Sharing through team alias does not work (despite confirmation)

[Mathias Hofmann]

Hi,

when I want to share a file or directory from within a group document library through the team alias using the “share/send link” function I get a confirmation that the link was sent. However the link was never sent.

Example: I’m in the document library from my group called DESIGNERS and want to share the directory PIX with the DESIGNERS team. I use the option “Share” from the context menu of the directory PIX. I enter the team alias (designers@...)  a short message and press the send button. I get confirmation that link was sent but it wasn’t.

Is this a known issue? Any workaround available?

Thanks a lot!

[#2]

A folder in a Group doclib is already accessible by all the members of the Group.

Not sure to understand what you want to obtain...

Can you please elaborate a bit?

[#3]

Yes, you are right Salvatore, but one might want to tell the group that there are new files in a specific folder and just use the sharing option to quickly send the link to the group. If this doesn't make sense  fine - but Office 365 Groups allows to do this by sending and confirming that the message is sent to the team. It does work for individual team members, so why not for the team alias? People will just try to do it this way. In my opinion this option should at least be blocked (sharing files with people that already have access) or it should work, but it should not make people believe that it works when it doesn't.

[#4]

IMHO, it is indeed a quite peculiar use of the sharing feature...

@Stephen Rice can surely explain to us what is going on.

[#5]

Have you by chance reviewed if the e-mail has sent? You can check it in the Sent Folder of your Inbox

[#6]

When it was sent to individual team members it is in the sent box. It is not in the sent box when it was sent to the team alias. But both scenarios show confirmation that the link message was sent.

[#7]

Hi all,

Nothing inherently wrong with using a sharing link as a pointer to the document. The link that works for "people with existing access" will do the same thing but not grant any additional permission.

Now, the actual issue is that the mail isn't getting sent, which isn't great. In your normal e-mail mailbox, are you able to send mail to that group? Thanks!

Stephen Rice

OneDrive Program Manager II

[#8]

Hi Stephen,

thanks for your understanding an for taking this seriously. I know that people are using both ways (share and copy link) to point to files and folders - so someone should look into this.

Yes, I can successfully send to the group from within the Outlook Online link as well as from Outlook Desktop. But the way most people use the sharing feature is through the process described above. My tenant was able to reproduce this behaviour (link confirmed to be sent but not sent). As already mentioned, it works with individual member accounts of a group but not when using the group alias. 

 Thanks again!  Mathias

[#9]

I have just tested this and something is definitively wrong with the sharing experience when sharing a file with a Group. Here are my findings:

(1) If I share a Group file with the Group itself, there is not a sharing e-mail sent to the Group

(2) If I share a Group file with another file, the sharing e-mail is sent and received in the Group with no problem

So it seems (1) is currently an scenario not covered with the sharing feature....adding also @Christophe Fiessinger

[#10]

I was curious to see what happens if I share a file in my ODfB with myself... Well, it works (meaning that the email is regularly sent).

So, while I continue to think that sharing a file with a Group by one of its members is a rather odd technique to send to the other members a link to that file, it should definitely work.

@Stephen Rice: IMHO, we have a bug here...

[#11]

Yep, definitely sounds like there is something odd going on.

Can you try something for me? In Outlook, can you go directly to the Group's inbox and see if the message showed up there? I tried testing internally and wasn't able to repro (the mails were sent and didn't show up in MY inbox but did show up in the GROUP's inbox).

Thanks,

Stephen Rice

OneDrive Program Manager II

[#12]

I can confirm that the message to the group alias ist not showing in the group's inbox, nor was it sent to the group members.

Thanks! Mathias

[#13]

Hi @Mathias Hofmann,

Since I can't repro this on my end, can you get a Fiddler trace of the sharing action to the group and send it to me via private message? Thanks!

Stephen Rice

OneDrive Program Manager II