SharePoint Online: How to Add Term Store Administrator?

Problem: SharePoint Online Term Store is read-Only to everyone, including SharePoint Online Administrators!

Solution: Add Term Store Administrator! Even if you are a global administrator or SharePoint Online administrator, you will not get access to the term store automatically! To work with the term store management tool in SharePoint Online, you must have one of these roles: Term Store Administrator, Group Manager, or Contributor.

Add Term Store Administrator in SharePoint Online

Term Store Administrators can do anything in term store, including create or delete term set groups, add/remove Group Managers and Contributors, etc. You can add additional administrators to the term store and delegate administration and configuration of term sets. Here is how to add term store administrator in SharePoint Online:

1. Login to your SharePoint Online Admin center (E.g. https://<tenant>-Admin.SharePoint.com) 
2. Click on “More Features” in the left navigation >> Click on the “Open” button under the Term store to open the Term Store Management Tool.
3. On the term store management page, select the taxonomy in the tree view. Now, from the General tab, Enter the people name in the “Term Store Administrators” box. You can also use the Browse button to find and add users. You can add users more users by separating them with semicolons. Once done, click the Save button to commit your changes.

   

The term store administrator can now create new term set groups and assign users to the Group Manager or Term Store Manager roles. Alternatively, You can add term store administrators by expanding the “Content Services” in the left navigation >> Click on “Term Store” >> Click on the “Edit” link next to the “Admins.”

Search and add the new term store administrator and click on the “Save” button to commit your changes.

Group Manager vs Contributor Permission in Term Store:

You can also use Group Manager and Contributor groups to grant permissions at the Term group level. They both can create or change a term set in the specified term group, and in addition, Group Managers can add Contributors to that term group. Term store permissions are hierarchical and applied at the term set group level, and it is impossible to assign these permissions at the term set or individual term level.

To add users to Group Manager or Contributor roles in SharePoint Online,

1. From the term store, pick the term set group to which you want to assign permissions.
2. On the General Tab, you can add Group Managers and Contributors in the designated text boxes.

We also have “Owners” at the term set level to track Stakeholders for that term set. However, This doesn’t give any permission to the term set, but it’s only used to relate the contact information for that term set.