Teams group with Planner

Question

HelloPlease i need your help on this issue.

There is a Teams group with Planner, one member from the company and another member with an external account from a sister company.

The employee with the external account cannot add comments because this field does not exist (as you can see in the attached file)

Do I need to update the settings accordingly to work properly with an external account?

Or should I purchase a license for the external account as well? If so, which one.

Each employee has a Microsoft 365 E5 license in 365 respectively.

Answer 1

Hi @IniobongNkanga-8038

In Microsoft Teams and Planner, external users, also known as guest users, often have more limited capabilities compared to internal users. By default, external users may not have the same level of access as internal users, including the ability to add comments in Planner. Here are a few steps you can take to address this issue:

1. Check Guest Permissions in Teams:

• Go to the Teams admin center.
• Navigate to "Org-wide settings" > "Guest access."
• Ensure that "Allow guests to use Teams" is turned on, and review the permission settings to make sure guests have the necessary rights.

2. Check Group Guest Settings:

• Go to the Microsoft 365 admin center.
• Navigate to "Groups" > "Active groups."
• Select the group associated with your Team and Planner.
• Check if there are any specific settings that might be limiting guest permissions.

3. Review Planner Permissions:

• External users might be limited in what they can do within Planner. Ensure that your Planner is shared correctly with the external user.
• Note that guest users might not be able to comment on tasks due to current Planner limitations for guest users. If these steps do not resolve the issue, it is possible that the external user's capabilities are restricted by design due to the way guest access is implemented in Microsoft 365 services.

Purchasing a License:

If these limitations are unacceptable for your workflow, providing the external user with an appropriate Microsoft 365 license that matches your internal users (e.g., Microsoft 365 E5) could potentially resolve these issues, though it would mean managing this user as an internal user rather than an external guest.

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