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Hide/Disable Web search external images in SharePoint Online

SharePoint Online offers powerful web parts and features that enhance the visual appeal of your sites, including the ability to search for external images on the web while using web parts like Image, Hero, Image Gallery, Quick links, etc. While this feature can be valuable in various contexts, there are scenarios where organizations prefer to disable or hide the option to search for external images especially when they have created organization assets libraries in the SharePoint tenant.

In this blog post, we’ll explore how to hide/disable the “Web search” feature in SharePoint using SharePoint Online PowerShell, PnP PowerShell and CLI for Microsoft 365.

Using SharePoint Online PowerShell

Use below SharePoint Online PowerShell script to disable or enable external image “Web Search” feature in SharePoint Online tenant:

# SharePoint online admin center URL
$adminCenterUrl = Read-Host -Prompt "Enter your SharePoint admin center site URL (e.g https://contoso-admin.sharepoint.com/)"

# Connect to SharePoint online admin center
Connect-SPOService -Url $adminCenterUrl

# Disable external image "Web Search" feature in SharePoint
Set-SPOTenant -FilePickerExternalImageSearchEnabled $false

# Enable external image "Web Search" feature in SharePoint
# Set-SPOTenant -FilePickerExternalImageSearchEnabled $true

# Disconnect SharePoint online connection
Disconnect-SPOService

Using PnP PowerShell

You can use below PnP PowerShell script to hide/disable external image “Web Search” feature in SharePoint Online:

# SharePoint online admin center URL
$adminCenterUrl = Read-Host -Prompt "Enter your SharePoint admin center site URL (e.g https://contoso-admin.sharepoint.com/)"

# Connect to SharePoint online admin center
Connect-PnPOnline -Url $adminCenterUrl -Interactive

# Disable external image "Web Search" feature in SharePoint
Set-PnPTenant -FilePickerExternalImageSearchEnabled $false

# Enable external image "Web Search" feature in SharePoint
# Set-PnPTenant -FilePickerExternalImageSearchEnabled $true

# Disconnect SharePoint online connection
Disconnect-PnPOnline

Using CLI for Microsoft 365

Use below CLI for Microsoft 365 script to remove/disable external image “Web Search” feature in SharePoint Online tenant:

# Get Credentials to connect
$m365Status = m365 status
if ($m365Status -match "Logged Out") {
    m365 login
}

# Disable external image "Web Search" feature in SharePoint
m365 spo tenant settings set --FilePickerExternalImageSearchEnabled false

# Enable external image "Web Search" feature in SharePoint
# m365 spo tenant settings set --FilePickerExternalImageSearchEnabled true

# Disconnect SharePoint online connection
m365 logout

Conclusion

Disabling or hiding the web search for external images in SharePoint Online is a strategic choice for organizations that prioritize content security, brand consistency and compliance. By following the methods outlined in this blog post, you can tailor your SharePoint environment to align with your organization’s policies and enhance the overall governance of your digital assets.

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Enable or Disable the Social Bar (Like, Views, Save for later) in SharePoint at tenant level

SharePoint Online provides various social features in modern experience SharePoint sites. One of the features available for SharePoint site pages is the social bar (Like, No. of Comments, Views, Save for later), which is situated at the bottom of site pages. Social bar allows users to engage with page content by liking and saving pages for later reference. Social bar also shows the number of page views and comments on modern site pages.

However, organizations may have specific requirements that necessitate enabling or disabling the social bar on SharePoint site pages. Unfortunately, there are no settings available for enabling/disabling social bar using SharePoint user interface. In this blog post, we will explore how to achieve this at SharePoint tenant level using SharePoint Online PowerShell, PnP PowerShell and CLI for Microsoft 365 scripts.

Using SharePoint Online PowerShell

Use below SharePoint Online PowerShell script to enable or disable the social bar from site pages for all SharePoint sites in the tenant:

# SharePoint online admin center URL
$adminCenterUrl = "https://contoso-admin.sharepoint.com/"

# Connect to SharePoint online admin center
Connect-SPOService -Url $adminCenterUrl

# Disable the social bar from SharePoint online site pages
Set-SPOTenant -SocialBarOnSitePagesDisabled $true

# Enable the social bar on SharePoint online site pages
Set-SPOTenant -SocialBarOnSitePagesDisabled $false

Using PnP PowerShell

You can use below PnP PowerShell script to show or hide the social bar from SharePoint online modern experience site pages:

# SharePoint online admin center URL
$adminCenterUrl = "https://contoso-admin.sharepoint.com/"

# Connect to SharePoint online admin center
Connect-PnPOnline -Url $adminCenterUrl -Interactive

# Show the social bar on SharePoint online modern site pages
Set-PnPTenant -SocialBarOnSitePagesDisabled $false

# Hide the social bar from SharePoint online modern site pages
Set-PnPTenant -SocialBarOnSitePagesDisabled $true

Using CLI for Microsoft 365

Use below CLI for Microsoft 365 script to enable or disable the Social Bar (like, No. of comments, views, Save for later) in SharePoint online at tenant level:

# Get Credentials to connect
$m365Status = m365 status
if ($m365Status -match "Logged Out") {
    m365 login
}

# Disable the social bar from SharePoint online site pages
m365 spo tenant settings set --SocialBarOnSitePagesDisabled true

# Enable the social bar on SharePoint online site pages
m365 spo tenant settings set --SocialBarOnSitePagesDisabled false

Conclusion

Enabling or disabling the social bar on site pages in SharePoint Online can be achieved using SharePoint Online PowerShell, PnP PowerShell or CLI for Microsoft 365 scripts. By following the steps outlined in this blog post, you can customize the user experience and align it with your organization’s specific requirements. Whether you want to encourage user engagement or disable social features for certain scenarios, these PowerShell scripts provide the flexibility to control the social bar’s presence on SharePoint online modern site pages.