Getting 403 opening a Word Document from Sharepoint

Question

Hello

We're using M365 and trying to access an external Sharepoint. The login for Sharepoint is working fine. If we try to open a document, we're getting a 403. Local and external users are different. It is possible to download the document, but on one of the external sites the download option is disabled. So we need the possibility to open the document via SharePoint. I'm grateful for any help.

Renato

Answer 1

Hi @Schmid Renato ABRAXAS,

Let me first confirm your question: there is an additional authentication issue when you open a file downloaded from SharePoint with a local app. Please correct me if I have misunderstood.

If I understand correctly, please kindly provide more information below to let us work further:

**1.**I guess the issue you described should be related to the incorrect credentials on users’ local computers. Given this situation, please try the following methods on one affected computer first to check if there is any improvement.

• Open Word on an affected PC: Windows key + R >Input WinWord and press Enter to open the Word client>Open a blank document and Click File tab on the upper left corner>Click Account>Sign out all the accounts.
• Remove all the stored credentials in the credentials manager (Control Panel > User Accounts > Credential Manager > Windows Credentials). (NOTE: This will remove your stored passwords.)
• Sign into Office programs, such as Word with your SharePoint credential.
• Open downloaded documents to check if the same issue occurs.

**2.**If the issue persists, please try to open the document in app on SharePoint Online. Test whether additional authentication will be required in this case.

**3.**SharePoint Online has an information rights management (IRM) for downloaded files. This policy requires an E5 license. You can contact your external SharePoint administrator to see if IRM is turned on for the entire tenant and applied to the document library where your downloaded files are located. Check to see if there is an expiration time set for access rights after the file is downloaded. It is likely that the access rights to the file you downloaded expired.

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Answer 2

Hi @Schmid Renato ABRAXAS,

Thank you for posting in this community.

Question 1: If we try to open a document, we're getting a 403.

Usually, the 403 error is because you lack the relevant access permissions.

1.Please contact your external site administrator or external site owner to check your permission for this word document. Make sure you have at least the read permission level.

Please follow the steps below to check the permissions of a document.

2.Please contact your external site administrator or external site owner to try regaining permissions for you.

3.You could try to clear browser cache then restart it.

4.Try to use a different browser or your browser's InPrivate mode to see if the same error occurs.

Question 2: on one of the external sites the download option is disabled.

One possible reason is that the site administrator has blocked the download of files from SharePoint sites. Please contact your external site administrator to unblock the download of files from SharePoint sites.

Another possible reason is that the download feature for shared documents in SharePoint Online has been disabled. Please contact your external site administrator to able this download feature.

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