Forum Discussion
External Users Unable to Access Microsoft List Form
We have created a Microsoft List and are using the default Microsoft Lists Form for data entry / intake form.
Internal users can access the form URL and submit items successfully. However, external users are unable to access the form link, even though they have been granted Contribute permissions to the SharePoint list.
External users can:
- Access the list
- Create new items using the + New button
- Edit items based on their permissions
However, they cannot access the dedicated Microsoft Lists Form URL and getting following error.
This link is only available to internal users. This link is not available to you.
Our requirement is to allow external users to:
- Open the Microsoft Lists Form URL
- View the form
- Submit new items
without providing additional access beyond what is required for form submission, and without using Microsoft Forms.
Is guest/external user access to the Microsoft Lists Form experience supported? If so, what configuration or permissions are required to enable external users to access and submit items through the form URL?
The behavior is expected: Microsoft Lists form links are intended for people inside the Microsoft 365 organization. Giving a guest Contribute access to the SharePoint list does not change that audience check, so no additional list, site, or sharing permission will make the dedicated form link work externally.
Your test confirms the SharePoint permissions are correct, because the guests can open the list and create items with + New. If Microsoft Forms is excluded, send guests to the SharePoint list’s New item experience instead. Keep the list shared with the required guests and use Contribute, or a custom permission level that includes Add Items, to match their required access.
Test the link with a separate guest after the invitation has been accepted. If the dedicated intake layout is mandatory, you will need a different front end that explicitly supports external respondents; the Microsoft Lists form settings cannot enable this.
3 Replies
Us the native SharePoint form. Don't use Forms (cuz that won't feed into SharePoint list) or the "new form experience". You can use all sorts of customization with the native form from the UI and with a little JSON, you can completely customize even the look and feel.
If you open the default New Item, you can copy the link to the form and give that to people.
But if you give users the link to the native form, when they hit Save/Cancel, they will be taken to the default list view. If that is not the behavior you want - maybe you want them to go to a Thank You screen like you get with the "new forms experience", then here's what to do.
I am assuming that your guest users were granted access to the entire SharePoint site/Team
- Create your Thank You page in the same SharePoint site. This important to ensure all users have access to the page.
- Open the default New Form and Copy Link
- Paste the link into a non-html editor like notepad
- Find the part that says "Source=http:<name of your listview.aspx>&ContentTypeID. See screenshot below.
- Replace all the text between = and & with the URL of your new Thank you page.
- Make sure the URL for your page is "clean" - just the URL and path ending in .aspx. If there's gobbledy-**bleep** after .aspx, delete it.
- When pasting, DO NOT OVERWRITE ANY OTHER TEXT. MAKE SURE BOTH THE = and & STAY IN PLACE.
- Copy that WHOLE URL and paste into a browser window to test it. You should see the native SP form come up and if you hit Cancel, you should be taken to your Thank You page. If it doesn't work as expected. Start over. You probably either didn't copy and/or paste something correctly.
- If it works as desired, then paste that link wherever you want people to use it.
This screenshot shows what to do. Do NOT mess with the red parts. Replace ONLY the yellow part with your new destination URL.
As mentioned, native Microsoft Lists forms won't work for this scenario. Your best options are:
- keep the list shared and modify the default form and configure form layout with JSON
- use Microsoft Forms + Power Automate to save data to SharePoint
- use external tools like Plumsail Forms to create a web from for external users.
The behavior is expected: Microsoft Lists form links are intended for people inside the Microsoft 365 organization. Giving a guest Contribute access to the SharePoint list does not change that audience check, so no additional list, site, or sharing permission will make the dedicated form link work externally.
Your test confirms the SharePoint permissions are correct, because the guests can open the list and create items with + New. If Microsoft Forms is excluded, send guests to the SharePoint list’s New item experience instead. Keep the list shared with the required guests and use Contribute, or a custom permission level that includes Add Items, to match their required access.
Test the link with a separate guest after the invitation has been accepted. If the dedicated intake layout is mandatory, you will need a different front end that explicitly supports external respondents; the Microsoft Lists form settings cannot enable this.
