Multiple account and tenant support for Microsoft Teams

[Roberto Franco]

Please add a way to add multiple accounts from different tenants to Teams apps, both mobile and PC.
Slack has this feature and it is crucial for consultants working with different companies.
Please se vote the idea here:
https://microsoftteams.uservoice.com/forums/555103-public-preview/suggestions/16925362-sign-in-to-cl...


Thank you,
Roberto

[#2]

Please vote on this on the feedback link as Roberto suggests. That said, suffice to say that this is a commonly requested feature and is something we are actively pursuing. We agree with you!

[#3]

Hi Roberto - great scenario, and thanks so much for posting a feedback suggestion. I would consider this a form of guest access - you want to be able to have your primary account and associated teams, but also be able to join teams hosted in another tenant, like a customer or partner.

[#4]

Hi Dan,
I don't know if I would call it a "guest access" scenario. I currently have legitimate office365 licenses in several tenants of my clients, with full email address @clientcompany.com

In Slack, for instance, I have accounts in different companies, like:
- company1.slack.com
- company2.slack.com
- ...

And I can add all these different accounts to my iOS and PC slack app.

Thank you

[#5]

I wouldn't call this a guest account or partner... many people in the Slack world work across several scenarios:

1. You own or take part in multiple businesses (I own two + my day job)
2. You are opted into some channels in Slack as you operate as a vendor

Scenario #1 is critical to my business; I cannot log in/out for the two efforts I have underway.

[#6]

Would the Azure B2B collaboration work for this?  

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/active-directory/active-directory-b2b-collaboration-overview

I do agree though, the easiest would be to just allow the user to login to mulitple accounts at one time (similar to Slack).  I actually have the reverse problem.  I'm the client and have a couple consulting partners I want to include in a team but it's difficult for them as they have their own O365 teams setup plus other clients to connect with, etc.

I tried to click the link to vote but it doesn't seem to be functioning.

[#7]

I want to vote for this feature but the link in the OP is giving me a page not found. Anyone else having the same problem?

[#8]

The correct link to the UserVoice item is:

https://microsoftteams.uservoice.com/forums/555103-public-preview/suggestions/16925362-sign-in-to-cl...

[#9]

this is become a major issue accross microsoft products.  They either dont support multi-account/tenant or it is a major pain.

[#10]

I believe the user voice link doesn't address the originally stated issue, which is that a user from one tenant can't join another tenant's team. For example, assuming both a project consultant and the customer are on a business plan, the consultant can't create a team for the project and invite the customer to join it.

[#11]

I got this working now in my Windows10 desktop app. However, the mobile apps still lack the option to switch tenant...

[#12]

You got this to work on the desktop client?

[#13]

Come on MS. we need this so bad

[#14]

How exactly did you do it?

[#15]

Not fair, Dennis :)

You need to at least point us in the right direction to do the same :)

John

[#16]

Here is a nice explainer: 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BD1AIJbgJiU&t=343s

[#17]

This continues to an issue. With security updates and lockdowns it has become an acute problem. I have two accounts, one for the company I work for and one for a professional association in which I volunteer. I currently have to log-out and then re-login (i.e. only one account can be active at a time) several times a day.

[#18]

Companies consider it a security risk to allow members outside the company domain.

[#19]

I am part of 3 "Teams"/Different companies in which I own.  I have now reverted 1 company away from Teams and back to Trello/mobile messaging, access 1 company Team page via Chrome, and the main company via Desktop and phone app.  I wish we were never advised to use Teams...pushing to move all companies back to Trello for seamless multiple account access.  Can someone at Microsoft please advise if this feature will ever exist?  If not, back to Google and Trello options as they are MUCH easier to implement for multiple companies.

[#20]

This thread seems to be addressing two different problems. The one that I'm interested in seeing resolved is the ability to have two instances of Teams open at the same time. I'm a consultant and use Teams both for my client and for my own organization. Like others on this thread, I have to log in and out several times a day in order to traverse organizations. It would be ideal if the two accounts could be in a single UI (like having multiple email accounts within Exchange), but I'd be ok if I literally had to instantiate two instances of Teams. Just do something so I don't have to log in and out and in and out. Becomes even more painful when all these orgs use multifactor auth!

[#21]

A good articulation of the problem and possible solutions by Lisa.   Slack has solved this problem with multiple accounts in the single UI.    I can't think of a MS product that does this yet,   but Teams would be a great place to start.   I have six office 365 accounts and receive teams messages from all of them.  I live my life logging in and out of office 365 accounts :(  

I would have thought the federation option (like skype4business) would be a pathway forward (although can't get this working on teams yet).        

Looking forward to a solution. 

[#22]

Actually the OneDrive app support multiple accounts and does it with ease. Same way teams should be able to do the same. The Outlook mobile app also work great with multiple accounts.

[#23]

We definitely need this. For my situation I was able to get around this by using the web browser in Incognito for one company and use the desktop client for the other. 

[#24]

Do we know when this feature will be available in Teams? It give us headaches too that it is not possible to use Teams with multiple accounts. :)

[#25]

We don’t know yet :(

[#26]

Great scenario! This is actually a requirement for us to be able leave Slack for using Teams instead.

[#27]

Let the company have a settings on the company domain level that user is allowed to sign in with only one organization. And if user is setting up teams on different machine other than Org domain, then let them connect to as many orgs as they need. 

[#28]

Many MVPs who need to access Office 365 for multiple customers now use Chrome's ability to have multiple identities, use the Manage People link under the person icon at the top right. Then you can easily switch between multiple tenants for the full suite of browser apps including Teams.

It's not ideal, really you would want one activity feed and source of notifications, but it's probably the best option for now. 

[#29]

I vote this approach as well, since I use it a lot. You can also join channel meetings (no video) if needed. This is also a good practice, since you get access to other available tenant resources from the same identity.
Switching tenants and identities is a lot easier in mobile app, which is good since on mobile you can access only single tenant at one time.

[#30]

One workaround is to use Google Chrome's Profile feature to manage multiple identities. You can create as many as you want and create a desktop icon for each profile. It can store credentials so you get single sign on experience with different users for the same or different tenants. More explanation here: https://blog.hyperfish.com/handling-multiple-office-365-identities-with-google-chrome-profile

[#31]

Totally agree with this. I am a consultant who always has this issue.

[#32]

Great to see a new update on UserVoice! 

[#33]

I was a consultant with access to 4 tenants so can massively relate to this. Was just checking back here to see if there has been any change since I wrote this blog in November: https://dispatch.m.io/switching-microsoft-teams-tenants/

[#34]

This is a huge issue for me switching between tenants. I try to work around it by signing off and back on, but that takes a good 30 minutes of changing Settings to not auto-sign in, signing out, having Teams auto-sign me in (yes, even though I just turned that off). Going into Settings, changing them yet again, and repeat until finally Teams prompts for a different account. 

Seriously, I lose 1-2 hours every single day on this. I can't even use the web-version of teams because the only thing that can be shared in a meeting are PPT files, so screen sharing meetings are not even an option!

[#35]

This may be a potential solution

[#36]

Unfortunately this still doesn't solve the Teams App issue. Using multiple chrome instances for Teams is one thing, but the web interface is missing many things that the desktop app has. 

[#37]

Yes, Chrome is missing some things desktop has but for me it is still way better way than to switch to different tenants in a app. It a browser is not a perfect solution - but a solution that meets even 70% of things - I rather use it than choose not to use Teams.

Some people use Franz to access multiple tenants as well. That app too has it's limitations, very much like with a browser, but apart from meetings you ought to get chat & conversations working. 

https://www.sharepointeurope.com/how-to-connect-to-multiple-tenants-in-microsoft-teams/

[#38]

This is a make-or-break feature.

[#39]

For me this is MUST have. Fo now I use multiple web Teams in seperated Chrome profiles, this solution is working for all O365 applications available by WWW.

[#40]

Good then they are cooking something up!

[#41]

totally ridiculous. this thread is 2 years old and still not sorted. this should have been a

 base feature . 

[#42]

I would say this is a must have for us who joins several domains/account and other projects. Slack will always win as long as I can’t follow several accounts in parallel.

[#43]

Hook us up already, teams dev team!!!

Still needed for working with partnerships across separate organizations!

-m

[#44]

External Guest access setup as a workaround to missing multiple tennent logon functionality.  

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BD1AIJbgJiU&t=343s

[#45]

This does not resolve the issue. We need to be able to connect to a tenant via that tenant's domain, not as a different one. Guest access does not provide the same experience as full-tenant access (using VSO, SharePoint perms, etc).

[#46]

agree

[#47]

@Roberto Franco 

SOLUTION:

1) "Win + I" => Accounts => Other Users => Add someone else to this PC (for example, user without Microsoft account named MSTeams, not Administrator) 
2) "Ctrl + Alt + Del" => Switch user 
3) Login to second MSTeams user 
4) Download and install MSTeams 
5) Login to the MSTeams using an account with less activity and close application 
6) Ctrl + Alt + Del => Switch user 
7) Return to your main account 
8) Go to C:\WINDOWS\system32\ and find cmd.exe 
9) Click "Shift + Right Mouse" and chose "Run as different use" (find in google how to add it if you dont have this option) 
10) Login with MSTeams user 
11) Write following command in the console 
12) C:\Users\MSTeams\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Teams\Update.exe --processStart "Teams.exe"

To run MSTeams again repeat following steps 
8) Go to C:\WINDOWS\system32\ and find cmd.exe 
9) Click "Shift + Right Mouse" and chose "Run as different user" (find in google how to add it if you dont have this option) 
10) Login with MSTeams user 
11) Write following command in the console 
12) C:\Users\MSTeams\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Teams\Update.exe --processStart "Teams.exe"

This steps can be optimized by PowerShell script: 
#run as admin 
if (!([Security.Principal.WindowsPrincipal][Security.Principal.WindowsIdentity]::GetCurrent()).IsInRole([Security.Principal.WindowsBuiltInRole] "Administrator")) { Start-Process powershell.exe "-NoProfile -ExecutionPolicy Bypass -File `"$PSCommandPath`"" -Verb RunAs; exit }

$username = '.\MSTeams' 
$password = 'YOUR_PASSWORD_OF_THE_MSTEAMS_USER.'

$securePassword = ConvertTo-SecureString $password -AsPlainText -Force 
$credential = New-Object System.Management.Automation.PSCredential $username, $securePassword 
Start-Process 'C:\Users\MSTeams\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Teams\Update.exe' '--processStart "Teams.exe"' -Credential $credential

Also, you can add this script to the windows scheduler with log in to account trigger with admin permission

[#48]

Solution conversation:

https://techcommunity.microsoft.com/t5/Microsoft-Teams/SOLUTION-Microsoft-Teams-multiple-accounts-se...

Regards,

Ivan

[#49]

@ivan6932 

This doesn't work for me. The following problem occurs to me:

1. I log into windows using account A (Office 365 tenant A)

2. I log into MSTeams using account B (Office 365 tenant B)

I get into Teams for Tenant B fine. But now I try to go, as a guest user, in MS Teams to Tenant C.

Then the problem starts. MS Teams always reverts to account A to try to get into Tenant C. This is not what I want. I want account B to get to Tenant C, as a guest.

The 'switching user' screen takes about 30 seconds, then finally I always get the error that account A doesn't have access to Tenant C. And that I know. I'm trying to get account B to log into Tenant C.

When I use your above solution step 12 doesn't do anything. I can the hourglass for a second and then... nothing.

[#50]

@Roberto Franco 

I agree with having this feature. The use case for logging into multiple accounts is not satisfied if users can't log into multiple teams accounts / O365 accounts. 

Slack was developed to allow people to join communities, so it was always by design to allow people to collaborate across organizational boundaries and therefore authenticate with multiple accounts. Teams is obviously designed as an enterprise/corporate collaboration client. If the strategy around Teams is limited to organizational boundaries, then it's success will be limited as it doesn't satisfy the use cases that are being embraced by startups, independent consultants, open source projects, etc.