The SharePoint hero link is Microsoft’s answer to a problem every admin already recognises: a file gets shared, access needs change three weeks later, and someone ends up creating a second link, then a third, because nobody wants to touch the first one in case it breaks something. Starting late August 2026, that problem gets a real fix. Every file and folder in SharePoint and OneDrive moves to a single primary sharing link that can be updated after the fact, instead of multiplied every time permissions shift.
If your organisation is already tightening how Copilot and Microsoft 365 handle access and oversharing, this lands right in that lane. For a structured way to keep sharing and governance reviews from slipping through the cracks, our free Microsoft 365 Copilot rollout checklist walks through the admin controls worth revisiting on a regular basis.
What Is Changing With the SharePoint Hero Link
Today, sharing a file in SharePoint or OneDrive can quietly spawn a small pile of links. Someone shares with specific people, then later shares again with the wider team, then a third link gets created because the second one expired or nobody could find it. Each link is a separate, trackable permission surface, and each one is one more thing an admin has to account for during an access review.
The SharePoint hero link collapses that into one link per file or folder, shown by default in the sharing dialog. According to Microsoft, this hero link consolidates sharing controls so the same link can be updated after it has already been sent, rather than replaced. If someone can’t open a file you shared last month, you expand access on that same hero link. Nobody needs a new URL, and you are not left guessing which of four links is the one still in circulation.
Direct sharing, adding a specific person straight to a file or folder, is not going anywhere. It remains the simplest way to share content and works exactly as it does today. The hero link only changes how link-based sharing behaves.
How the SharePoint Hero Link Works
By default, every SharePoint hero link is set to Only people added to the file, which means the link itself grants nothing until someone is explicitly added. From there, users can broaden the hero link to people in the organisation, or, where your policies allow it, to anyone with the link. They can also decide whether the link allows viewing, editing, or viewing without download rights.
Existing sharing links do not disappear when this rolls out. They keep working exactly as before, they just move under an Other links section in the share dialog, separate from the new primary hero link. Effective access is still calculated the same way it always has been, as the most permissive combination of direct permissions, inherited permissions, group-based permissions, and whatever the link itself grants.
Reviewing Your SharePoint Hero Link Settings Step by Step
Here is the review worth running before this reaches your tenant in late August 2026:
- Confirm which sites and OneDrive accounts currently rely heavily on link-based sharing rather than direct permissions.
- Decide whether the default hero link scope should stay at Only people added to the file, or move to Organization for specific sites.
- Update your sharing guidance and internal documentation to describe a single hero link per file, not multiple sharing links.
- Communicate the change to teams that regularly share across departments or with external partners, since their sharing dialog will look different.
- Flag the missing tenant-wide setting to whoever owns SharePoint governance, since the SharePoint hero link default has to be configured site by site for now.
No action is required before rollout. This is preparation, not a fire drill.
Why Microsoft Introduced the SharePoint Hero Link
Sharing links were never meant to multiply the way they do in practice. A user shares a file, someone can’t access it, and the fastest fix in the moment is a new link rather than editing the old one. Multiply that across a few thousand users over a few years, and you get exactly the kind of link sprawl that makes an access review take three times longer than it should.
The SharePoint hero link is Microsoft’s attempt to remove the incentive for that behaviour entirely. If the fix for a broken share is expanding the existing hero link instead of creating a new one, link sprawl stops being the path of least resistance. That is a governance improvement disguised as a convenience feature, which is usually the best kind.
Rollout Timeline
| Phase | Start | End |
|---|---|---|
| General Availability (Worldwide) | Late August 2026 | Late October 2026 |
According to Microsoft, this should be rolling out from late August 2026 and complete by late October 2026. There is no separate Preview phase listed for this change, it moves straight through to General Availability across Android, Desktop, iOS, Mac, and web.
Who Is Affected by the SharePoint Hero Link Change
Everyone who shares or manages files and folders in Microsoft 365 sees the new SharePoint hero link the first time they open the share dialog after rollout, complete with a short built-in tutorial. For most users, that is the entire impact: the dialog looks slightly different, and sharing still takes one click.
Administrators are the group that actually needs to act, and only if they want a specific default audience for new hero links rather than accepting Microsoft’s default of Only people added to the file. If your organisation already runs a tight default sharing policy, this is a low-effort check. If you have never touched default link settings, the SharePoint hero link keeps that same restrictive posture out of the box.
Admin Tips for the SharePoint Hero Link
Set the default SharePoint hero link scope at the site collection level using the DefaultMainLinkScope parameter on the Set-SPOSite cmdlet in SharePoint Online PowerShell. The supported values are OnlyPeopleAdded, which is the default, and Organization. The same parameter applies at the OneDrive account level, so you can tighten or relax the hero link default per OneDrive the same way you would for a SharePoint site.
Two things worth flagging to your own governance team. First, DefaultMainLinkScope only sets the starting point, it does not stop a user from broadening a hero link further if your organisation-level sharing policy allows it. Second, there is currently no tenant-wide setting for the hero link default, so anyone managing more than a handful of sites is doing this one site at a time until Microsoft ships a broader control.
Our SharePoint Oversharing Report article covers the reporting side of this same problem, spotting where link-based access has already gotten out of hand before the hero link rollout even reaches your tenant. It pairs well with a hero link review, since one tells you where the mess already is and the other changes how new mess gets created going forward. Our piece on restricted content discovery for Copilot and Microsoft 365 search is also worth a look, since link-based access is exactly the kind of setting that quietly affects what Copilot can and can’t surface in search.
License Requirements for the SharePoint Hero Link
The SharePoint hero link is part of standard SharePoint Online and OneDrive, included in the licenses your organisation already has. There is no additional license requirement, no new SKU, and no separate add-on to unlock this. If a user does not see the new hero link experience once rollout reaches your tenant, licensing is not the first thing to check, this is a rollout timing question, not a licensing gap.
The Paul-Take
I like this change for a reason that has nothing to do with the interface. The SharePoint hero link is not really a sharing feature, it is a link-sprawl feature dressed up as one. Every admin I talk to has the same story: nobody deleted the old links, nobody remembers which one is still active, and an access review turns into archaeology. A single link that gets updated instead of multiplied fixes the actual root cause, not just the symptom.
My one real concern is the missing tenant-wide default. Right now, setting DefaultMainLinkScope is a site-by-site or OneDrive-by-OneDrive job, and that is exactly the kind of task that gets done for the ten sites someone remembers and skipped for the four hundred they don’t. If you manage a tenant of any real size, do not wait for Microsoft to ship a broader control. Build a script that walks your site inventory and sets the SharePoint hero link default deliberately, rather than letting it default silently site by site.
According to Microsoft, this should be rolling out from late August 2026 and complete by late October 2026.
MVP Reference List
| Item | Detail |
|---|---|
| MC Number | MC1454378 |
| Roadmap ID | 492622 |
| Microsoft Learn: Set-SPOSite (DefaultMainLinkScope parameter) | learn.microsoft.com |
| Microsoft Learn: Change the default sharing link type for a site | learn.microsoft.com |
| Microsoft Learn: How shareable links work in OneDrive and SharePoint | learn.microsoft.com |