Problem Scenarios

You've just shared a OneDrive or SharePoint link with an external user and they are having trouble accessing it.
An external user has shared a OneDrive or SharePoint link with you and you are having trouble accessing it.

Notes:

If you are trying to share a link from a Teams document library, your Team must be guest-enabled or external users will not be able to view links shared with them.
If you do not see the "Anyone with a link" option, that's because we've disabled it. It's a huge security risk that we mitigate through requiring a sign-in protected with multi-factor authentication. That way, you know the person viewing your shared documents is really the person you shared it with.

What to try first?

Please see this detailed step-by-step guide when accessing a shared link for the first time from a specific organization.

What if that didn't work?

Common Scenarios

There are a lot of variables that factor into access issues with external users (and sometimes even internal users, depending on your setup). Here are common scenarios for external users (all of which are best done from a Private browsing window on a computer).

Scenario A: Signing in with a password vs. one-time passcode

First time use (please use a computer):
- If your account is associated with a Microsoft account: User will be prompted to sign in with their email password.
- If your account is not associated with a Microsoft account: User will be prompted to sign in with a one-time passcode.
- Then user will need to register for MFA specifically for accessing documents from the sharing organization (see Guide for Guest Access to SharePoint and Setting up Microsoft Multi-Factor Authentication). Once they've successfully set up MFA, they'll be able to access the doc.
Future use:
- If your account is associated with a Microsoft account: User will be prompted to sign in with their email password.
- If your account is not associated with a Microsoft account: User will be prompted to sign in with a one-time passcode.
- Then they will need to approve the MFA push notification from their authenticator app. Once approved, they'll be able to access the doc.

Scenario B: External users must accept invitation prior to accessing documents

If this is the first time the external user is accessing documents shared from your organization, they will need to first accept an auto-generated invitation that looks similar to this:

Here's what the sender and subject info commonly look like:

From: Microsoft Invitations on behalf of [ORG] <invites@microsoft.com>
Subject: [admin] invited you to access applications within their organization

Please check for this email in your Junk or Spam folders as well.

See this guide for a detailed step-by-step on how to properly accept the invitation: Guide for Guest Access to SharePoint

Less Common Scenarios

Scenario 1

If you see an error similar to the above and it mentions 'live.com', then that indicates you have a Microsoft Live ID associated with your email address.

Solution: You will need to delete the Microsoft Live account or create a separate email address that is not associated with a Microsoft Live account.

Scenario 2

If you see an error similar to the previous scenario's error but it doesn't mention 'live.com', then you may not be using a true incognito/private browsing session.

Solution: Please close out of your browser entirely, then open a fresh incognito/private browsing window.

Scenario 3

If you see an error that says you don't have permission, then the item wasn't shared with you properly.

Solution: The person who shared the link with you needs to re-share with you.

Scenario 4

If you see an error that says the item doesn't exist, then the item was moved or no longer exists.

Solution: The person who shared the link needs to share a new link with you.

What if I'm still having issues?

If the external user cannot resolve the issue with their IT provider, please open a ticket with the CTD Help Desk per user. In your ticket, please CC the other user and have them detail exactly what steps they are taking, where the errors are occurring, the exact error messages (if any), and attach any relevant screenshots. We can only offer best effort support for external users since we have no control over their IT environments.

If you run into any additional issues, or have any other questions, please do not hesitate to open a ticket with the CTD Help Desk and include the following information:

The original hyperlink shared with you
A full window screenshot of the error
Detail the steps you took to get to the error
Any additional screenshots