Default Sensitivity Label for SharePoint Document Libraries Now Rolling Out Worldwide
Update 2 April 2023
In January 2022, I explained the process to assign a default sensitivity label to a document library in a SharePoint Online site. At the time, Microsoft was in the early days of the feature’s development and the configuration was a very manual process. Now, the public preview software is generally available worldwide. Documentation to set up and use the feature also available.
Setting a default sensitivity label is very simple. Select Library settings from the cogwheel menu and choose the desired sensitivity label (Figure 1). Naturally, you can only select a label that’s configured for file and email protection rather than those set up for container management. If you have multiple document libraries in a site, each library can use a different default sensitivity label. That’s a nice touch because usually if a site has multiple libraries, the libraries serve different purposes, and the chosen label can reflect that purpose instead of being a one-size fits-all selection.
Figure 1: Defining a default sensitivity label for a SharePoint Online document library
Licensing
Although Microsoft hasn’t confirmed this, assigning a default sensitivity label to a document library will follow the usual line of regarding anything that performs an automatic action as a premium feature. Accordingly, you’ll need Office 365 E5 or Microsoft 365 E5 Compliance licenses to use the feature when it is generally available.
Microsoft 365 E5/A5/G5/F5 Information Protection and Governance
Office 365 E5/A5/G5
PDF Files and Existing Documents
As Microsoft’s documentation explains, the reference to support for PDF files in the UI is incorrect. New Office documents uploaded by users receive the default label within a few minutes, but PDFs are ignored for now. It’s likely that Microsoft will address this issue when the feature is generally available toward the last quarter of 2022.
New documents that have labels are ignored. Existing documents already present in the library are also ignored. In other words, SharePoint Online doesn’t scan all documents and apply the default sensitivity label to any without an assigned label. However, when users edit Office documents that don’t have an assigned label, SharePoint Online will apply the default sensitivity label defined in the policy applicable to the site. This change is due in mid-October 2022.
More Changes Coming for PDFs
In June, Microsoft announced that Office applications would maintain sensitivity label support when used to create PDFs. This is part of Microsoft’s work to remove the need for organizations to deploy the now-deprecated unified labelling client to apply sensitivity labels to PDFs. According to MC387639, the public preview for this functionality should be available around about now.
An associated message center notification (MC411677, August 10 2022) lets Visual Basic for Applications (VBA) developers know that soon PDFs generated when VBA scripts use Office features will also maintain sensitivity labels for the output files. This is Microsoft 365 roadmap item 93406. Microsoft is warning that some VBA add-ins will need to be updated when the change is effective in December 2022.
Meanwhile, Adobe is running a preview program to allow its Acrobat product to apply, remove, and update sensitivity labels to PDFs. The free Adobe Acrobat DC reader product has been able to read protected PDFs (if the user has the appropriate rights granted by the sensitivity label) for several years. The new functionality is currently understood to be limited to Adobe’s paid-for products.
Sensitivity Labels Increasingly Mainline
It takes time for a new technology to become mainline. Sensitivity labels are getting there. Native (built-in) support for encryption, decryption, and rights management within apps are important steps forward. Office and PDF documents are the most common formats used within Microsoft 365. Their increasing embrace of sensitivity labels makes it easier for people to protect their most sensitive information, and that’s a good thing, even if it makes it a little harder for ISVs to process encrypted user data.
Keep up to date with developments like the app support for sensitivity labels by subscribing to the Office 365 for IT Pros eBook. Our monthly updates make sure that our subscribers understand the most important changes happening across Office 365.
Microsoft 365 E5/A5/G5/E3/A3/G3/F3/F1/Business Premium
Microsoft 365 E5/A5/G5/F5 Compliance and F5 Security & Compliance
Microsoft 365 E5/A5/F5/G5 Information Protection and Governance
Office 365 E5/A5/G5/E3/A3/G3/F3/E1/A1/G1
Hi. I have been trying to get this to work for months. Open ticket with Microsoft. All settings are correct, and the label is selected for my SharePoint sites. Everything looks correct, but documents are not being applied the label when created within the SP site.
We always had EMS E5, but Business Standard. I see Microsoft recently changed their KB article to specify the licenses you mention, Syntex, or a version of M/O 365 E5. I added Syntex, but still has not resolved. Any ideas?
You might join the https://www.yammer.com/askipteam information protection team group on Yammer and ask the question there. One of the SPO/information protection team might take an interest. I have no way to help because I cannot access your tenant.
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Thanks for sharing.
Do you know if this will ever be available with M365 Business Premium? Or is it just with E5 licensing?
I think it will follow the rule for defining a default retention label, which requires Office 365 E5 or an add-on. The guidance they offer for default retention labels (see this article https://office365itpros.com/2022/08/05/microsoft-365-compliance-licensing/) is:
Microsoft 365 E5/A5/G5/E3/A3/G3/F3/F1/Business Premium
Microsoft 365 E5/A5/G5/F5 Compliance and F5 Security & Compliance
Microsoft 365 E5/A5/F5/G5 Information Protection and Governance
Office 365 E5/A5/G5/E3/A3/G3/F3/E1/A1/G1
Hi. I have been trying to get this to work for months. Open ticket with Microsoft. All settings are correct, and the label is selected for my SharePoint sites. Everything looks correct, but documents are not being applied the label when created within the SP site.
We always had EMS E5, but Business Standard. I see Microsoft recently changed their KB article to specify the licenses you mention, Syntex, or a version of M/O 365 E5. I added Syntex, but still has not resolved. Any ideas?
You might join the https://www.yammer.com/askipteam information protection team group on Yammer and ask the question there. One of the SPO/information protection team might take an interest. I have no way to help because I cannot access your tenant.