Forum Discussion
External users can't open documents in desktop application
Hi all,
This behavior is expected (external users not getting the "Open in Office" option) whenever the external user is authenticating via the new one time passcode (OTP) method. You can see a better overview here: Documentation
There are two states an external user can be in today: If they are authenticating via OTP, then they do not have a real AAD account and thus cannot open in clients. This occurs when you share a file or folder with an external user who is not in your directory (i.e. they have never been shared to before).
Inviting a user to a site or a group or using the Azure B2B platform will create an account in AAD for the guest user. These users must have an MSA or AAD account to sign-in with to accept the invitation. They can use Office apps.
This is definitely something we're looking to improve and I definitely suggest you check out the "What's new in External Sharing & Collaboration with OneDrive & SharePoint" talk at Ignite next week ;)
MicrosoftHi Oz Oscroft,
Where do we set them up as a Guest (directly in the M365 Admin Center; directly in Azure AD; by adding them to a Group; something else ...)?
All of these would work though I would recommend doing it directly in M365 Admin or in Azure AD. Both flows will guarantee that the user will be added to your directory (and also won't give them access to any content)
How do we then give them access to just the specific files / folders we want them to access, ensuring they don't get access to anything else within the Team / Group (Share icon; Grant access; other ...)
You can then select the specific files & folders and either use the Specific People sharing link or Grant Access (in the details pane).
Hope that helps!
Stephen Rice
Senior Program Manager, OneDrive
Thanks StephenRice , really helpful. For info., the option to add Guest users in the M365 Admin Center seems to have disappeared - it was certainly there a couple of months ago. I'll test this out over the coming days and let you know how it goes.
