Why you need the default document library on a SharePoint site

Today, I want to address a question I often receive from my loyal followers, which is about the document library that appears on each site by default. In this article, I want to explain its importance and outline a few nuances about it.

1. Every Site has a library by default

No matter which type of site you decide to create (Team Site, Communication Site, or Team Site without a Group), the document library called Documents is created by default for you. Regardless of the site’s intent, you may need to store a few files on it, correct? And that is exactly what the document library is for!

Example of a Default Document Library

2. The Default Library can’t be deleted

If you have a Team Site connected to a Microsoft 365 Group, you can’t even delete that default library. The delete option is simply gone. The reason for this is that the default library stores channel folders from Teams. So, if it is deleted, it will render the entire Teams workspace useless!

3. The Default Library URL cannot be changed

When you create new document libraries, once you assign the name, that name becomes part of the URL. Since the default library is automatically created when you create a site, the URL is already in place and cannot be changed. By default, it is /Shared Documents/. While you can rename the library from Documents to something else, the URL is fixed forever.

4. Never create unique permissions for the Default Document Library

While you might need to break inheritance here and there for some other libraries or files and folders, you should never break inheritance for the default library. With Teams dependency, it will render the Team useless. Below is an error message a user will get in Teams if you start messing up permissions for the default document library.

An Error Message the user gets when the Default Library has unique permissions

5. Can’t disable version history on the default document library

If you have a Team Site connected to a Microsoft 365 Group, you cannot disable version history on the default document library. This is also true for new libraries you create on that same site.

No way to disable Version History on a default document library

6. You can replace the Site Homepage with the Document Library

Suppose you are using your SharePoint site solely as storage. In that case, you may want to consider a trick where users navigating to the site are immediately redirected to the Default document library. I documented this trick in this article.