How to Configure SharePoint Owner and Member Access Notifications

Managing who approves new users is a critical part of maintaining site security and workflow efficiency. When teams grow, relying on default settings often leads to unread approval emails sitting in a single user's inbox, causing unnecessary delays. Understanding the process of configuring SharePoint Owner and Member Access Notifications allows you to route these requests directly to the active site administrators or a dedicated shared mailbox. This guide provides the exact steps to modify your site permissions and ensure the right personnel receive access alerts promptly.

Modifying Access Request Settings via Site Permissions

The most straightforward method to control approval routing is through the built-in site settings. Users overwhelmingly prefer this graphical interface approach because it requires no scripting and applies the changes instantly. To master configuring SharePoint Owner and Member Access Notifications natively, follow these sequential steps.

First, navigate to your specific SharePoint site homepage. You must be logged in with an account that holds Full Control or Site Owner permissions. Click the Settings gear icon located in the top right corner of the suite bar. From the dropdown menu, select Site permissions. This action opens a right-hand panel displaying your current site owners, members, and visitors.

At the bottom of this panel, click the Advanced permissions settings link. This directs you to the classic SharePoint permissions page. In the ribbon at the top left, locate and click the Access Request Settings button. A modal dialog box will appear on your screen.

Inside this dialog box, look for the checkbox labeled Allow access requests. Ensure this box is checked to enable the notification system. Below this checkbox, you will see a text field labeled Send access request to the following email address. By default, this might be populated with the creator's email address or a default owner group.

Delete the existing entry and type the specific email address of the member or owner who should handle approvals. You can enter an individual's email, or for better team management, enter the address of a Microsoft 365 shared mailbox. Click OK at the bottom of the dialog to save your changes. The expected result is that the dialog box closes, and any future access requests submitted by users will immediately route to the newly specified email address. You can verify this by having a test user attempt to access a restricted file on the site and confirming the email arrives in the designated inbox.

Alternative: Routing Approvals Using Power Automate

While the standard interface limits you to a single email destination, some organizations require multiple members to receive approval alerts simultaneously. If you are exploring configuring SharePoint Owner and Member Access Notifications for complex team structures, Power Automate provides a highly customizable alternative workflow.

Open Microsoft Power Automate and create a new Automated cloud flow. Choose the SharePoint trigger When an item is created. You will need to point this trigger to the hidden Access Requests list on your site. For the Site Address, enter your site URL. For the List Name, choose Enter custom value and type Access Requests.

Add a new step and select the Send an email (V2) action. In the To field, you can now input multiple email addresses separated by semicolons, ensuring both primary owners and designated members receive the alert. In the body of the email, use dynamic content from the SharePoint trigger to include the requester's name, the item they want to access, and a direct link to the site's pending approvals page. Save and turn on the flow. The expected result is that every new entry in the hidden access list triggers an automated email to your custom distribution list, bypassing the single-email limitation of the native settings.

Managing Your Downloaded Documents with WPS Office

Because site permissions, user authentication, and email routing are heavily controlled by Microsoft 365 cloud services and Windows administration infrastructure, WPS Office cannot change those Microsoft-side settings. Therefore, WPS cannot directly execute configuring SharePoint Owner and Member Access Notifications. However, once you have established your permissions and users successfully download documents from the shared library, they need a lightweight, broadly compatible suite to edit those files locally.

WPS Office directly supports the underlying document goals of your team by handling the exact file types pulled from your SharePoint repositories. If a team member downloads a .docx contract or a .xlsx financial tracker, WPS Writer and WPS Spreadsheet open these files natively without requiring an expensive secondary subscription.

Furthermore, if your team relies heavily on locked documents for compliance, the WPS PDF tool includes robust features to merge, split, and annotate PDFs locally before uploading them back to the site. The built-in WPS AI assistant can summarize lengthy reports downloaded from your document libraries, helping newly approved members catch up on project context instantly. By standardizing on WPS Office for local file execution, you ensure that once the access request is approved, the actual work continues without software licensing barriers.

Frequently Asked Questions

Why are my requested approval emails not sending to the designated inbox?

This typically occurs if the specified email address is invalid, misspelled, or if the SharePoint site is experiencing a temporary server-side delay. Navigate back to the Access Request Settings via the Advanced permissions page. Verify that the email address field contains no trailing spaces or formatting errors. If you are using a Microsoft 365 Group email, ensure that the group settings allow it to receive emails from external senders or automated SharePoint alerts.

Can I assign the access alerts to a specific SharePoint group instead of one user?

No, the native Access Request Settings dialog box only accepts a single, valid email address, not a SharePoint group name. If you want a group to handle approvals, you must create a shared mailbox or a distribution list in your Exchange admin center, add the relevant members to that list, and then paste that distribution email address into the SharePoint configuration field.

Does changing the site owner automatically update the notification destination?

It does not. When you first create a site, SharePoint usually defaults the access request email to the person who provisioned the site. If that person leaves the company or transitions ownership to another user, the notification email remains hardcoded to the original creator. You must manually update this field using the steps provided in this guide to ensure continuity of access management.

Is it possible to disable the access request feature entirely?

Yes. If you prefer a strictly closed environment where users cannot even ask for entry, you can turn off the feature. Go to the Advanced permissions settings page and click the Access Request Settings button. Uncheck the box labeled Allow access requests and click OK. The expected result is that unauthorized users will see an "Access Denied" page without any text field or button to request entry.