
The ability to sync SharePoint Online content to a local device is a feature that is controlled by the SharePoint Online administrator. Here’s how an administrator can enable or disable the sync feature in SharePoint Online:
To enable sync:
- Log in to the SharePoint Online admin center.
- Click on the “Settings” gear icon in the upper-right corner of the page.
- Select “Site Collections” from the drop-down menu.
- Select the site collection you want to enable sync for.
- Under “File storage and synchronization” section, click on the “Sync” button.
- Select the “Allow syncing of any libraries in this site collection” option.
- Click the “OK” button.
To disable sync:
- Log in to the SharePoint Online admin center.
- Click on the “Settings” gear icon in the upper-right corner of the page.
- Select “Site Collections” from the drop-down menu.
- Select the site collection you want to disable sync for.
- Under “File storage and synchronization” section, click on the “Sync” button.
- Select the “Block syncing of any libraries in this site collection” option.
- Click the “OK” button.
It’s important to note that disabling sync for a site collection will also remove access to sync for any subsites within that site collection. Additionally, disabling sync for a site collection may also remove the ability for users to sync their personal OneDrive for Business content.
Here is an example of a PowerShell script that can be used to enable or disable the sync feature for a specific SharePoint Online site collection:
# Connect to SharePoint Online
$username = "admin@tenant.onmicrosoft.com"
$password = ConvertTo-SecureString "password" -AsPlainText -Force
$credentials = New-Object Microsoft.SharePoint.Client.SharePointOnlineCredentials($username, $password)
# Set the URL of the site collection you want to enable or disable sync for
$siteUrl = "https://tenant.sharepoint.com/sites/sitecollection"
# Connect to the site collection
$context = New-Object Microsoft.SharePoint.Client.ClientContext($siteUrl)
$context.Credentials = $credentials
# Get the site collection
$site = $context.Site
# Enable or disable sync
$site.IsSiteCollectionSyncEnabled = $true # or $false
$site.Update()
$context.ExecuteQuery()
Write-Host "Sync has been" -NoNewline
if($site.IsSiteCollectionSyncEnabled) {Write-Host "enabled"}
else{Write-Host "disabled"}
In this script, replace the $username
and $password
variables with the appropriate values for your SharePoint Online administrator account. Also, replace the $siteUrl
variable with the URL of the site collection you want to enable or disable sync for. To enable sync set $site.IsSiteCollectionSyncEnabled
to $true and to disable sync set it to $false.
It’s important to note that in order to run this script, you will need to have the SharePoint Online PowerShell module installed on your computer. Also, make sure that you have the appropriate permissions to enable or disable sync for the site collection.