External people can't open files with Sensitivity Label encryption.
Question: What are the best practices for ensuring external users can open files encrypted with Sensitivity Labels? Hi all. I've been investigating proper setup of sensitivity labels in Purview, and the impact on user experience. The prerequisites are simple enough, creating and configuring the labels reasonably straightforward, and publishing them is a breeze. But using them appears to be a different matter! Everything is fine for labels that don't apply encryption (control access) or when used internally. However, the problems come when labels do apply encryption and information is sent externally. The result is that we apply a label to a document, attach that document to an email, and send it externally - and the recipient says they can't open it and they get an error that their email address is not in our directory. This is because due to the encryption, the external user needs to authenticate back to our tenant, and if they're not in our tenant they obviously can't do this so the files won't open. So, back to the question above. What's the easiest / most secure / best way to add any user we might share encrypted content with to our tenant. As I see it we have the following options: Users have to request Admins add the user as a Guest in our tenant before they send the content. Let's face it, they'll not do this and/or get frustrated. Users share encrypted content directly from SharePoint / OneDrive, rather than attaching it to emails (as that would automatically add the external person as a Guest in the tenant). This will be fine in some circumstances, but won't always be appropriate (when you want to send them a point-in-time version of a doc). With good SharePoint setup, site Owners would also have to approve the share before it gets sent which could delay things. Admins add all possible domains that encrypted content might be shared with to Entra B2B Direct Connect (so the external recipient doesn't have to be our tenant). This may not be practical as you often don't know who you'll need to share with and we work with hundreds of organisations. The bigger gotcha is that the external organisation would also have to configure Entra B2B Direct Connect. Admins default Entra B2B Direct Connect to 'Allow All'. This opens up a significant attack surface and also still requires any external organisation to configure Entra B2B Direct Connect as well. I really want to make this work, but it need to be as simple as possible for the end users sharing sensitive or confidential content. And all of the above options seem to have significant down-sides. I'm really hoping someone who uses Sensitivity Labels on a day-to-day basis can provide some help or advice to share their experiences. Thanks, Oz.
Dibbling Microsoft AutoUpdate - macOS
I have a customer with a Mac mini M4 with multiple user accounts. Each user has an access to Office 365 apps, Outlook, Excel and Word. The issue I am having is with Microsoft AutoUpdate. I have turned off "Automatically keep Microsoft apps up to date" on all of the users. This has not stopped update application from opening and showing on each of the users there are updates available. If one of the users tries to run the update while an application is open by another user, it cause all kinds of problems. My questions is, "Is there another way to prevent AutoUpdate from indicating there are updates available? Thanks Len Levin BSC
Security verification for 365 business account
I've tried everything to get a business account, different browsers, clearing cache, incognito mode, using different phone numbers etc - but it keeps failing at the last step (security verification) when entering my phone. number. It says "Something is wrong with that phone number. Try a different one." No matter what I do, it doesn't go past that. I've tried contacting Microsoft support for 2 weeks - I never get to an agent and then it disconnects me. This is my last attempt. I am based in South Africa, recently bought my business domain and I just want to set up a business account for 1-4 people.
Microsoft 365 Subscriptions
In fourth quarter of 2024, I decided to upgrade my machine and tried out a web only version (freeware) of Microsoft 365. After some time, I found out that I was not getting the qualities I needed for documentation to be presentable as Microsoft Word and Excel were not usable for print formats. I decided to buy a Microsoft 365 Business subscription (bought through my domain provider) which allowed me to use my email address attached to me and my website domain. This allowed me to also download desktop copies of Word and Excel. However, I ran into problems with old accounts colliding with my new ones..., for example, Skype for Business, Microsoft Store, and Microsoft Live would constantly appear in my installation admins. If I attempted to install them, the installation would fail and get stuck i.e, I could not remove them. Microsoft message pop-ups would state, "You cannot install this on a 'work' account." I thought to myself, "Okay, I installed my Windows OS as a "Work Account on my new machine." This made sense, because I could go to my browser on my new machine and I could go to my old laptop that had absolutely no Microsoft 365 on it and access my Office from my browser profile. My old laptop is the only machine that accepts the Windows Live email address i.e., it acts as a Windows Live access service via the 'free' outlook account to which it is attached. However, now that all these items are separated by Work or Home classification, I keep getting messages that state, "We cannot renew your Microsoft 365 account." But my Work account should not be attached to Microsoft Live accounts...should it? After all, it uses Entra ID for access and the subscription is bought through my domain vendor. Why is Microsoft Support sending me these emails? My original setup accessed Microsoft Live accounts via the web through my old laptop using my free Outlook email and looked something like the graphic below:Sharepoint Sync-On-Demand & Application.Path
A few years back I traced some weird VBA Macro code behavior in Excel back to a SharePoint feature called "Sync-On-Demand". When Sync-On-Demand is turned on, the VBA code "Application.Path" no longer returns the actual file location, and starts returning a SharePoint site. It does these without any warning and as far as I can tell there is no documentation about this. This broke my companies primary management software until I traced it down and turned off Sync-On-Demand for my remote users. As of this week, the Sync-On-Demand option is not only gone from the Settings, but it seems to be secretly turned back on in the background as well. If we weren't inspecting values after the code crashed, we would not even know this is happening. This means that right now anyone who is using SharePoint and thinks they are opening a local file, is actually opening a web location without even being told about it in any visible way. And it's being done through some sort of background hackery. It's shady as F. We have opened a support ticket but so far they don't even seem to know they have done this and are pointing to new settings locations, but those do not yet exist for us. Is there anyone here with knowledge of this issue and some way for us to turn the sneaky Sync-On-Demand off as of today? The new help docs provided to us show a Conext Menu option available from an Explorer window, but that option does not exist for us. Does anyone know a way to get the file location of whatever Excel file is running a VBA Macros? Application.Path is supposed to be that, but I need a new way that actually works to return the actual harddrive path location, not the SharePoint location.
Sharepoint List Dynamic Hyperlink
Hi There, has anyone experience with creating a dynamic hyperlink from a sharepoint list.. I have a fixed folder with a list of pdfs (drawings of components) e.g. APPLE12A.pdf / APPLE12B.pdf / APPLE12C.pdf I have a column named PartCode and this contains .... APPLE12A / APPLE12B / APPLE12C etc... I created doclink calculated column, to join a fixed folder path followed by the part code.pdf, because i want to be able to click on the link and open a drawing for each respective part code. My doclink calculated column formula is.... =CONCATENATE("C:\Documents\Quality Control Resources\COMPONENTS","\",PartCode,".pdf").... The address looks correct, but its not clickable... Im wondering can anyone offer assistance or a better way to approach this?? ThanksWhat happened to Microsoft Support?
The level of support for M365 that we are receiving from "Microsoft branded" support teams keep getting worse and worse (we didn't think that it was possible, but here we are). The classic "we tried calling you but couldn't reach you" is back. You open a support case, sit in front of the phone waiting for the call just to receive an email stating that "we tried but you couldn't be reached". When you reply that you are sitting in front of the phone and you didn't miss any calls, the support engineer will call you back and successfully "reach you". Not replying to emails (including those sent to "Team Managers"), sending email with 2 mins before the end of the engineer's shift so there is only 1 email per day or closing cases with issues still being open is now the norm with MS Support. Support cases that drag on for weeks with no resolution, "can you please change this setting and try again", "we are still reviewing the logs" or my favourite "it's been 2 weeks, is the issue still occurring?" emails are extremely frustrating. The difference in support a company receives is very obvious between a multi-million-dollar support agreement and partner/SMB support. I understand that MS may not want to spend time, money and effort on companies that don't buy support agreements outside of those that come with the product, but if you already offer support then at least make it somewhat useful. The most frustrating part is being stuck with this level of support and having no other options. Most escalation emails to cc'd managers result in "do the needful" emails back to the engineer or go unanswered. The only way to combat this issue is to open multiple identical support cases in hopes that 1 out of the 3 engineers will be able to help you.
Now announcing the Microsoft 365 SMB Customer Advisory Board
Applications are now open for the Microsoft 365 SMB Customer Advisory Board (CAB), an exclusive opportunity for small and medium business (SMB) leaders to connect directly with Microsoft. Apply today to become a trusted advisor and make a meaningful impact on the products and services that drive your business forward! For more information, read our recent blog.Unlocking ROI: Forrester TEI Study Insights on Microsoft 365 Copilot for SMBs webinar
Join our webinar with @GabeHo and @KaylaPatterson to discover the results of the Forrester Total Economic Impact™ (TEI) study on Microsoft 365 Copilot for SMBs. Learn about the significant business value and ROI that SMBs can achieve with Microsoft 365 Copilot. Key Highlights: Introduction to Microsoft 365 Copilot: See how AI enhances productivity across Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, and Teams. Forrester TEI Study Findings: Understand the projected ROI for SMBs using Microsoft 365 Copilot. Making it Real: Hear practical examples of SMBs successfully implementing Microsoft 365 Copilot to drive growth. Interactive Q&A Session: Get your questions answered by our experts about the study and the benefits of Microsoft 365 Copilot for your business. RSVP now!Exchange Online Multiple From Email Addresses
Got a notice today that Microsoft Exchange Online will start to reject emails with multiple From addresses without a Sender Header - Starting October 15th, Exchange Online will reject emails with multiple From addresses without a Sender header, to comply with RFC 5322. Organizations should ensure a single address in the Sender header to avoid non-delivery reports (NDRs) with error code 550 5.1.20. Feedback on this change is welcomed. Is there a way to run a report on Exchange Online to determine if somebody in our company sending emails that have Multiple From emails or if we are receiving any as such?
