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