Forum Discussion
Can't open document shared with me in Word desktop application
I have access to an organisation's SharePoint Online environment via the partner access option. I can open Office documents in the browser, but when I try to open in the desktop applications, I just keep getting prompted for my email address and password.
I don't have any problems opening documents stored in my organisation's tenant.
In addition to my login prompts, I get an option to "Add this account to Windows". I'm not sure what that is about, as the PC I'm on is domain joined and I'm logged on with the account. I can skip this step, so I'm not sure it is relevant to the issue. If I do try to add the account, it fails.
11 Replies
You are only a Guest User or an External User on SharePoint Online:
External users can perform the following tasks:
Use Office Online for viewing and editing documents. If your plan includes Office Pro Plus, they will not have the licenses to install the desktop version of Office on their own Computers.
That's all you can only viewing and editing documents Online.
I just tried opening an Excel file shared via a user's OneDrive for Business site at the same tenant. This opened fine in the Excel desktop application.
I wonder if the behavior is different depending on whether the document is located in ODfB or a SharePoint site collection.
Any idea how Access Control settings for the SharePoint Online tenant the document is shared from are configured? There's the option to configure limited (web-only) access from unmanaged devices.
See this blog for more information:
https://blogs.technet.microsoft.com/wbaer/2017/10/08/site-scoped-conditional-access-policies-in-sharepoint-online/paulpascha - it looks like this requires an Enterprise Mobility + Security license to configure, so this setting isn't available in this client's tenant:
Deleted - thanks for confirming it works for you. Are you accessing the tenant using a Office 365 partner account, or purely as an invited user?
- Using any “share” links do not provide office client editing. You must be assigned access to the site using a guest account either through teams / groups guest access or being added directly to the resource in Sharepoint using the classic experience.
Microsoft has hinted at changing this in the near future. Hi Ivan!
How has the document been shared with you? Has anyone shared the entire SharePoint site with you to the O365 account you have in your organization or have only the document been shared as a link to Your O365 account?
What type of license do you have with the other organization? Does it contain Office or can You only use Office online there?
I am set up as a site collection administrator on the client's site collection. I have an E5 license on my company's tenant.
I have tested with an Office 365 account from the client's tenant. That works as expected.
It sounds like the Office desktop apps currently do not support opening documents from another tenant that you have been granted access to. However, the user interface still gives you the option to try, but throws you into an infinite loop of credential prompts.
