How do you detect which files are Password-Protected in SharePoint

[StephanieJones75]

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Hi everyone,

In my organization, we use SharePoint to store files (mostly .doc and .docx, but sometimes other file types as well). We have multiple SharePoint sites, each containing document libraries and folders where users create new folders or upload files.

I recently noticed that some files are protected with manual passwords, meaning users must enter a password in a pop-up window to open them.

My goal is to identify all password-protected files across SharePoint — either across all sites or within a specific site, library, or folder.

I have tried using eDiscovery and Content Explorer in Purview, but these tools did not detect any of the password-protected files.

Has anyone faced this before? What tools or methods would you recommend to locate password-protected files in SharePoint?

Thanks in advance for any advice!

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[syedsafeer]

Hi @StephanieJones75, Purview and eDiscovery often fail to detect these because encrypted files cannot be indexed by standard crawlers without the password or a sensitivity label.

The most reliable way to do this is using a PowerShell script (specifically PnP PowerShell) to iterate through your document libraries and check the file metadata or the 'IsEncrypted' property. For a large-scale environment, you might need a third-party tool like ShareGate or a specialized security scanner that specifically looks for encryption flags in Office headers.

If this helps, please Mark as Answer

[ItsOmkara]

Hi @StephanieJones75,
Adding to what @syedsafeer mentioned here's a more detailed approach:
Using PnP PowerShell:
You can iterate through all files in a library and check if they are password-protected by inspecting the file's sensitivity or encryption header. Office files (.docx, .xlsx) store encryption info in their Open XML structure.
Using Microsoft Graph API you can query file metadata at scale across multiple SharePoint sites using Graph API, but it still won't directly reveal password protection since it's client-side encryption.
Most Reliable Option will be a third-party tool like ShareGate or Metalogix specifically scans for encryption flags in Office file headers this is your best bet for large environments.
Key Takeaway: Purview/eDiscovery fails here because password-protected files are encrypted at the file level, so the crawler can't index their content without the password.