In this post we take a look at the common causes for the edit in grid view button to not be visible in SharePoint Online & Microsoft Lists.
The problem
Edit in grid view was made generally available to all Microsoft customers in February 2021 and is available for lists and document libraries in SharePoint Online or Microsoft Lists. I recently had an issue reported to me that the edit in grid view button was missing from the ribbon in a SharePoint Online document library.
After taking a look myself, sure enough this was the case and the option wasn’t present. The first thing to note about this particular document library was that the default view had grouping enabled on a particular column. In trying to replicate the issue, at first when I created a new document library the edit in grid view button was present:
I noticed that when I applied the same grouping to the view the edit in grid view button disappeared!
The solution
The solution for this is more of a workaround as this appears to be a Microsoft bug. I decided the best way to get around this was to create a specific view that defaults into grid view mode when selected. To do this:
- With your library open > press the cog > library settings
- Scroll down to views > press create view
- Select datasheet view
- Give the view a name > select the columns you wish to display > press OK
Now you have a view that defaults to grid view without users having to select it!
Other ways around this issue would be to:
- Remove the grouping for the view in question to allow edit in grid view
- Create a new view with the grouping removed and show users how to find it to edit in grid view
Unfortunately this seems to be an bug that although it has been raised with Microsoft, the SharePoint UserVoice has since been shut down so it’s unclear if it is being worked on or not. You can raise feature requests through the Microsoft feedback portal.
Bonus – free history lesson!
Out of curiosity I wanted to see if this was an issue in SharePoint 2010 as I was sure I would have come across it by now. As expected, it wasn’t and datasheet view works fine when views have groupings within them.
SharePoint Stuff 
Hello, I have also done the same however I face the situation now even having added this view the non-members who have the right to access certain folders in that library are not able to edit in grid. I tried to look for the reasons and solutions but could not find anything relevant why non-members are not allowed to edit in grid view. Do you know anything about it if thats true?
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Hi Kate, thanks for the comment. I haven’t come across this issue myself, but one question – what access are the non-members being given to those folders? Is it link giving access or direct? And what level access is it (read or edit)?
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I’m trying to re-add the edit in grid view button to my Teams site/channel when in One Drive. When I drop down the menu described, the only options presented are “list, compact list and Tiles” I was unable to add the button using either of the methods above. Thanks for the information, though.
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Hi Wendy, this option won’t appear in OneDrive as far as I know. It’ll only work within Teams/ SharePoint
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Thank you for your reply, Anthony, however it was there just the day before, and several days prior to that I was using it there or Sharepoint, but aren’t those the same location?. It’s perplexing because a teammate ‘lost ‘ the button in Teams the day before and pointed out that she could just go to OneDrive and edit it there. I’m sure it’s something simple that I’m missing. I appreciate your help.
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Thanks for the additional info, I didn’t know it was present in OneDrive so I’ll update my post accordingly!
Just to be clear have you created a datasheet view like my suggested solution? If so have you tried updating the style in the advanced settings? There are a couple of comments from other readers who say that made it work for them
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Anthony, please do not update your thinking. It’s most likely that I’m confusing share point and onedrive , not fully comprehending how to move from one to the other. I did some searching after digesting your comments, and will do some careful reviewing of my screens to be sure. This was very good for me because now I know what to look for, now I just have to figure out how to look for it! Thank you again.
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Hi Wendy, well please keep me posted with how you get on and I’ll try to help however I can 😊
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Anthony, Thank you. You are definitely correct in that OneDrive does not have the ‘edit in grid’ button. I was ending up in OneDrive, but it was definitely SharePoint that had the edit button as well as Teams. I now know to be more careful to ensure my location before I panic. All is well now. Thank you for your assistance.
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For me, the solution was to go to the views menu (top right, commonly selected to “All Documents”) and choose ‘Edit Current View’. I then scrolled down to ‘Style’ and changed ‘View Style:’ back to “Default” (it was on Shaded) and saved that. The ‘Edit in grid view’ button returned.
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Hi, thanks for the comment. Appreciate the additional information and I’ll give it a go myself and include it in the post. Thanks again!
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Thank you so much Anthony and Danielmee.. all the options you explained worked for me.. Interesting the style on my list was already “Default” I changed it to “Basic Table”
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Hi Sindi, thanks for the comment and appreciate the feedback on the list styling 😊
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