Sharing Folders is Disabled

The Problem

Users complained about not being able to share a SharePoint folder, even users with permissions granting full control. They could share individual files in the folder, but could not share any folders from root to nested folders. You could only get a link to share with users who already have access.

Even more confusing was the suggestion to ask an Owner to share the folder since some of these users were owners.

Clicking on the gear icon next to Copy link gives

The Solution

Finally when we try to manage access on the folder using the old-school “advanced permissions”, we see:

Sharing folders is disabled To enable sharing, disable the limited access lockdown mode feature an the Site Features page, or share individual files or the site instead.

This is the culprit which is turned on by virtue of using the SharePoint server publishing infrastructure feature.

To fix

1. Navigate to the Site settings, usually Gear widget in the upper right > Site Information > View all site settings > Site Collection Administration - Site collection features
2. Scroll down the list of alphabetical feature names to Limited-access user permission lockdown mode
3. Click Deactivate

You can now share folders as expected.