Forum Discussion
Sharing a document library with external users
That would be because of the way groups work in SharePoint. No matter where you create a group they are attached to the site collection. So when the invitation is sent its sent for the root context of the group. But the only permission the user will have in that site is Limited Access. So all they will be able to do is access the site and see the document that they do have permission to access. They still only have permission to the document. The only way to create an invitation to just the document is to share the document with the user individually. The user will still get limited access to the site, but the invitation will be in the context of the document.
Nicholas Byng-Maddick Thanks! I have tried that but when I do the invite the user gets is for the main Teamsite (not the document library) and they get an error when trying to access, since the access is not for the teamsite.
Any ideas?
That would be because of the way groups work in SharePoint. No matter where you create a group they are attached to the site collection. So when the invitation is sent its sent for the root context of the group. But the only permission the user will have in that site is Limited Access. So all they will be able to do is access the site and see the document that they do have permission to access. They still only have permission to the document. The only way to create an invitation to just the document is to share the document with the user individually. The user will still get limited access to the site, but the invitation will be in the context of the document.
Paul Stork just thinking that then in the inital invite which directs users to the main site collection, I just need to give a link to the specific library they have access to?
Paul Stork thanks!
So in my scenario when I need to give access to an external user to a specific document library is to share a document within that library and then once the user has accepted the invitation I can add that user to the specific security group?
Cheers
Yes, if you want to add the user while creating the group. But if you create the group first then remember when you share the document with the user you can pick the group from the drop down when assigning the permissions while issuing the share invitation. But that is a two step process that you said you wanted to avoid.
Hi,
if your security group has no site permissions (which you have indicated as you're just using it for the document library), then you will need to go to Site Settings -> People and groups and select your group from there. Once selected click New and enter the external user email address, optional message and click Share.
- Hi Terry, The security group has read-only permissions. i.e. when I i grant the group access to the library i assign read-only permissions to that group.
