Microsoft Teams without SharePoint is a common question among businesses trying to simplify Microsoft 365, reduce clutter, or avoid unnecessary SharePoint sites when creating a Teams workspace.

According to Microsoft documentation, when you create a new Microsoft Teams workspace, a SharePoint site is automatically created and connected — this is where all shared files are stored.

Wondering if you can set up a Microsoft Teams workspace without an associated SharePoint site? The short answer is no. However, you can create a Teams workspace and then disable its SharePoint site if needed.

To do this, you can run the following PowerShell command:

Set-SPOsite -Identity <YourSiteURL> -LockState NoAccess

If you need help with governance, site permissions, or managing the lifecycle of SharePoint team sites created by Teams, explore our SharePoint consulting services.

Once the SharePoint site is disabled, the Files tab will still appear in your Teams workspace, but it will be empty. Additionally, you won’t be able to attach files within the team, as that functionality relies on SharePoint.

This approach can be useful if you want to limit file sharing capabilities while still using Microsoft Teams for communication and collaboration.

Empty Files Tab

This behavior is because Teams uses the SharePoint site’s document library as the backend for the Files tab — Teams itself doesn’t host files outside that SharePoint integration.

This error occurs if you attempt to attach a file.