Configure the maximum number of co-authoring authors in SharePoint Server

APPLIES TO: 2013 2016 2019 Subscription Edition SharePoint in Microsoft 365

The CoauthoringMaxAuthors property lets you specify the maximum number of users who can co-author a Word document or PowerPoint presentation at the same time in SharePoint Server 2013. This article describes how to configure the CoauthoringMaxAuthors property by using Microsoft PowerShell.

You can limit the number of users who can co-author a document at the same time by setting the CoauthoringMaxAuthors property. This property only applies to Word 2010, Word 2013, Word Web App, PowerPoint 2010, PowerPoint 2013 and PowerPoint Web App documents. There is no upper limit to the number of users who can co-author OneNote notebooks.

To configure the maximum number of co-authoring users for Word documents and PowerPoint presentations by using Windows PowerShell (save as script and run script)

1. Verify that you have the following memberships:

• securityadmin fixed server role on the SQL Server instance.

• db_owner fixed database role on all databases that are to be updated.

• Administrators group on the server on which you are running PowerShell cmdlets.

  An administrator can use the Add-SPShellAdmin cmdlet to grant permissions to use SharePoint Server 2013 cmdlets.

  Note

  If you do not have permissions, contact your Setup administrator or SQL Server administrator to request permissions. For additional information about PowerShell permissions, see Permissions and Add-SPShellAdmin.

2. Paste the following code into a text editor, such as Notepad:

$siteurl = "<ServerName>"
$mysite=new-object Microsoft.SharePoint.SPSite($siteurl)
$mysite.WebApplication.WebService.CoauthoringMaxAuthors = <MaxAuthors>
$mysite.WebApplication.WebService.Update()

3. Replace:

• <ServerName> with the name of the server.

• <MaxAuthors> with the maximum number of authors to allow.

4. Save the file and add the .ps1 extension, such as SuggestedNameOfFile.ps1.

   Note

   You can use a different file name, but you must save the file as an ANSI-encoded text file whose extension is .ps1.

5. Start the SharePoint 2013 Management Shell as Administrator.

   For more information about how to interact with Windows Server 2012, see Common Management Tasks and Navigation in Windows Server 2012.

6. Change to the directory to which you saved the file.

7. At the PowerShell command prompt, type the following command: ./SuggestedFileName.ps1

Overview of co-authoring in SharePoint Server