External users having issues with organizational and microsoft accounts

[Michael Baird]

Within the last month we have started to notice more and more external users having issues accepting sharing invites sent from SharePoint online.

I believe this has to do with recent changes to the creation of Microsoft accounts.  In this current example, we have invited an external user who tries to create a microsoft account, but are told they cannot create a new account with a company email address - this would typically indicate the external user's company is using Office 365 / AAD, and we could instruct them to sign in with the organizational account option.  However when they attempt to log in with with the Org account option, they are told the account doesn't exist. See attachments for.

I'm stuck.  Any thoughts on why the system believes they have an Org account, but are unable to log in with it?

[#2]

FYI, create a Live ID using an organizational e-mail is not allowed anymore. Microsoft disabled this some months ago...I don't recall the port where they said that, but that's what is happening

[#3]

Yeah @Juan Carlos González Martín you are right but they changed this to use Azure B2B and thought you do no longer need a ms account 

[#4]

Where is this documented? I'm aware of B2B that I see as an option but not as a must and if Microsoft has decided to discontinue this simple way of sharing is just a mistake in my opinion...not every company is going to use Azure B2B...and what about sharing in ODFB...do I have to have Azure B2B to be able to share with external users? Don't think so ;-)...just my two cents

[#5]

Hi @Juan Carlos González Martín.

If I understand well, you are saying that it is not possible anymore to create an MSA using an email address in a domain that is already in Office365. Am I correct?

Can someone point to an official statement by Microsoft about that?

[#6]

Yeap, that's what I'm saying and for your reference:
- https://mspoweruser.com/microsoft-finally-blocking-users-creating-microsoft-account-work-email-addre...
- https://blogs.technet.microsoft.com/enterprisemobility/2016/09/15/cleaning-up-the-azure-ad-and-micro...

[#7]

it is still possible but prefered to use B2b if possible. as far as i know it is not necessary to create a live account anymore.. but not 100% sure

[#8]

That's why I always ask for an official reference to questions like this ;-)...imagine small companies in Office 365, you cannot ask / force them to use B2B for external sharing :)

[#9]

Thank you very much @Juan Carlos González Martín !

Precious post, as usual!

[#10]

:) My pleasure Salvatore!

[#11]

@Deleted

Consumer email addresses (such as outlook.com or gmail.com) are not supported by B2B. Hence an external user with a consumer email address must sign in with an MSA.

[#12]

@Salvatore Biscari @Juan Carlos González Martín thanks for explaining and adding the direct links :)

[#13]

I understand Live IDs with Org accounts are no longer supported when the org account is associated with an AAD account.

However the issue with a few users is that they are unable to create a Live ID account AND they are getting an error that their Organizational account doesn't exist.

Leaving them with no way to accept a sharepoint invite or log in with their business account.

[#14]

I'm still not sure of all the details around this but it appears that this change is having consequences and forces people to register with a non work account. I think this is how it manifests itself...

An invite was sent to an individuals work account xx@yy.com, but their organisation is O365 enabled and the individual has not been assigned O365 licence. Our set up is such that the invited user has to use the invited email address, so we know what organisation they belong to. However because they aren't on O365 user & they are now unable to create an account with work email ID we are now stuck in limbo.

Is this expected behaviour or unintended consequence or we have missed some configuration setting somewhere ?

Only solution I have at the moment is to get user created within AD or to invite under personal email account. Neither of which we want

Anyone else experiencing this ?

[#15]

Also another scenerio I just encountered this week - working with adding users from a company who doesn't use Office 365 but does use Azure AD - but only for migrating their users between companies.  So the user we were inviting couldn't create an MSA with their work account and couldn't accept an invite with their Org account, because the email address associated with the user is not the same as their AAD entry.