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 ;)
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.
