Sharepoint List Item Permission behavior for List with restricted read/edit

Question

What is the expected behavior for SharePoint when a user trying to access a SharePoint online (Office 365) list item in a list with restricted read/edit access when the user that did not create the list item only has contribute list permissions and does not have general override list behavior or full control for the list but does have full control permission for the list item? I believe in SP2007 that the user was allowed to access and edit the item but that in our Office 365 SharePoint site the user is unable to access the item. Is this the expected behavior or have I made a configuration error?

The steps taken to get to this point are:

1. create a new list in SharePoint Online/Office365.
2. Using the list advanced settings restrict the access (both read and edit) to only the user that created the item.
3. Create a general group to with edit permissions for the list.
4. Create a second group with full control permissions for the list
5. Have a user in the full control group add a list item
6. While authenticated as user in the full control group, add full control item-level permissions for that list item for User "B," who is not in the full control group for the list.
7. Have User "B" attempt to edit the list item.

User "B" is unable to access the item. I think that this is a changed behavior from WSS 2007. If this is the intended behavior of these combinations of permissions and item level restrictions, we will have to re-architect our solution. But if there is something that will allow User "B" to edit an item that was created by someone else, that would be easier to implement.

One other potential twist, which I don't think is relevant, is that this site is a secondary SharePoint site in our Office 365 account.

Thank you in advance for your feedback.

Answer 1

This is typical behavior. I don't remember how this worked in 2007, but now you'll need to set permissions differently for users to be able to see only their own, plus individual items.

You could:

1. Give the "full control" Override Check-Out permissions at the list level (not the item level).
2. Use a simple workflow to set permissions when an item is created, granting contribute permissions to the user who created the item, and to your "full control" group.