When using a SharePoint data component in Team Forms, you may notice that a drop-down menu is populated for you but appears empty for another user.
This usually happens because Team Forms uses a delegated permission model (as recommended by Microsoft). The application can only access the data that the logged-in user already has permission to access. If your drop-down is populated from a SharePoint list or an Excel file stored in SharePoint, the person completing the form must also have at least Read access to that list or file. If they do not, the drop-down will appear empty even though it works for you.
To fix the issue, go directly into SharePoint, locate the list or file being used as the data source, and grant the responder Read access (or higher if appropriate). Once access is provided, the drop-down should populate correctly.
If you need to troubleshoot further, ask the affected user to check the data source from their side (you cannot reliably test this yourself if you have broader permissions).
Ask the user to:
Open Team Forms in their preferred web browser or as a Team Personal App (the left sidebar is not available when accessed as a Channel App).
Hover over the team in the left sidebar, click the “…” menu, then select Data Sources.
Check whether any data source shows an error icon and how many rows are listed. Hover over any error icon to read the message.
Sometimes manually refreshing the data-source form this screen can help resolve the issue.
Common error messages you may see:
Error Message | What It Means |
No permission | The user does not have access to the SharePoint list or file. |
Resource could not be found | The SharePoint list or file was moved, renamed, or deleted. |
In most cases, this issue is caused by missing SharePoint permissions. Ensuring the responder has direct Read access to the underlying list or file resolves the problem.