Anonymous Access Users cannot see lookup values between lists and libraries

Question

I have a document library which uses lookup fields from other lists in the properties of the of the document. I then use the lookup field to group the documents. For authenticated users, the list of documents groups correctly. For anonymous access users, the lookup fields don't populate with data so the "group by" functionality of the view doesn't work. Anonymous users can browse to and see the contents of the list. All lists and libraries are sharing the same permissions and don't break inheritance. Has anyone seen this issue?

Answer 1

The problem was Library Settings -> Versioning Settings -> Draft Item Security -> Who should see draft items in this document library?

I found the answer in some replies to a closely related issue posted on Technet. I thought it was a permission problem with anonymous users and lookups but it affected all new data entry in the libraries. My lookups were new columns with new data. I tested adding another new column with static text and data would not show up. Allowing all users to view draft items solved the problem.

https://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/office/en-US/cf2c21a5-0eeb-4161-9ef3-f788cbac8694/anonymous-user-cant-access-image-library?forum=sharepointadminlegacy&prof=required

Answer 2

Make sure your anonymous user can browse to and view both lists - the list in question here and the list where you're creating the lookup from.

There is a special setting to allow anonymous users to view list contents that can only be set in powershell.. SPList.AnonymousPermMask