External user cannot accept invitation.

Question

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I tried to do this with an external user on yahoo.com and it asks for a sharepoint account to login with.    Can't this unique permission setting work for an external user and have them use a verification code to access the folder?

What I did was:  I followed the directions above and created a custom permissions level called ReadAndUploadOnly and then I tried to invite the @yahoo.com user and then they get the message below:

Answer 1

Hi Dan,

Please check the information above, if you still have problems, you can post back to let us continue to help you.

Thanks,

Rena

Answer 2

Hi Dan,

From your description, I assume you did the steps below:

Select the folder > Share > click the “…” collapse button > Manage access > Advanced > Stop Inheriting Permissions > Grant Permissions

If you let the user copy the link address received from the invitation email, open the link URL via the Internet Browser private or incognito window, you can find the page below:

That means, if you invite external users with the steps above, it requires sign in with either a Microsoft account or Organizational account. This is not a good way to invite this user. As his yahoo account is neither a Microsoft account nor Organizational account. That’s why he gets the error page. He can’t access the folder until he creates a new Microsoft account with his yahoo mail address. After he creates the Microsoft account using his Yahoo mail address, open the URL in the private or incognito Internet browser window, click “Microsoft account” to sign in, he can access.

If you don’t want to let the external users create Microsoft account, you need to share the folder with the steps below:

Select the folder > share > Choose “Specific people” as the shared link type > untick the “Allow editing” option > apply.

In this way, the external user will access the folder with a verification code sent to his mailbox.

If your purpose to set the custom permission level is to block “download” feature for the “view only” permission users, here’s another setting to help you achieve that. You can refer to Apply Information Rights Management to a list or library. After you set this, the edit permission people can download the files, but the view only people can’t download files. And you will also customize whether your documents can be copied or printed by external users.

Thanks,

Rena