How to enable side loading of apps on SharePoint site

Sideloading apps is insecure. The main reason for blocking sideloading by default on non-developer sites is the risk that faulty apps pose to their host web/host site collection. Apps have the potential to destroy data and make sites or, given enough permissions, can even make site collections unusable. Therefore, apps should only be sideloaded in dev/test environments and never in production.

In order to enable sideloading please use following script on a site which has sideloading blocked

$programFiles = [environment]::getfolderpath("programfiles")

add-type -Path $programFiles'\SharePoint Online Management Shell\' + `

  'Microsoft.Online.SharePoint.PowerShell\Microsoft.SharePoint.Client.dll'

Write-Host `

  'To enable SharePoint app sideLoading, ' + `

  'enter Site Url, username and password'

$siteurl = Read-Host 'Site Url'

$username = Read-Host "User Name"

$password = Read-Host -AsSecureString 'Password'

if ($siteurl -eq '') {

    $siteurl = 'https://mytenant.sharepoint.com/sites/mysite'

    $username = 'me@mytenant.onmicrosoft.com'

    $password = ConvertTo-SecureString -String 'mypassword!'`

                -AsPlainText -Force

}

$outfilepath = $siteurl -replace ':', '_' -replace '/', '_'

try

{

    [Microsoft.SharePoint.Client.ClientContext]$cc = `

      New-Object Microsoft.SharePoint.Client.ClientContext($siteurl)

    [Microsoft.SharePoint.Client.SharePointOnlineCredentials]$spocreds = `

      New-Object `

      Microsoft.SharePoint.Client.SharePointOnlineCredentials($username, $password)

    $cc.Credentials = $spocreds

    $sideLoadingEnabled = `

    [Microsoft.SharePoint.Client.appcatalog]::IsAppSideloadingEnabled($cc);

   

    $cc.ExecuteQuery()

   

    if($sideLoadingEnabled.value -eq $false) {

        Write-Host -ForegroundColor Yellow `

          'SideLoading feature is not enabled on the site:' $siteurl

        $site = $cc.Site;

            $sideLoadingGuid = `

           new-object System.Guid "AE3A1339-61F5-4f8f-81A7-ABD2DA956A7D"

            $site.Features.Add($sideLoadingGuid, $false, `

            [Microsoft.SharePoint.Client.FeatureDefinitionScope]::None);

            $cc.ExecuteQuery();

           Write-Host -ForegroundColor Green `

          'SideLoading feature enabled on site' $siteurl

    }

   

    Else {

        Write-Host -ForegroundColor Green `

          'SideLoading feature is already enabled on site' $siteurl

    }

}

Catch {

    Write-Host -ForegroundColor Red `

      'Error encountered when trying to enable SideLoading feature' `

      $siteurl, ':' $Error[0].ToString();

}

When you no longer need to sideload apps, make sure to disable app sideloading!

$programFiles = [environment]::getfolderpath("programfiles")

add-type -Path $programFiles'\SharePoint Online Management Shell\' + `

 Microsoft.Online.SharePoint.PowerShell\Microsoft.SharePoint.Client.dll'

Write-Host 'To disable sideLoading, enter Site Url, username and password'

$siteurl = Read-Host 'Site Url'

$username = Read-Host "User Name"

$password = Read-Host -AsSecureString 'Password'

if ($siteurl -eq '') {

    $siteurl = 'https://mytenant.sharepoint.com/sites/mysite'

    $username = 'me@mytenant.onmicrosoft.com'

    $password = ConvertTo-SecureString -String 'mypassword!' `

      -AsPlainText -Force

}

Try {

    [Microsoft.SharePoint.Client.ClientContext]$cc = `

    New-Object Microsoft.SharePoint.Client.ClientContext($siteurl)

    [Microsoft.SharePoint.Client.SharePointOnlineCredentials]$spocreds = `

    New-Object Microsoft.SharePoint.Client.SharePointOnlineCredentials($username, $password)

    $cc.Credentials = $spocreds

    $site = $cc.Site;

    $sideLoadingEnabled = `

    [Microsoft.SharePoint.Client.appcatalog]::IsAppSideloadingEnabled($cc);

    $cc.ExecuteQuery()

    if($sideLoadingEnabled.value -eq $false)

    {

      Write-Host -ForegroundColor Green `

        'SideLoading is alreday disabled on site' $siteurl

        }

       else

       {

      Write-Host -ForegroundColor Yellow `

        'Disabling SideLoading feature on site' $siteurl

      $sideLoadingGuid = `

        new-object System.Guid "AE3A1339-61F5-4f8f-81A7-ABD2DA956A7D"

      $site.Features.Remove($sideLoadingGuid, $true);

      $cc.ExecuteQuery();

      Write-Host -ForegroundColor Green `

        'SideLoading disabled on site' $siteurl

        }

} catch {

    Write-Host -ForegroundColor Red `

      'Error encountered when trying to disable side loading features' `

      $siteurl, ':' $Error[0].ToString();

}