Site Owners Cannot Approve Access Requests: Root Cause and Fix

When site owners in SharePoint try to approve access requests, they may see an empty list or an error message stating they do not have permission to manage pending requests. This problem occurs because the site owner is not listed in the site collection administrators group, even though they are assigned as a site owner at the site level. This article explains why access request approval is tied to site collection administrators and provides the exact steps to fix the issue.

Why Site Owners Cannot Approve Access Requests

SharePoint access requests are managed by site collection administrators. When a user requests access to a site, the approval task is sent to the site collection admin group. Site owners who are not also site collection administrators do not receive these requests and cannot see them in the Access Requests list.

This design exists because access request approval requires elevated permissions that go beyond the site owner role. The site owner role controls content and structure within a site, but it does not include the right to manage pending membership changes. Only site collection administrators have that ability.

The confusion often happens when a site is created using a modern team site connected to a Microsoft 365 group. In that scenario, the group owners can manage membership through Outlook and other group interfaces, but they still cannot use the SharePoint Access Requests feature unless they are site collection admins.

Steps to Give Site Owners Access Request Approval Permission

To fix this problem, add the site owner as a site collection administrator. Use one of the following two methods. Choose the method that matches your environment.

Method 1: Add Site Collection Admin Using the SharePoint Admin Center

1. Open the SharePoint admin center
   Go to https://admin.microsoft.com. In the left navigation, select Admin centers and then SharePoint.
2. Navigate to Active sites
   In the SharePoint admin center, select Active sites from the left menu. A list of all sites appears.
3. Select the site
   Click the site name that has the access request issue. Do not check the box; click the name directly.
4. Open the Settings panel
   In the site details panel that opens, select the Settings tab.
5. Find Site collection administrators
   Scroll down to the Site collection administrators section. Click Edit.
6. Add the site owner
   In the field that appears, type the name or email of the site owner. Select the correct user from the search results. Click Save.

The site owner now appears in the site collection administrators list. They can return to the site, go to Site Settings > Site permissions > Access requests, and see all pending requests.

Method 2: Add Site Collection Admin Using PowerShell

Use this method when you need to add multiple site owners as site collection administrators across several sites.

1. Connect to SharePoint Online Management Shell
   Open Windows PowerShell as an administrator. Run Connect-SPOService -Url https://yourtenant-admin.sharepoint.com. Enter your global admin credentials.
2. Set the site collection admin
   Run the following command: Set-SPOSite -Identity https://yourtenant.sharepoint.com/sites/yoursite -SiteCollectionAdmin "user@yourtenant.com". Replace the URL and email with your site and user.
3. Verify the change
   Run Get-SPOSite -Identity https://yourtenant.sharepoint.com/sites/yoursite | Select -ExpandProperty SiteCollectionAdmin. The user email appears in the output.

To add multiple owners, use a comma-separated list inside quotes: Set-SPOSite -Identity https://yourtenant.sharepoint.com/sites/yoursite -SiteCollectionAdmin "owner1@tenant.com","owner2@tenant.com".

If Site Owners Still Cannot Approve Access Requests

Access Requests Setting Is Disabled

If the site owner is now a site collection admin but still sees no pending requests, verify that access requests are enabled for the site. Go to Site Settings > Site permissions > Access requests settings. Ensure the option Allow access requests is set to On. If it is off, no requests can be submitted, and the list will be empty.

Microsoft 365 Group Site Owner Confusion

On team sites connected to a Microsoft 365 group, the group owners can manage membership through Outlook, Teams, or the Microsoft 365 admin center. However, the SharePoint Access Requests feature is separate. Even if a user is a group owner, they must be added as a site collection admin to approve SharePoint-specific access requests. If you want group owners to approve requests from within SharePoint, add each group owner as a site collection admin.

Delay in Permissions Propagation

After adding a site collection admin, it can take up to 24 hours for the change to fully propagate across all SharePoint services. If the site owner still cannot see access requests immediately, ask them to wait a few hours and try again. They should log out of all Microsoft 365 services and log back in to force a refresh of their permissions.

Site Owner vs Site Collection Admin: Key Differences

Item	Site Owner	Site Collection Admin
Permission level	Full Control on the site	Full Control on the site and all subsites
Access request approval	Cannot approve	Can approve
Manage site collection features	Cannot manage	Can manage
Add or remove site collection admins	Cannot add	Can add
View site collection audit logs	Cannot view	Can view

The table shows that site owners lack the permissions needed to approve access requests. Adding a user as a site collection admin grants them the missing capability without removing their site owner role.

You can now add site owners as site collection administrators and resolve the access request approval problem. After making the change, ask the site owner to test by submitting a test access request from a different account. For sites with many owners, use the PowerShell method to update all of them at once. To further streamline management, consider creating a security group in Microsoft Entra ID and adding it as a site collection admin instead of individual users.