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 ;)
Have spent EONS trying to figure this out and its now 2022 and still external users cannot use the Desktop App when we give editing access for folders and documents. Its crazy to me, such a glaring hole that has been mentioned way back to 2018 based on my research.
Stephen Rice any news on this being addressed?
We are a rapidly growing organisation and do a LOT of collaboration on documents with clients and right now, have to revert to passing documents via email back and forth as users always want to edit in desktop app. This is cumbersome and nuts to have to do in this day and age.
Please please PLEASE???
Hi Scampi ,
I think you can ask external users to try the following steps.
1. Open a blank office file in their desktop app.
2. Click their name in the right top corner then select "Sign in with a different account".
3. Let them sign in with their external user name provided.
4. After signing in, try opening shared documents using Open with Desktop App option.
Once they sign-in in the desktop app, they can open any shared office documents using desktop app unless they manually logout the account from the desktop app.
I hope this helps.
