Forum Discussion

Matt McNabb's avatar
Matt McNabb
Iron Contributor
May 30, 2017

Users Without Sharepoint License Available in People Picker

I recently noticed a behavior in the "People Picker" in Onedrive and Sharepoint Online that's kind of an issue. When a user attempts to share a file or folder and searches for users to share with, we...
office 365
onedrive
sharepoint
TobiasAT's avatar
TobiasAT
Steel Contributor
May 31, 2017

I had the same issue in the past and found the answer in the topic at https://techcommunity.microsoft.com/t5/Office-365/Sharepoint-Online-users-access-without-licenses/td-p/14817.

 

For internal users, you can ask Microsoft (via a support ticket) to either enforce or not enforce the license requirement for SharePoint Online.

Microsoft has also recently changed a related issue: if you have licensing enforced, those user accounts will no longer appear in the People Picker.

 

I think your current tenant setting is to not enforce the license requirement for SharePoint Online. 

  • Salvatore Biscari's avatar
    Salvatore Biscari
    Silver Contributor
    May 31, 2017

    Can you please share an official Microsoft document stating such things?

    TIA

    • TobiasAT's avatar
      TobiasAT
      Steel Contributor
      May 31, 2017

      In February I had a MS case. The engineer answered me the question why internal users without a SharePoint Online Plan are able to access sites MS does not validate the SPO license, in the current state. Users can access SharePoint Online without a SPO Plan, nevertheless the company is responsible to license the users. A SPO Plan is always required for OneDrive for Business. 

       

      The short remark of the case:

      Regarding your concern around accessing the SharePoint Online environment without a SPO license. Yes, you can provide users part of your Office 365 tenant and without an SPO license access to your SharePoint Online environment.

       

      After that I found the mentioned topic, and as Kelly wrote in the linked topic it's an unofficial notification. 

       

      Microsoft could simply flip a switch without notifying anyone (the switch to not enforce it was implemented with no notification).

       

       

      • Salvatore Biscari's avatar
        Salvatore Biscari
        Silver Contributor
        May 31, 2017

        Hi Tobias, thanks for your answer.

        We have discussed many times this topic and the conclusion has always been that the words of an MS support representative, or of an MS commercial representative, have absolutely no value in absence of an MS official statement.

        The reality is that, to access SPO resources, internal users MUST have a license, At the moment such requirement is not technically enforced, but this does not mean that it is not valid.

        Hope it helps...

Resources