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Karen Pierson's avatar
Karen Pierson
Copper Contributor
Sep 17, 2018
Solved

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 optio...
SharePoint Online
  • StephenRice's avatar
    StephenRice
    Sep 18, 2018

    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 ;)

ChrisWebbTech's avatar
ChrisWebbTech
MVP
Jan 23, 2020
That has nothing to do with this discussion. Your situation is a supported scenario. If they open in the web they should be able to then select open in desktop app. If not it might be something with your office version or something with trusted sites possibly etc. I’d suggest starting a new thread and or a support ticket as well since internal users should all be able to open in office desktop apps but depending on the links may have to go to web then desktop.
Togotooner's avatar
Togotooner
Copper Contributor
Jan 23, 2020

ChrisWebbTechThanks Chris. I will start a new thread. Yes, you would think that it would work for ALL users but it doesn't. I have even set the Advanced settings to "default" to the client's applications. 

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