Site Members
Common Use Cases
- Project team collaboration: everyone actively contributing documents, tasks, and updates on a team site belongs in the Members group
- Department content owners: the staff who maintain a department site’s libraries and lists while a wider audience reads as visitors
- Microsoft Teams membership: people added to a team in Microsoft Teams automatically receive member access to the connected SharePoint site
- Intranet publishing teams: a small group of contributors who maintain pages, news, and documents on a communication site
- Cross-functional working groups: committees and task forces that need to co-author files and track shared lists together
- Trusted external partners: guests can be added as members when guest sharing is enabled, giving vendors or agencies edit rights on a collaboration site
Benefits
- Full collaboration rights: members add, edit, and delete documents, list items, and pages without waiting on an owner
- One group to manage: granting and revoking edit access is a single membership change instead of item-by-item permissions
- Microsoft 365 group integration: on group-connected sites, membership flows automatically from the group and from Microsoft Teams
- Entirely out of the box: the group, its permission level, and its management experience require no custom configuration
- Clear separation of duties: members do the work, owners govern the site, and visitors read, a model everyone understands
- Easy to right-size: an owner can swap the group’s permission level from Edit to Contribute in seconds when list structure needs protecting
How It Works
- Edit permission level: on modern sites the Members group is assigned Edit, which covers list items, documents, and the lists and libraries themselves
- Edit versus Contribute: Contribute handles items only, while Edit adds the Manage Lists right, so members can create, modify, and delete lists and libraries
- Group-connected sites: on a Microsoft 365 group-connected team site, the group’s members automatically receive member access alongside anyone added directly to the SharePoint group
- Owner-managed membership: site owners add and remove members; on group-connected sites, changes to the Microsoft 365 group or the team in Microsoft Teams flow through automatically
- Page editing included: members can create and edit site pages and news posts, since pages live in the Site Pages library like any other content
Limits and Nuances
- Entire lists are deletable: Edit allows members to delete whole lists and libraries, not just the items inside them, which surprises many site owners
- No permission management: members cannot change permission levels, create groups, or alter who has access; those rights require Full Control
- Site administration stays with owners: site settings, site features, and structural site changes belong to the Owners group
- Recycle Bin safety net: content deleted by members goes to the Recycle Bin, where it can be restored for up to 93 days
- Two membership lists on group-connected sites: the Microsoft 365 group and the SharePoint Members group both grant member access, so access reviews need to check both
- Site sharing is configurable: owners control whether members can share the site and individual files, or whether sharing attempts become approval requests
Common Questions About Site Members
What is the Site Members group in SharePoint?
Site Members is one of three default security groups created with every SharePoint site, alongside Site Owners and Site Visitors. It is meant for the people who actively work on the site. On modern sites the group carries the Edit permission level, so members can add, edit, and delete content, while owners manage the site and visitors read it.
What permission level do Site Members have?
On modern team sites and communication sites, the Members group is assigned the Edit permission level by default. Edit allows members to view, add, update, and delete list items and documents, and also to create, modify, and delete the lists and libraries themselves. A site owner can change the group’s assignment to Contribute if that is too generous.
What is the difference between Edit and Contribute?
Contribute lets people work with content: they can view, add, update, and delete list items and documents. Edit includes everything in Contribute and adds the ability to manage lists, meaning members can create new lists and libraries, add or remove columns, and delete lists entirely. Modern sites assign Edit to the Members group, while Contribute is the older, more conservative default.
Can Site Members delete documents and lists?
Yes. With the default Edit permission level, members can delete individual documents and items, and they can also delete entire lists and libraries. Deleted items go to the site Recycle Bin, where they can be restored for up to 93 days. If that is too much power, an owner can downgrade the Members group to Contribute, which protects list structure.
How do people get added to the Site Members group?
A site owner can add individuals or groups directly to the SharePoint Members group. On Microsoft 365 group-connected team sites, membership usually flows from the Microsoft 365 group, so anyone added to the group, or to the connected team in Microsoft Teams, automatically receives member access to the site. Both routes grant the same Edit rights.
Should everyone on a site be a member?
No. Membership should match real contribution. When Greg Zelfond builds LookBook 365 intranets and team sites, he keeps the Members group limited to the people who genuinely maintain content and places the wider audience in Site Visitors. That separation, done entirely out of the box, prevents accidental edits and deletions and keeps ownership of every site clear.