Restricted SharePoint Search Readiness

TL;DR: This skill ranks your SharePoint sites by oversharing risk and recommends which to restrict from discovery using Restricted Content Discovery, the option Microsoft names in place of the retiring Restricted SharePoint Search, so you can stage Microsoft Copilot access while you fix permissions.

What does Restricted SharePoint Search readiness assess?

Restricted SharePoint Search is a temporary setting that limits which SharePoint sites appear in organisation-wide search and Microsoft Copilot, but Microsoft is retiring it and has blocked new enablement from 31 July 2026. This skill now ranks sites by oversharing risk so you can consider Restricted Content Discovery, the alternative Microsoft points to.

Microsoft describes Restricted SharePoint Search as a short-term measure that is not a security boundary and does not change site permissions. It limited the allowed list to 100 sites. Restricted Content Discovery works the other way round: you restrict discovery of selected high-risk sites rather than allow-listing the rest. If you still run Restricted SharePoint Search, Microsoft’s recommended path is to remediate oversharing and then disable it.

When should you run this skill?

Run this skill when you are preparing a phased Microsoft Copilot rollout and need to decide which SharePoint sites carry a high risk of oversharing. Microsoft lists sites at high oversharing risk, sites under permissions review and phased Copilot rollouts as the common scenarios for Restricted Content Discovery, which Microsoft names as the alternative to Restricted SharePoint Search.

• “Which sites should we restrict from Copilot discovery first?”
• “Stage our Copilot rollout while we fix oversharing”
• “Rank sites by risk before broadening Copilot access”
• “We use Restricted SharePoint Search today, what replaces it?”

How does the readiness assessment work?

The skill gathers per-site ownership and oversharing signals from SharePoint Advanced Management Data Access Governance reports, classifies each site by risk, and recommends which sites to restrict from discovery using Restricted Content Discovery. It only reads reports and recommends; it never changes a site setting or permission.

1. Collect Data Access Governance report output, such as the site permissions baseline report and the Everyone except external users (EEEU) report.
2. Add sharing link activity, including “Anyone” links, from the sharing links activity reports.
3. Note ownerless and inactive sites from site lifecycle management and Content Management Assessment findings.
4. Classify each site as low, medium or high risk where several signals overlap.
5. Recommend high-risk sites as Restricted Content Discovery candidates.
6. Produce a staged view ordered by readiness, without applying any change.

What does the output look like?

The skill returns one row per evaluated site with a recommendation. The rows and totals below are an illustration of the format, not real tenant data.

Example summary:

• Total sites assessed: 210
• Leave discoverable: 96
• Review permissions: 78
• Restrict discovery pending remediation: 36

Scope and safety

This skill is read-only by default and makes no changes to search settings, Restricted Content Discovery or site permissions.

This skill does NOT:

• Enable, disable or modify Restricted SharePoint Search or Restricted Content Discovery.
• Apply the RestrictContentOrgWideSearch setting to any site.
• Change Microsoft Copilot licensing or access.
• Alter site permissions, ownership or content.

What do you need before you start?

Microsoft states that you can configure Restricted Content Discovery if your organisation is licensed for Copilot and has SharePoint Advanced Management available. By default, only SharePoint administrators can manage the setting, and delegation to site administrators is optional.

• A Microsoft Copilot licence.
• SharePoint Advanced Management, including its prerequisites for PowerShell and role assignments.
• Access to Data Access Governance reports in the SharePoint admin centre.

Restricted Content Discovery is temporary and does not change permissions or remove content from the search index. Microsoft cautions that excessive use reduces the content available to search and Copilot.

Related skills

• SharePoint Oversharing Audit: run first to find the sites where external or Anyone access breaches policy.
• Everyone Except External Users (EEEU) Sweep: run first to find content shared with broad claims.
• Data Access Governance Report Review: run alongside to turn Data Access Governance reports into an owner-assigned remediation plan.
• SharePoint Copilot Readiness Guide: the pillar guide that sequences interim restrictions with permission fixes.
• Copilot Readiness Assessment: run after to score whether the tenant is ready to activate Microsoft 365 Copilot.

Notes

• Restricted Content Discovery applies to SharePoint sites only, not OneDrive.
• Microsoft does not document, on the pages cited below, a Microsoft Graph permission set for this assessment, so this skill does not prescribe one.

Sources

Reviewed 2026-09-30: updated for the retirement of Restricted SharePoint Search (new enablement blocked from 31 July 2026) and its replacement, Restricted Content Discovery; removed unsourced licence, role, Graph permission, Essential Eight and ISM claims.

• Restricted SharePoint Search 
• Restrict discovery of SharePoint sites and content (Restricted Content Discovery) 
• Get ready for Microsoft Copilot and agents with SharePoint Advanced Management 

Licensed under CC BY 4.0  by EDUC4TE .

Last reviewed 2026-09-30 · Published 2026-06-02