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External users can't open documents in desktop application
Hi all! We are having issues with external users not being able to open a shared doc in the desktop program - they can only edit/view in the browser. The "Open in Xprogram" button isn't even an option anymore! We are sharing with edit privileges and have external sharing turned on for our tenant. We have disabled anonymous links and only use "share with authenticated users" turned on. When we share, we select Specific People, type in the email address and share. The external user has access, they are just not able to open in the desktop application, even if they have it already or already 365 users in their own organization. This suddenly happened for us in August and we can't find a solution. Any ideas?
Hi all,
This behavior is expected (external users not getting the "Open in Office" option) whenever the external user is authenticating via the new one time passcode (OTP) method. You can see a better overview here: Documentation
There are two states an external user can be in today: If they are authenticating via OTP, then they do not have a real AAD account and thus cannot open in clients. This occurs when you share a file or folder with an external user who is not in your directory (i.e. they have never been shared to before).
Inviting a user to a site or a group or using the Azure B2B platform will create an account in AAD for the guest user. These users must have an MSA or AAD account to sign-in with to accept the invitation. They can use Office apps.
This is definitely something we're looking to improve and I definitely suggest you check out the "What's new in External Sharing & Collaboration with OneDrive & SharePoint" talk at Ignite next week ;)
Karen Pierson This is still an issue. It makes it impossible to use Sharepoint for true collaboration with external users. Any update on when this will be addressed by Microsoft?
- Seriously, I'm shocked this issue is still going on.
We cannot share a document to external people, so what, are we supposed to work only with people from our organization, what is that ?
This tool is really s.. pardon my french Im french.
I look like stupid in front of my clients and providers.
It says in the sharepoint we can share with specific people, why isn't there an option to share with everyone who has the link?
I decide who I want to send it to.baptistequidet This thread is a good mix of different challenges. Both "Sharing" and copying links are mentioned here. It also contains dialogs about linked files and relationships between files that may have different permission settings. Most of this has already been answered and most of the mentioned issues are about different configuration settings at the different companies asking the question and/or experiencing challenges.
The challenge you mention is probably not related to the original question in this thread. If you, in your organization, cannot share documents with external people (guests), it is most likely because your organization does not allow it in the central sharing settings. There is also the option to enable the functionality to share with anyone who has the link but this is something that most people, for quite understandable reasons, choose not to enable. It's not hard to open everything up but it brings other, less desired, challenges.
The best solution for you is probably to have a chat with those in your organization who are responsible for your configuration of Microsoft 365. They can certainly answer why your settings are the way they are. Kind regards, Magnus
Thanks for your reply.
First point, most of the issues has been already replied, but most of the issues are still going on in online sharepoint, so my message is worth keeping in the conversation.
Second, you mentioned my message is not related to original question. I am pretty sure I face the same issue, and the people I send shared link are not able to access the file, even after writing in the access list their email address. You are mentioning that my organization is not allowing file to be accessed outside. Good news, I am the organization, so I should be aware of that, but in reality not.
Why is there an option saying to share links with specific people, if there is another setting somewhere else ( the organization ) that prevents sharing link ? How come we have a button stating something in onedrive, which is not actually executing the task it intends to ?I understand that there are multiple layers in the AAD or Microsoft 365 application accesses, though it is clear that the control over all those application is not defined very well. You cannot show to a user a specific action, if in reality, it is dependent of another action. So you should map all dependencies and make you don't give wrong information.
What is very obvious is that you expect your customers to test your applications that are not well designed, and you expect customers to raise all the bugs.
Very frustrating coming from a top tech company, sorry to say that.
Have spent EONS trying to figure this out and its now 2022 and still external users cannot use the Desktop App when we give editing access for folders and documents. Its crazy to me, such a glaring hole that has been mentioned way back to 2018 based on my research.
Stephen Rice any news on this being addressed?We are a rapidly growing organisation and do a LOT of collaboration on documents with clients and right now, have to revert to passing documents via email back and forth as users always want to edit in desktop app. This is cumbersome and nuts to have to do in this day and age.
Please please PLEASE???
Hi Scampi ,
I think you can ask external users to try the following steps.
1. Open a blank office file in their desktop app.
2. Click their name in the right top corner then select "Sign in with a different account".
3. Let them sign in with their external user name provided.
4. After signing in, try opening shared documents using Open with Desktop App option.
Once they sign-in in the desktop app, they can open any shared office documents using desktop app unless they manually logout the account from the desktop app.
I hope this helps.
Hi
I had same problem until today and found a solution for this and it works for me.
1. When you click on Share, click on copy Link instead of emailing.
2. Now paste the link in the external users chat box in Teams and send it.3. External user will receive it as pictured below and just need to click on the three dots and select "Open in Desktop App"
4. A popup page will appear in the App witch will ask the user to login to access.
5. DONE
Tip: External user can now Pin the file in the app and access it any time.My guest user can authenticate and access the document library. When they click on the three dots and select open with desktop app they get another login popup windows and once typing in Microsoft account credentials the excel window stays open with no data.
The guest user using MFA and reinstalled his windows and office suite. We also tried the option to click on their account top right excel window and signed in as using the invited guest account restarted sharepoint and excel windows but still no data displaying in excel.
Indeed it works and if that's not the case, open a support ticket. By the way adding here StephenRice and let me explain how it should work (I just shared a folder yesterday with an external user using the "Sharing with specific people" option and giving Edit permissions....it worked well):
- Share the folder / file with an external user using the "Share with specific people" option and check the "Allow Editing" option
- The external user will receive a message and will be asked to provide/sign with the e-mail the file/folder was shared with
- The external user will see a message indicating that an access code has been sent to that e-mail
- The external user enters the access code and can edit any Office document (I'm assuming here the user has a valid Office licence)
it's never worked that way using just specific people with external users since the new sharing dialog has been around, only back with the old way would it work. The only way I know to get it working using desktop apps is if you use the old school invite method to the SharePoint site / file where the user is actually added as a guest and added to the SharePoint site where they show up in people and groups etc.
This is a known issue by the OneDrive team and they have said that they are looking at this and to stay tuned so that it can hopefully work with normal Sharing should the users have office clients installed.
But as of now you have to get people invited to your site first, which is getting harder by the day with all the sharing changes over the past few months.
