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Dan Cleworth's avatar
Dan Cleworth
Copper Contributor
Aug 26, 2017

"Follow" missing from sites for External Users #EXT#

Hi,

I am trying to work out why the follow icon is missing for external users of the SharePoint site I have created.

 

Scenario:  New SharePoint site for use of users within the tenancy and for users external to the tenancy.

The external users have received their invites, followed the process to accept the invite and now appear in the tenancy as useraccount#EXT#@yourdomain.onmicrosoft.com.  I have also provided these external accounts with Office 365 licenses.

 

They can successfully access the SharePoint site however they do not see the follow icon for sites or documents.  The external user group from what I can establish have the same contribute rights as the internal user member group.

 

Any advice on how to enable follow for the external users would be appreciated.

Kind regards

Dan

 

 

 

onedrive
SharePoint Online

8 Replies

  • Jeff Parker's avatar
    Jeff Parker
    Brass Contributor
    Jul 03, 2021
    I know this is an old post, but does anyone have a solution please? I'm keen to allow Guests to be able to Follow a SharePoint site in my tenant.
  • JennyP1815's avatar
    JennyP1815
    Copper Contributor
    May 31, 2019

    I am having the same issue the icon "star" not coming up to follow site ... internal users (owners) of the site and myself owner and creator of the site

      • AndreasRa's avatar
        AndreasRa
        Copper Contributor
        Oct 18, 2019

        Trevor Seward 

         

        Thanks for that information. I was wondering why the follow feature was not available.

        But I also thought that there is a connection between licenses and "Follow me" button. Not nice but understandable.

         

        Another question. The OneDrive sync of SPO libraries is working across organizations. How can I open the SharePoint Online libraries as guest user on my smartphone / Tablet? If I can't follow them it isn't shown in the "Following sites" in OneDrive. If I search for the name of the library there are no results.

        Is there any way to get access to it or only with an additional license? 

  • Deleted's avatar
    Deleted
    Aug 27, 2017

    I guess the user is not having a emailadres in your domain that is why there is no follow button. And the adres you show is just a login not a emailadres.

    • Dan Cleworth's avatar
      Dan Cleworth
      Copper Contributor
      Aug 28, 2017

      Hi,

      Paul thanks for the response, I came to a similar conclusion. However, I assumed that as I could allocate the external log on account an Office 365 licence that somehow a OneDrive area and email would be created for that account.  Then from that point, they would be able to follow documents and sites. 

      I am back to square one where I need an external group of users, who exist in their own tenancy to have access to a secondary collaborative SharePoint site in a new tenancy.  

      I started with the user-initiated guest invitation model (https://support.office.com/en-gb/article/Planning-SharePoint-Online-business-to-business-B2B-extranet-sites-d29c9b70-5fdb-4fa0-84a8-6bd03b7517d8), but following the links within the document and further searches does not provide me with a definitive answer of what external users will and won't be able to do. 

      Hopefully, I will receive another response or link to an article that points me in the right direction.

      Kind regards

      Dan

       

      • Praj_123's avatar
        Praj_123
        Copper Contributor
        May 02, 2018

        HI 

        I am facing same issue. Cant see Follow button for external users. Have you found any workaround for this?

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