Forum Discussion
External users can't open documents in desktop application
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 ;)
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