How to enable anonymous access in SharePoint 2016/2013

In this post, we will discuss what is an anonymous Site in SharePoint. How to enable anonymous access in SharePoint 2016 and SharePoint 2013. How to configure SharePoint 2013/2016 for anonymous access.

What is a SharePoint anonymous site

SharePoint anonymous site means users should able to visit the site without login. Without giving any credentials users should be able to access any page, list, and libraries, etc from the SharePoint site.

We can make a SharePoint site accessible for anonymous access.

Enable anonymous access SharePoint 2016

To enable anonymous access SharePoint 2016, we have to change in the web application level as well as at the site level in SharePoint 2016/2013. You can enable or disable anonymous access for a web application.

If anonymous access is disabled for a web application, no sites within that web application can be accessed by anonymous users.

Web Application changes for anonymous access

Open your SharePoint 2016 central administration site and then click on the “Manage web application” link which is under “Application Management“.

This will display all your web applications, select the particular web application and click on Authentication Providers from the ribbon.

Then click on the Zone link as shown in the fig below:

Then in the Authentication providers screen select the “Enable anonymous access” checkbox as shown in the fig below:

Site Level Changes required for anonymous access

Now we have to do the SharePoint site level changes.

Open the site in a browser and then click on the gear icon (settings) and then click on the site settings option. Then in the site settings page click on “Site permissions” which is under “User and Permissions”.

Now from the ribbon click on Anonymous Access button like below:

Once you click on the button, it will display what anonymous users can access. Choose entire web site option like below:

You can also set so that anonymous users can access only Entire web site.
Once you click on OK, you will be able to see it will add “Anonymous Users” in the site permission and it will set permission level as entire web site like below:

If you will try to open the site in a different browser you can see I can visit the site without giving my credentials.

Also, I can click on the Sign in button to sign in with my windows credentials.

You may like following SharePoint tutorials:

• SharePoint 2016 Change Default Log File Location
• Create web application in SharePoint 2016 from Central Administration and using PowerShell
• Share a Site in SharePoint Online/2016/2013
• The Secure Store Service application Secure Store Service is not accessible SharePoint 2016
• SharePoint 2016 usage analytics
• Microsoft .net framework 4.6 installation error SharePoint 2016

I hope this tutorial helps us to learn, how to enable anonymous access in SharePoint 2016 or SharePoint 2013.