Cannot add external users to sharepoint site group

[Chris Gray]

I need help

I am trying to share a site using option below

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/sharepoint/turn-external-sharing-on-or-off

Allow sharing only with the external users that already exist in your organization's directory

Allow sharing only for external users who are already in your directory. These users may exist in your directory because they previously accepted sharing invitations or because they were manually imported, such as through Azure B2B collaboration. (You can tell an external user because they have #EXT# in their user name.)

I created the user (GUESTA) in Azure and they accepted the invite to join the org as a guest 

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/active-directory/b2b/what-is-b2b

PROBLEM 1 : GUESTA cannot be found in sharepoint when trying to add them to the site visitors group. (see attached)

WORKAROUND : If I send the site URL to GUESTA via email they can "request access" to the site at which point they do show up for that site only.

PROBLEM 2 : even after the workaround GUESTA is cannot be found for any other site, only the single site.

ANSWER NEEDED : how can I make GUESTA show up and be selectable for all sites?

[#2 · Accepted solution]

When you are adding GUESTA to the SP group - if you enter their email address, and then press Ctrl+k (to check name) - does it then resolve them?

How long had it been between adding the user in Azure, and trying to add them to SP?

[#3]

Basically you need to wait until the new users added are propaggated to SPO

[#4]

Interesting ... so 24 hours(ish) later I have made another discovery

GUESTA is now available in the "invite people" lookup 

BUT

still cannot be found when trying to add them to a sharepoint group directly

the plot thickens

[#5]

So it does work, but you have to ensure that the email address resolves .... you cant find the user any other way

[#6]

@Chris Gray I am having exactly the same issue and need to add bulk users to the SharePoint group. The users have been setup in Azure for 48 hours, show up in O365 as external users but cannot be added to the SharePoint Group without inviting them again through SharePoint which will send another email with the URL. This problem is intermittent because you can then create a new guest in Azure and then they show up in Invited people as you start to type their name.

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@Chris Gray wrote:

So it does work, but you have to ensure that the email address resolves .... you cant find the user any other way

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[#7]

@Chris_Horsted 

I am facing the same issue programmatically after an external user is added in Azure AD, I get an error "User can not be found" when adding the same user in "Site Visitors" group.

Am I missing anything or it's a known issue?

Thank you in advance!

Note: I am able to add the same user manually, but not programmatically.

Best Regards,

[#8]

@Dipti Chhatrapati Were you able to find any resolution to this? We are experiencing a similar issue. Cheers.

[#9]

@Dipti Chhatrapati 

did you get it resolved. I am having the same issue. I am able to add users manually, but programmatically its failing.

Regards,

Kumudha.D