Office 365 Read-only mode

Question

Is there anyway to make the Office 365 Site Collection as Read-only mode?

Please help me by providing your valuable reply.

Answer 1

I think this is not supported in SharePoint Online (http://community.office365.com/en-us/f/154/t/223877.aspx).

I would suggest you remove the permission of users by adding them into Reader Groups.

Or temporarily change group permission to Read Only.

Answer 2

you can lock a site using the Powershell or CSOM approach. Their is one command(Set-SPOSite) in SharePoint Online which set the lockstatus to the site collection.

Sets the lock state on a site. Valid values are: NoAccess and Unlock. When the lock state of a site is NoAccess, all traffic to the site will be blocked. If parameter NoAccessRedirectUrl in the Set-SPOTenant cmdlet is set, traffic to sites that have a lock state NoAccess will be redirected to that URL. If parameter NoAccessRedirectUrl is not set, a 403 error will be returned.

PowerShell:

Set-SPOSite https://[tenant].sharepoint.com/sites/targetsite -LockState [NoAccess|Unlock]

CSOM To do this in CSOM, you can utilize the TenantAdministration API; however, this is only available in the v16 SharePoint Online API.

using (var clientContext = new ClientContext(tenantUrl)) {
    clientContext.Credentials = spoCredentials;
    var tenant = new Tenant(clientContext);
    var siteProperties = tenant.GetSitePropertiesByUrl(siteUrl, true);
    clientContext.Load(siteProperties);
    clientContext.ExecuteQuery();

    Console.WriteLine("LockState: {0}", siteProperties.LockState);

    siteProperties.LockState = "Unlock";
    siteProperties.Update();
    clientContext.ExecuteQuery();
}

When the site is locked, you'll see it in the admin site with a lock icon next to it as seen below.

Source: How to change the lock state via CSOM

Answer 3

To set a SharePoint online site into read only mode use the site policy feature. Create a policy with the configuration showed:

Switch to site closure and deletion option within the site settings and close the site with the read only policy

You should see a warning text panel at the top of the site

Answer 4

Seems like MS implemented "ReadOnly" option for SPO. Although it is not documented yet. But I just was able to do powershell "Set-SPOSite $site -LockState Readonly". And get

PS C:\Users\Vlad> $site | select Title, Status, LockState | fl
Title : test01
Status : Active
LockState : ReadOnly

and well-known red "This site is read only at the farm administrator's request."

Answer 5

I can confirm that Vladilen's answer works with SharePoint online now, and with the SharePoint portion attached to an O365 group (file store as well as site).

I would have replied to his answer but I just created this account and don't have a high enough reputation yet to comment or upvote.