How to find and change Microsoft Lists account settings

If you need to view or change Microsoft Lists settings, first decide whether you’re changing settings for your personal account (list-level and site-level) or for the tenant (tenant-wide controls). Personal settings live in the Microsoft Lists app and the SharePoint sites that host lists; tenant-level controls live in the Microsoft 365 admin center, the SharePoint admin center, and can also be changed with PowerShell. This article lists where those controls live, gives step-by-step clicks for common personal changes (notifications, default view, integrations), explains how admins change tenant settings and roll them back, and shows how to verify a change from a user’s perspective.

I can’t find my Lists account settings — where are they?

Prerequisites:

• An Office 365 account with access to Microsoft Lists and the SharePoint site that hosts the lists you manage.
• If you’re changing tenant settings: Global Administrator or SharePoint Administrator role.
• For PowerShell edits: SharePoint Online Management Shell or PnP.PowerShell installed and an account with appropriate admin rights.

Where settings live (one-line purpose for each):

• Lists app user settings (in Microsoft 365 app launcher > Lists) — personal preferences and quick access to your lists.
• SharePoint site and list settings (Site contents > list > Settings) — list-level options like advanced settings, columns, views and versioning for that list.
• Microsoft 365 admin center (admin.microsoft.com > Settings or Teams & groups) — tenant-level licensing and broad service configuration that affects availability of Lists.
• SharePoint admin center (admin.microsoft.com > Show all > SharePoint > Policies and Settings) — controls for external sharing, modern list experience and site collection behavior that directly change how Lists work across the tenant.
• PowerShell endpoints (SharePoint Online Management Shell, PnP.PowerShell) — scriptable changes for bulk configuration, reporting, or when GUI options are unavailable.

Change my personal Microsoft Lists settings step by step

1. Open Microsoft Lists from the Microsoft 365 app launcher (waffle) or go to the Lists app.
2. Open the list you want to change.
3. Open the list settings.
4. Click the list name (top-left) or the gear icon and select List settings.
5. Change notifications for a list.
6. Click Automate on the command bar, then choose Create a flow to open integration options in Power Automate.
7. To stop or edit notifications created by flows: open Power Automate from the app launcher, go to My flows, find the flow that references this list, then edit or disable it.

Personal notification and flow changes affect only your flows/alerts unless the flow or alert is shared or created at the site level.

8. To create or manage classic alert-style notifications from the list: open List settings and choose Alert me.
9. Change the default view for a list.
10. Click the current view name (for example All items) on the command bar and choose Save view as to create a new view.
11. To make an existing view the default: open List settings > Views, open the view, and choose Make this the default view.
12. To change the view layout or formatting: use Format current view on the view menu or edit columns and grouping in the view settings.
13. Set regional and date formats that affect how list data displays.
14. Click the site gear icon (top-right) > Site information > View all site settings > Regional settings and change locale, time zone and calendar settings; these apply at the site level and affect lists on that site.
15. Manage connected flows (Power Automate) for integrations.
16. Open Power Automate, go to My flows or Team flows, find flows that reference the list and disable or edit them as needed.

Expected results: after changing a default view you see the new view when users open the list; after disabling a flow, automated emails or actions stop running for the flow owner or for users shared into that flow.

What admins must change in the Microsoft 365 admin center or SharePoint

1. Open the Microsoft 365 admin center: admin.microsoft.com.
2. Manage licensing related to Lists by confirming product licenses assigned to users.
3. In the admin center go to Billing > Products to confirm licenses assigned to users; licensing determines whether a user can access Lists features.
4. Open the SharePoint admin center: admin.microsoft.com > Show all > SharePoint.
5. Configure external sharing that affects Lists.
6. In SharePoint admin center go to Policies > Sharing to change sharing for sites and lists; adjust guest access levels for the tenant or specific site collections.
7. Control modern list experience and other list behaviors.
8. In SharePoint admin center go to Settings and look for List and library experience (or related entries such as Classic experience) to enforce modern or classic experiences across the tenant.

Changing sharing or experience settings can impact many sites; communicate with site owners before broad changes.

9. Change site collection and site-level admin controls.
10. In SharePoint admin center, under Sites > Active sites, select a site and click Settings to change site-level features (site owners, site settings, external sharing at that site).
11. Use PowerShell for changes that are repetitive or not available in the GUI.
12. PowerShell example to change site collection sharing. Replace <TenantAdminUrl> and <SiteUrl> with your tenant values.

Connect-SPOService -Url https://<TenantAdminUrl>-admin.sharepoint.com
Set-SPOSite -Identity https://<SiteUrl> -SharingCapability ExternalUserAndGuestSharing

13. Example using PnP.PowerShell to update list properties (toggle versioning or other flags). Replace Your List and <SiteUrl>.

Connect-PnPOnline -Url https://<SiteUrl> -Interactive
Set-PnPList -Identity "Your List" -EnableVersioning $true -Template "GenericList"

Expected results: tenant-level switches immediately affect new sessions; existing user sessions may need a refresh and some changes can take minutes to propagate.

Why users still can’t do something after I changed settings

Common causes and fixes:

• Browser cache or stale session: ask the user to sign out and sign back in, or test in an InPrivate/Incognito window.
• Delayed policy propagation: some tenant changes take minutes to hours to reach all services; wait a short while and re-test.
• Site or list permissions missing: Lists use SharePoint permissions. Verify the user is in a group with the correct role (Contribute, Edit, or Full Control).
• Flow ownership and sharing: if a flow is owned by another user or a service account, editing or disabling it requires that owner or admin intervention.
• License not assigned or insufficient: confirm the user has a license that includes Lists/SharePoint Online features.
• Conditional Access or external sharing restrictions: tenant-wide security controls may block actions even when list settings allow them.

Short fixes to try in order:

1. Verify the user has the right license and site permissions.
2. Have the user sign out/sign in and clear browser cache or try Incognito.
3. Confirm flow ownership and check Power Automate for active runs.
4. Check SharePoint admin center for recent changes and wait 10–30 minutes for propagation.

If a permission change was applied at the site collection level, verify there are no unique permissions on the list that override the site setting.

How to verify the change actually worked for users

User checks (quick):

• Open the list in question and confirm the expected default view is shown.
• Trigger an action that should send a notification (create or update an item) and check whether the user receives the email.
• Test in an Incognito window as the user (or have the user test) to avoid cached credentials.

Admin checks (quick):

• View effective permissions for a user on a list: Site > Settings > Site permissions > Check Permissions, enter the user and review their effective rights.

1. From the site, open Site settings > Site permissions > Check Permissions and enter the user's account.
2. To open the list as a specific user (requires Global Admin or SharePoint Admin with appropriate tooling), use an account that matches that user or ask the user to confirm.
3. Verify notifications and flows in Power Automate: open My flows or Team flows and use Run history to confirm whether flows ran and whether actions succeeded.

PowerShell checks for admins:

Connect-SPOService -Url https://<TenantAdminUrl>-admin.sharepoint.com
Get-SPOSite -Identity https://<SiteUrl>

Get-PnPList -Identity "Your List" -Includes Title, Hidden, EnableVersioning

Expected verification signs: the list opens with the new default view; flows show recent successful runs or no runs if disabled; Get-SPOSite/Get-PnPList returns the updated settings you applied.

Conclusion

After you change personal or tenant settings, confirm the change by testing as a user and running the admin checks above. If users still report problems, verify licenses, SharePoint permissions, and whether a flow, conditional access policy, or external sharing rule is interfering. For tenant-wide changes allow time for propagation and notify site owners before and after broad sharing or experience switches.

Frequently Asked Questions

How do I roll back a tenant change if it causes problems?

Reverse the same setting in the Microsoft 365 admin center or SharePoint admin center, or run the corresponding PowerShell command to restore the prior value. Communicate the rollback to site owners and expect a brief propagation delay.

Where can I find audit logs for Lists activity?

Use the Microsoft Purview (Compliance) audit log search in the compliance center to find user and admin activity across SharePoint and Lists; audit data availability depends on your subscription and audit settings.

Does changing a SharePoint site setting affect Lists embedded in Teams?

Yes. Lists in Teams are backed by SharePoint lists in the associated site collection, so site-level changes (sharing, permissions, experience) apply to those lists.

What licensing is required for Microsoft Lists features?

Microsoft Lists features are provided through SharePoint Online licensing included with common Microsoft 365 subscriptions. If a user cannot access Lists, check that they have an appropriate Microsoft 365 license assigned.