Forum Discussion
Anonymous Sharing not working with Communication sites
We're starting to roll out some Communication sites, however it looks like it is currently impossible to enable Anonymous sharing links:
I get the following error when I try to set anonymous sharing in PowerShell:
Hopefully this isn't by design, since there are several teams who have documents that are shared both internally and externally. It would be nice to be able to update the file in just one place.
Any news in this topic? My problem still isn't solved. External sharing does not work? Is it working for anyone?!
Thomas, it is working for us. Did you try to enable it using powershell ide ?
Hey, yes now its working - i've used this:
Set-SPOSite -Identity https://XXXXX.sharepoint.com/sites/XXXXX -SharingCapability ExternalUserAndGuestSharing
Thanks to all!
Tom
I encoutered exactly the same issue. I've been told my Microsoft Support that this error is client dependent. Therefore I execute this commando with "Windows Powershell ISE", and this worked for me.
i think this blog will help you a lot http://www.techmikael.com/2017/08/enable-external-sharing-on.html
- Have you added everyone in your tenant to "First Release - Select User"??
I have been playing around with Comms sites, but everyone who I send a link to who isn't in "First Release - Select User" get very strange rendering and pages aren't usable, so I guess the First Release group isn't just to get access to "create a site" it's to actually get access to web resources also.... Can anyone confirm this??- Yep, there are certain first release web parts and changes that are visible to none first release users, others that aren't.
Essentially rendering communication sites and the web parts that came with only usable for test purposes at the moment.
We're going to wait until everything is fully released before considering making sites for everyone to see.- I think what I mentioned is an issue being investigated as stated my Bruno above, I think being in first release just gives you the option to create the new sites, everyone should be able to browse a created one
Definitely - i can confirm the strange rendering - also the webparts aren't working correctly for the not "first-release" users.
Bruno AleixoMicrosoft
Investigating the behavior.
Already made a Service Request in my Admin Center because the same problem is in my tenant. Would like to use the really nice Communication Sites - but with this "feature" they're not usable. The Communication Sites are also not visible in SP Admin Center.
Answer of the MS Support: Communication Sites are still in a developement Status and they cannot support until they're rolled out official to all customers.
Found this Info in the Newscenter:
Q. Can I use a communication site in an extranet scenario with external users?
A. Yes, communication sites will support external users for extranet use cases. Initially, Office 365 admins would need to enable it at the site level via PowerShell. We are working on the admin user interface to enable external sharing in a similar fashion as is done today for team sites.
I can't enable that in my tenant with powershell. I got this error when trying to do that:
Get-SPOSite https://mytenant.sharepoint.com/sites/communitysite | set-sposite -SharingCapability ExternalUserAndGuestSharing
set-sposite : SPOTenantSiteCollectionProvider::SetSiteProperties - Site https://mytenant.sharepoint.com/sites/communitysite not found in Grid, but TAPS_Sites_UseSharePoint flight in ONReverting to GM-based set-sposite (old) behavior for now
Note that same command works perfectly with team sites.
Have you checked the Lockdown site (collection?) feature?
This feature was enabled on our publishing sites and prevented the anonymous sharing.
- Interested to find out what the deal is with sharing communication sites with anonymous or external users
I dont yet have Communication sites in my tenant, but that looks like the Group/Team site sharing dialog. If it follows the same logic, then it's indeed by design.
VasilMichev wrote:I dont yet have Communication sites in my tenant, but that looks like the Group/Team site sharing dialog. If it follows the same logic, then it's indeed by design.
With the previous Group/Team sites, I could run that PowerShell command against them to enable anonymous sharing. I verified that it still works for Group sites after getting the above error for the Communication site.
I don't have Communication Sites yet, but, out of curiosity: are they listed in SPO admin center, like classic team sites,, or not, like modern team sites?
- what is your sharepoint tenant setting for external sharing?
Ivan54 wrote:
what is your sharepoint tenant setting for external sharing?Tenant is set to allow anonymous sharing links.
