Planner uses the Microsoft 365 Groups membership model, which means that all members of a group share equal access to group resources, like the plans owned by the group. The default is therefore to allow anyone in the group to delete any task in a plan. The lack of a recycle bin, wastebasket, or other recovery mechanism to allow Planner to recover tasks deleted in error is one reason why you might want some control over task deletion, especially in large and complex plans.
Planner applies the block policy on the server, so it is effective immediately. Blocked users can still update tasks, including marking tasks as complete.
The block applies to tasks in all plans. Thereās no way to allow someone to remove tasks in all plans except a couple of selected plans.
To check the block status of a user, use the Get-PlannerUserPolicy cmdlet:
You need to download the Planner PowerShell module from Microsoft to use the Set-PlannerUserPolicy and Get-PlannerUserPolicy cmdlets. Because itās really only a wrapper around some Graph API code, the module works oddly, explained in this post.
Applying the Block to Multiple Accounts
If you want to set a block policy for a bunch of accounts, a simple loop does the trick. This code uses the Get-ExoMailbox cmdlet to find all user mailboxes and sets the block for their accounts:
What Happens When a Blocked User Tries to Delete a Task
When a user is blocked from deleting tasks they didnāt create, any attempt to remove a task they didnāt create fails. The user experience differs slightly from client to client.
A deletion from the Planner browser UI first seems to work at first (the Delete option is still available). However, after a short delay, the task comes back when Planner realizes that it shouldnāt have allowed the delete to happen. The reappearance of a deleted task is kind of funky until you understand whatās happening.
The same happens in the board view of the Tasks by Planner and To Do app in Teams. However, if you use the list view, the app flags an error and fails to delete the task (Figure 1).
Figure 1: The Planner app in Teams refuses to delete a task
The longest delay between an attempt to delete a task being made and the task coming back is in a To-Do mobile client. This is likely because of some synchronization lag. At first, the task deletion works, but after a delay of several minutes, the task reappears.
Reversing the User Block Policy
To reverse the block policy for a user, revert the setting to False (the default):
Overall, blocking task deletion works, but the user experience is confusing and could result in help desk calls. On the upside, at least the help desk can explain what happens. They can do nothing when an unblocked user deletes a task in error. The lack of client support in the implementation has the hallmark of a quick job, perhaps one done to assuage the complaints of an important customer. Itās a pity if thatās the case. Controls like the block policy are important and should appear as an application matures (and Planner is very much a mature application at this point). Perhaps now Microsoft has this block in place, maybe they can concentrate on creating a recycle bin for tasks?
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Plans receive their privacy setting from the group that they belong to, so if you change the group privacy to private, the plans will be private. Only group owners can set the privacy of a group.
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Wow. Lots of folks were asking for this. Hopefully they will expose it as a GUI somewhere and based on groups.
How can all new plans in planner be globally set to private by default also blocking the option for users to change to public?
Plans receive their privacy setting from the group that they belong to, so if you change the group privacy to private, the plans will be private. Only group owners can set the privacy of a group.