SharePoint reporting

Concept

Reports on SharePoint permissions, sharing and content: Data access governance reports in the SharePoint admin center for the whole organization, and a CSV report on file and folder sharing for a single site.

Description

Microsoft Learn describes two kinds of built-in reports for permissions and sharing.

Data access governance reports (SharePoint admin center, Reports, Data access governance) need SharePoint Advanced Management and the SharePoint administrator role. Snapshot reports show data as of the day they were created; the page names site permissions across the organization and sensitivity labels applied to files. Activity reports cover the last 28 days; the page names sharing links and content shared with "Everyone except external users". Microsoft recommends snapshot reports quarterly and activity reports monthly. Data collection pauses if no report is generated for three months.

A report for a single site: a site admin can create a CSV file of every unique file, user, permission and link on a SharePoint site or OneDrive. The file is saved on the site. It does not include Anyone links or links that were e-mailed but not clicked, and it shows SharePoint groups but not the individual people inside them. Microsoft suggests saving it in a folder that only site owners can access. For wider analysis, the page points to Microsoft Graph Data Connect.

Sources (Microsoft Learn, checked in November 2026): https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/sharepoint/data-access-governance-reports , https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/sharepoint/sharing-reports

Related topics in brief

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• SharePoint Essentials Toolkit · Related to · Product
  Cognillo tool for SharePoint administrators and site owners: reports on permissions, oversharing and sharing links, a broken link monitor, content tools, SharePoint-to-SharePoint migration, metadata reports and scheduled exports.

Glossary

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Experts on related topics

• Mirko Peters ✔ · via SharePoint
• Elliot M. · via Power Automate
• Marcel L. · via Power Automate

Maintained by Mirko Peters (Microsoft MVP) · Last updated: 2026-11-11