re: cannot join external network on ms teams

Question

I have had a personal account on MS Teams for awhile now. I haven't had any problems until recently. I'm trying to get into a meeting through an invite sent to me via email from a person who is a business network. Although I'm logged on through my personal account, it is my understanding that I can join a company or business network and access individuals in that network.

I have been able to do this for the network I still need to be apart of. However, over the last 30 days, I have not been able to do it. It will act like it is trying to join the meeting (with the same person with whom I was able to connect with about a month and a half ago on Teams) and the message stating that the host of the meeting will let you into the meeting appears). When I ask the person on the other side whether she can see me or not, she says she cannot. On my side, the same screen stays there with the same message on it about waiting to be let in by the host.

What is going on? How can I join a network for a business? Why was I able to access it awhile ago but cannot now (I've made no changes to the accout or anything)?

Answer 1

Dear @Carrie Leo,

Thank you for posting your question in the Microsoft Q&A forum.

Over the past several weeks, your partner's organization had had their Teams meeting and lobby policies managed by IT administrators. So, the external or personal‑account participants may be placed in the meeting lobby but not appear to the organizer with an option to admit them, even though the attendee sees the message “The host will let you into the meeting.”

First, here are some steps I recommend you try:

Step 1: Join from the browser without being signed into Teams

• Open the invite link > Choose “Continue on this browser” (Edge/Chrome) > If you see an option to join without signing in / enter your name.

Step 2: Try joining from the “Join a meeting” page using Meeting ID + Passcode (if available)

Step 3: Completely sign out of Teams everywhere, then join fresh

• On desktop Teams > Profile picture > Sign out > Close Teams completely > Reopen and do not auto-sign in to any other Microsoft account > Then click the meeting link again

However, if the issue still persists, I recommend you reach out to the meeting organizer to check these steps below again:

Step 1: Check Lobby settings - Choose who can bypass the lobby and Who can admit from the lobby

As the meeting organizer, you get to decide who gets into your meetings directly, and who should wait for someone to let them in. For more information, please refer to Using the lobby in Microsoft Teams meetings

• Select Meeting options ​​​​​​​> In Meeting access > Choose an option from the Who can bypass the lobby? dropdown menu.
• Turn the People dialing in can bypass the lobby toggle on or off
• Choose who can let people into the meeting from the Who can admit from the lobby dropdown menu > Select Save.

If changing meeting options does not resolve the issue, the organizer’s IT administrator will need to review the tenant’s Teams meeting policies, as those can override individual meeting settings. For more information: IT Admins - Manage lobby options in Microsoft Teams

Step 1: Use the Teams admin center to manage lobby options in meetings hosted by your organization.

Go to Teams Admin Center > Meeting Policies > In the Meeting join & lobby sections, update the settings that the organization want to change:

• Anonymous users can join a meeting
• Anonymous users and dial-in callers can start a meeting
• Who can bypass the lobby (Who can bypass the lobby)
• Who can admit from lobby

If you want to allow anonymous meeting access, be sure the Anonymous users can join a meeting meeting setting is also turned on.

For more information, please kindly ask them to follow:

• Use the Teams admin center to manage lobby options in meetings hosted by your organization
• Control access to meetings by anonymous participants
• Control access to meetings by guests and people from trusted organizations

Note: Please understand that as forum moderators, our primary goal is to provide helpful guidance and support through general troubleshooting steps. While we don’t have access to internal systems or administrative tools required to resolve account-specific or backend issues, we truly appreciate your understanding of these limitations. We genuinely hope the information we share helps guide you in the right direction, and we're always here to assist as much as we can within our scope.  

I hope this information is helpful. Please follow these steps and let me know if it works for you. If not, we can work together to resolve this. If I misunderstand anything, please feel free to reach out.

Please understand that our initial response does not always resolve the issue immediately. However, with your help and more detailed information, we can work together to find a solution.

Thank you for your patience and your understanding. If you have any questions, please feel free to reach out.

I'm looking forward for your reply.

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