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📘 How to See Who Viewed Files in SharePoint

Track document access across your SharePoint and Teams environments

Knowing who has viewed or accessed files helps you stay compliant, improve collaboration, and ensure accountability. SharePoint offers several built-in tools—plus deeper integrations with Microsoft 365—to give you visibility into file activity.

Check File Activity in the Document Library

For quick visibility on recent interactions:

  1. Go to your SharePoint document library
  2. Hover over the file and click “...” (More options)
  3. Select Details
  4. On the right panel, you’ll see:
    • Who opened, viewed, or edited the file
    • The time and date of each action
Tip

This panel only shows recent actions and doesn’t include the full view history.

Note

This feature currently works only for Office file types (Word, Excel, PowerPoint).
PDFs, images, ZIP files, CAD models, and other formats are not supported—you won’t see a “View” count for these files.

✅ What to do instead for PDFs and other file types

If you want to track access to all file types, including PDFs:

  • Use Microsoft Purview Audit Logs (see section below)
  • Or set up a custom log using Power Automate

These methods give you full transparency across any file format, not just Office documents.

Why “View” Information Might Be Missing

Even for .docx files, the “1 View” indicator might not appear in the details pane. Here are the most common reasons:

🔒 Missing Admin Settings or Permissions

Reason What to check
Microsoft Graph or Delve is disabled Go to admin.microsoft.com > Org Settings > Microsoft Graph / Delve and ensure Graph and activity insights are enabled
The site setting “Let viewers see who viewed files” is disabled See instructions below to enable it
The user is not a licensed Microsoft 365 internal user Guests and anonymous users are not counted
The file hasn’t been opened by others yet A file needs to be opened (not just created) to register a view
You are using Classic View or a legacy library Works only in the modern SharePoint experience

🔧 How to Enable “Let viewers see who viewed files”

This setting controls whether SharePoint displays the “View count” and recent viewers in the details pane.

Step-by-step:

  1. Go to SharePoint Admin Center
  2. Navigate to Sites > Active sites
  3. Select the affected site (e.g. project or team site)
  4. In the site panel, open the tab Settings
  5. Scroll down to find:

    Let viewers see who viewed files
    Turn this setting ON

  6. Click Save
Note

If the option is not visible, it’s likely because Microsoft Graph or Delve is turned off tenant-wide. You need to enable them first (see next section).

✅ Ensure Microsoft Graph & Delve Are Enabled

To show viewer info, your Microsoft 365 tenant must allow activity-based insights from Microsoft Graph.

  1. Go to Microsoft 365 Admin Center
  2. Navigate to Settings > Org settings > Microsoft Graph or Delve
  3. Ensure the following are enabled:
    • ✅ “Delve is On”
    • ✅ “Show documents in Delve and other Graph-powered experiences”
    • ✅ “Let users see file activity” or similar privacy settings

These settings must be changed by a Global Admin.

đŸ§Ș Advanced: Enable with PowerShell (for admins)

If you want to enable viewer info programmatically:

Set-SPOSite -Identity https://yourtenant.sharepoint.com/sites/yoursite -EnableForUserViewing $true

To check if it's already enabled:

Get-SPOSite -Identity https://yourtenant.sharepoint.com/sites/yoursite | Select *view*

Requires: SharePoint Online Management Shell and appropriate permissions.

To understand how your SharePoint content is used at a higher level:

  1. Navigate to your SharePoint site
  2. Click the ⚙ gear icon > Site contents
  3. Open Site usage
  4. You’ll get insights into:
    • Page and file views
    • Popular content
    • Traffic patterns over time
Note

These reports are aggregated and do not include individual usernames.

Access Audit Logs via Microsoft Purview

Need to know exactly who opened or viewed a file—even if it's a PDF, image, or CAD model?
With Microsoft Purview Audit Logs, you can search activity across your SharePoint and Teams environment in just a few clicks.

Important

This requires Microsoft 365 E5 or Purview Audit (Standard). You also need to have audit logging enabled (usually on by default for E5 tenants).

⚡ Quick Workflow: How to Check Who Viewed a File

  1. Go to Microsoft Purview Compliance Center
  2. In the left menu, select Audit
  3. Click Search (or Start recording user and admin activity, if prompted)
  4. Under Activities, search for:
    • Viewed file
    • Accessed file
    • Downloaded file (if relevant)
  5. Under File, folder or site, paste part of the file path or name (e.g. Document2.pdf)
  6. Set your Time range (e.g. Last 7 days)
  7. (Optional) Add specific users under Users
  8. Click Search

You’ll now see:

  • Who accessed the file
  • When and how (viewed, downloaded, etc.)
  • The device and IP address (if needed)
Tip

You can export the results as a .csv file and even automate reporting if needed.

đŸ§© Use Case Example

Want to check if external partners have opened a shared PDF?

Just search by file name and set a date range. You’ll instantly know if, when, and by whom it was accessed—even if the file type is not an Office document.

Note

If you don’t see the Audit menu, contact your IT admin to ensure you have the correct role (e.g. Compliance Management or Audit Reader).

Build Custom Logs with Power Automate

Want a lightweight, no-code solution?

  • Use Power Automate to log every file open or edit in a SharePoint List
  • Or create a Read Confirmation Flow, where users confirm when they’ve accessed a file

This gives you full control—without requiring premium Microsoft 365 plans.

Note

This method is flexible but not automatic for views. For PDF tracking, you may need to trigger flows based on file downloads or specific user interactions.

📋 Summary

Method Supports All File Types Shows Who Viewed License Required Best For
File Details Pane ❌ Office only Limited No Quick checks for docx/xlsx
Site Usage Reports ✅ No No General usage trends
Microsoft Purview Logs ✅ ✅ Yes Microsoft 365 E5 Full audit trail
Power Automate Logging ✅ (customizable) ✅ Yes (custom) No (basic flows) Custom tracking

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