How to Add Everyone to a SharePoint Site in Microsoft 365

A SharePoint site is a centralized platform that enables organizations to share resources, collaborate on projects, and streamline communication across teams. In certain scenarios, such as when launching new initiatives like facilitating company-wide collaboration, it is essential to add everyone to a SharePoint site.

In this blog, we’ll show you how to add everyone from your organization to a SharePoint site effectively.

When it comes to SharePoint Online, there are two types of sites. One is a communication site, primarily intended for one-way communication, perfect for sharing company-wide updates, news, or announcements. The other is a team site, ideal for group collaboration, where members can co-author documents, manage tasks, and share updates in a shared workspace.

Here, the first option lets you share the communication site with all users, while the other two allows you to share the team site with everyone in different ways.

• Add everyone to a communication site in SharePoint Online
• Add everyone to a team site in SharePoint Online
• Share SharePoint team site with everyone in Microsoft 365

When launching a company-wide initiative or sharing important updates, you can ensure that all employees have access to the necessary resources by adding everyone to a specific communication Site. To do so, you must add the ‘Everyone except external users’ group to your communication site.

Follow the below step to add ‘Everyone except external users’ to your communication site.

1. Go to the communication site in your SharePoint Online.
2. Click the gear icon (⚙️) on the top banner and select Site permissions.
3. Click the Share site button.
   
4. In the next page, type Everyone except external users group and select that group.
5. Use the dropdown next to the group name to choose the appropriate permission level: Read, Edit, or Full control.
6. Check the box for Send email to notify users that they’ve been added to the site. (optional)
7. Finally, click Add to share the communication site with everyone from your organization.
   
   

Alternatively, you can also add all users across the organization to a communications SharePoint site using PowerShell. To do this, make sure to register an Entra ID application to use with PnP PowerShell and connect to PnP PowerShell with the desired SPO site.

Then, execute the below cmdlet to add all users to a communication site using PowerShell as a visitor (read access).

This will add all internal users as visitors (read access) to the specified site. If you want to add all users as members (edit access) or owners (full control), replace ‘AssociatedVisitorGroup’ with ‘AssociatedMemberGroup’ or ‘AssociatedOwnerGroup’.

To allow everyone in your organization to access or edit the content of a SharePoint Online team site, one method is to make the team site public. A public team site enables everyone in the organization to access the entire group and its associated apps, such as the Planner, Microsoft Teams, Calendar, and more.

Note: If the team site is already set to public, no action is needed, as all users in the organization will automatically be members of the site by default.

Let’s see how to make a SharePoint site public to everyone in the organization.

1. Go to the team site in your SharePoint Online.
2. Click the gear icon (⚙️) on the top banner and select Site information.
3. In the Privacy settings dropdown, choose ‘Public – anyone in the organization can access’, and click Save.
   
   
4. Now, you can see Everyone except external user group in the Site permissions page.
5. Here, you can change the permission levels by clicking the dropdown next to the group name. By default, the Edit permission is assigned, but you can change it to Read or Full control by selecting the desired SharePoint permission levels.
   
   

To convert the associated Microsoft 365 Group of a SharePoint Online site from private to public using PnP PowerShell, execute the following after connecting to the desired site.

Note: To execute this cmdlet without any errors, ensure the connected application has the Graph API permission ‘Group.ReadWrite.All’.

While the above approach enables you to add everyone to a SharePoint site, it also provides access to the associated Microsoft 365 group services. To overcome this, you can bypass group membership and share the site only with everyone in the organization. This ensures users have access to the SharePoint site without becoming members of the team or inadvertently accessing other Microsoft 365 group resources.

To invite users to the SharePoint Site without making them a member of the team or group, adhere to the following steps.

1. Open the desired team Site in your SharePoint Online.
2. Click the gear icon (⚙️) on the top banner and select Site Permissions.
3. In the Add members drop-down, select Share site only.
   
   
4. In the next page, type Everyone except external users group, select that group.
5. Use the dropdown next to the group name to choose the appropriate permission level: Read, Edit, or Full Control.
6. Check the box for Send email to notify users that they’ve been added to the site. (optional).
7. Finally, click Add to share the team site with everyone from your organization.
   
   

Note: Sharing a SharePoint team site with everyone using PowerShell follows the same procedure as sharing a communication site.

Though we have covered the sliced-and-diced insights on how to share SharePoint site with all internal users, you can get quick answers through this FAQ section.

1. What is the ‘Everyone except external users’ group?
Ans: The ‘Everyone except external users’ group includes all users in your Microsoft 365 organization except external guests. It provides access to internal users while restricting external users, ensuring data security within the organization.

2. What permission is required to share a SharePoint site?
Ans: To share a SharePoint site, you need to have Owner or Site Collection Administrator permissions. This allows you to manage site sharing settings and assign appropriate permissions to users or groups.

3. How to share a SharePoint site with external users as well as internal users?
Ans: To add everyone to a SharePoint site, including external users (guests), you must first enable external sharing for specific site. Then, share the SharePoint site with the ‘Everyone’ group instead of the ‘Everyone except external users’ group, as explained in the above procedure.

If the ‘Everyone’ group is not visible, execute the following cmdlet after connecting to the SharePoint Online Management Shell to enable it.

4. How to share a SharePoint site with a specific group of people?
Ans: To share a SharePoint site with a specific group alone, use the specific group instead of the ‘Everyone except external users’ group. You can then assign them specific permissions (Read, Edit, or Full Control).

5. Is it possible to restrict access to specific folders or document libraries?
Ans: Yes, it’s possible. You can break inheritance for specific folders or document libraries and create unique permissions to restrict access to certain users or groups. This allows you to control who can view or edit specific content within your site.

6. What happens if a new employee joins the organization?
Ans: When a new employee joins your organization, they are automatically added to any SharePoint sites that use the ‘Everyone except external users’ group.

We hope this blog has helped you simplify the process of sharing a SharePoint site with everyone in your organization. By following these steps, you can easily add everyone to a SharePoint site and ensure that all users have access to the resources they need. If you have any questions, feel free to reach out to us through the comment section.