Guest User unable to access Team -- gets free account instead.

[Gary Allman]

We have been receiving complaints that Guests cannot access files etc (Yes the Group settings are set to allow it). Today I tried to test the problem by accessing Teams using an external email address I invited as a Guest to one of our Teams. After two hours of trying I couldn't get it to work ...

I took the link to the Team sent as an invitation to join to a new browser (I installed a different browser just for this test). I Opted for the Browser version of Teams (as I already have the Teams App installed and tied to our organization's Teams).

1. The system wanted me to sign in with an MS account, but didn't offer anyway to create an account if you didn't have one. Major UI issue. I didn't have an account for that email address so I had to work out how to create one, and then try again.
2. Account created, I followed the Teams Guest Invitation link again, and the system insisted I sign up for a free Teams account -- which I did using the same (new) MS account login.
3. Now I have a 'Free' Teams account and my own free Teams site, but still no access to the Team within our organization which is what I was trying to test.

To be clear every time I follow the link in the Teams Guest Invitation I get routed through to the Free Teams account I was forced to create, and didn't want in the first place.

I'm stunned that our Guests users (who are generally inexperienced IT users have been able to access the system at all). This is a support/ User Interface nightmare. 

[#2]

Agree, the system needs an overhaul. I've had so many issues with large amounts of guests. 90% of the time the issue is when someone clicks invite links they are already signed into some form of work or Microsoft account in their browser cache and that account ends up being tied to the invite on the back end.

What I would do is have the account removed from the Team and then try inviting again. If you have a Microsoft Account ahead of time, it will show up in the tenant switcher in the top right corner of your Teams window when logging into Teams, but you sign out and back in to force it.

Give that a try. If that doesn't work you might have to delete the guest account from the Tenant azure AD, so it can send out and match your microsoft ID again.

[#3]

Thank for the quick response. Sounds like an excellent suggestion. I'll give it a try ... next week though. I've already spent more time on this today than I should have.

[#4]

Also, you could look more deeply in AzureAD for guest account and you can use PowerShell to check the state of a guest user :

could you tell us what you have in you side ? 

[#5]

1. The system wanted me to sign in with an MS account, but didn't offer anyway to create an account if you didn't have one. Major UI issue. I didn't have an account for that email address so I had to work out how to create one, and then try again.

Could I ask a question? We're in the process of doing some pilots and I was confused how this worked for you - in our testing it seemed to work differently.

When I invite a guest and they get the email, it asks them to log in, and they use the invite email name and the password attached to their email account - they don't have to enter any special MS account....  doesn't it work that way for you?

I've tested it with someone who has never been in Teams, and someone who already has used it before and it works the same way. But this isn't the first time I've been confused by Teams....

Again, just a curiosity question so I can update my training materials.

[#6]

Both ways asks for a login, the e-mail template is always the same. Just sometimes it's easier if you have and use the same e-mail and login already on your machine it's usually cached so it goes right in. The issue usually happens most when you have either a user that has a work account with the same e-mail as a Microsoft account, or they get invited to a different address then what they are logged in with already, and that can be problematic sometimes.

As for the UI. Last I checked, you enter your e-mail, then right after you click next it offers to create one, or it was on the first box, it's been awhile but I know it was def. there on the first box, or right after you input one. (It's a small link and hard to notice... probably should be larger)