How to see who has viewed or accessed a file on SharePoint Online?
Monitoring file access on SharePoint Online helps track who views documents, ensuring that only authorized people see important information. By default, SharePoint does not display extensive metrics, but site owners can activate a specific site-level feature to see users who have accessed files.
Enable SharePoint Viewers Feature
- Navigate to the desired SharePoint Online site.
- Click on Manage site features under .
- Click Activate next to the SharePoint Viewers feature.
- After activating this feature, site members and admins can see the file viewers' statistics by hovering over a file.
![spo-viewed-file](../images/how-to-images/sharepoint/audit-file-usage/spo-viewed-file.png?v=5110_21)
Disable File Viewers’ Names
- Navigate to SharePoint Online admin center. from the
- Under Other settings, uncheck the "Let site owners choose to display the names of people who viewed files or pages in SharePoint".
- Now, site admins and members can only see the number of views on the file. But they cannot view the users who accessed the file.
PowerShell Script to Find File Viewers
- Download and execute the given script below to audit file access in SharePoint Online.
- You can use this script to track recently accessed SharePoint files, files accessed by external users, and list of files accessed by a specific user within a custom timeframe.
Transform your SharePoint Online security approach with AdminDroid's file access report!
- Just navigate to SharePoint file access history report and SPO file access by admins report under 'All Admin Activities'. in AdminDroid to find the
- Handy Tip: Use the Accessed File easy filter to view all access activities on important files.
![ad-accessed-files](../images/how-to-images/sharepoint/audit-file-usage/ad-accessed-files.png?v=5110_21)