How to Set Up Alerts in SharePoint

SharePoint alerts can be configured to send an email or SMS when any documents or items on a SharePoint site have been changed. There are many use cases and business scenarios where you can use SharePoint alerts. You can configure instant notifications for changes and updates made to an item, list or library to improve the collaboration of a team working on a specific project. SharePoint alerts can be created to track newly added items or accidentally deleted files in a library. You have a variety of options to apply SharePoint alerts in your business processes, but it is a question of limited flexibility of default SharePoint alert triggers that may not always meet specific requirements.

In this article, we will describe how to set up alerts in SharePoint, overview the case how to create SharePoint alerts for other users, and highlight the most wanted functionality that default SharePoint alerts are not capable, but Virto SharePoint Alerts add-in can do.

Open a SharePoint List or Library Where You Want to Add an Alert.

Click “Alert Me” on ribbon.The way to set up alerts in SharePoint is similar in both SharePoint Online and On-Premise. The only difference is the additional ability in SharePoint Online to create a SharePoint alert for an item by clicking dots next to this item. It is much faster to select this option from the dropdown then searching it on ribbon.

Note: in order to use “Alert me” feature, you must be a SharePoint site owner or have permission to manage SharePoint alerts for the site or list.

Сonfigure the SharePoint Alert

Once you’ve established a particular library, list or item, which changes you will track, you have to configure the SharePoint alert itself.

In this form, you can change the alert name. You can delete your name from recipients list and add other users' names to create SharePoint alerts for other users.Alerts delivery method (SMS, email) should be configured by SharePoint administrator. Usually, SMS delivery option is grayed out and email delivery is the default method. In “Change Type” and “Send Alerts For These Changes” blocks you can specify the type of changes made to a item/list/library that should trigger SharePoint alerts. For example, I`ve selected the options to track any changes made by other users to my documents. Literally, don`t touch my stuff, I`m watching you!

And the last option allows you to define SharePoint alerts sending frequency. I`ll receive a daily report at 5 PM in the Daily Summary form.

Save the Alert

Save the alert and check your email. You will get a system confirmation that you have successfully created a SharePoint alert!A SharePoint email alert that you receive immediately or as a summary alert in our example, contains links to all files that were changed according to predefined triggers. You can also modify your SharePoint alerts by clicking “Manage my alerts” on ribbon. But you can’t truly manage SharePoint alerts from this view, you are able to delete them or add new SharePoint alerts.

If you want to delete SharePoint alerts created by other users to avoid spam or because of alerts irrelevance, you have to browse to “User alerts” under Site Administration on Site Settings page and delete all unwanted alerts.

Originally published at VirtoSoftware blog