Forum Discussion
SharePoint Sharing not working for external users
I have tried searching around for this problem but have not been able to find anything. Recently (within the last month or so) both our internal and external users have been unable to send links to external users. We are running SharePoint online with a mix of modern/classic pages.
The error we receive is "The recipient you entered doesn't have permission to access the item." The link works when it is manually selected from copy link and emailed but users have been unable to share from within documents or document libraries.
Below is an example of a file that this external test user uploaded and the error when attempts to share it with himself:
Settings for tenant:
Settings for site:
Any help or suggestions would be appreciated.
- StephenRice
Microsoft
Hi Rob917,
In your screenshot, it looks like you are sharing with a link that only works for people who already have access. If you are sharing with an external user who hasn't been shared to before, that would result in the error you are seeing. If you change the link type to "specific people", does the issue go away? Thanks!
Stephen Rice
Senior Program Manager, OneDrive
Thanks for the reply Stephen, this external user (Johnny Sales) was the original uploader of the document in a document library where he has edit permissions granted previously. The screenshot shows him trying to share the file he uploaded to himself. I don't believe this is ideal. The issue does go away with specific people but is not ideal. What would be best practice to segregate different external groups/clients from accessing each others files?
- StephenRice
Thanks for the context! When you say he's sharing with himself, do you mean that he is entering the e-mail address that he is currently signed in with to the document? That seems odd (and also implies that he does have access which means he shouldn't be getting that error).
Best practice for that type of scenario is usually to set up different site collections for each client/group of clients.
Hope that helps!
Stephen RiceSenior Program Manager, OneDrive
Rob917 Seems, the user who is trying to share the files/folders does not have sufficient rights(missing the "manage permissions" in site permission levels) will lead to this issue as well.
