External users get an authentication request on every modern page

Question

When sharing a site in SharePoint Online, an external user receives the invitation e-mail and creates an Microsoft account. They log in successfully to the SharePoint site.

For a modern communication site the Home page is loaded together with an "Authentication Required" pop-up. For a classic team site the Home page is loaded without the pop-up.

Why do users get this authentication pop-up in the browser, every time a modern page is reloaded (see picture)? I've created several test sites (different kinds) in the same tenant, with the same result (see example url:s below).

Edge in Windows:

Chrome on Mac, incognito mode:

Examples below with a classic team site 'test-share5'. For some pages one can switch between the modern and classic experience.

• ...sharepoint.com/sites/test-share5/SitePages/Forms/ByAuthor.aspx 
  • Authentication pop-up for modern experience only, not classic.
• ...sharepoint.com/sites/test-share5/SiteAssets/Forms/AllItems.aspx
  • Authentication pop-up for modern experience only, not classic.
• …sharepoint.com/sites/test-share5/SitePages/Home.aspx
  • No authentication pop-up for default home page, only classic experience exists.
  • For a modern communication site, there would be an authentication pop-up.
• …sharepoint.com/sites/test-share5/Shared%20Documents/Forms/AllItems.aspx
  • No authentication pop-up for Documents, both experiences.
• …sharepoint.com/sites/test-share5/_layouts/15/viewlsts.aspx?view=14
  • No authentication pop-up for site contents, both experiences.

Answer 1

Hi Andhhh,

This issue was posted to the Service Health Dashboard (SHD) as incident SP133540 starting at March 19, 2018, at 12:00 AM UTC. The user experience of this incident is: External users may experience credential prompts or access errors when trying to access SharePoint Online sites. Specifically, external users may receive credential prompts when attempting to access the SharePoint Online or OneDrive for Business sites.

A suggested workaround is: users can close the credential prompt to access the sites successfully.

Tenant administrators can view current information and updates on SHD at the link here

https://portal.office.com/admin/default.aspx#@/ServiceStatus/ServiceStatusHistory.aspx

​We will update the primary thread below once the issue is resolved, you can subscribe to the thread below or you can obtain the most up-to-date information from SHD.

Sharepoint Online Group Site Prompting Authorization

This thread will be closed from further posting for affected customers to identify the issue easily.

If you are experiencing a similar issue and do not see an SHD post, please let us know by sharing your tenant information via Private Message.

Thanks,

Answer 2

Hi Andhhh,

I'll test on my end to check if I get the same behavior. I'll get back to you when I have an update.

Regards,

Neha

Answer 3

Hi Neha!

I'm trying to build a small extranet with no collaboration features, only read access to the site pages (and no Office 365 group).

1. In my example (test-share5) I have a classic site collection. I invite the external person in SharePoint Online / Share your site to the "test-share5 Visitors" read group.
   • I doesn't matter if I put the external user in the Owners group, same result.
   • For a modern team site, it's the same result regardless of adding member to Office 365 group or sharing site only. The authentication pop-up is still there.
2. It is happening to modern communication site, modern team site, and classic site collection with modern pages.
3. I don't understand what you mean by 'prompt'. But all external users get the invitation e-mail and everyone gets the authentication pop-up in the browser on every page.
4. I want the users to have read only access on the site. But if I give them full access (in the Owners group), there is no difference. Authentication pop-up is still there.

When debugging I find that the site pages make requests to the following URL, which gives a 401 Unauthorized HTTP status code.

xxx.sharepoint.com/_vti_bin/DelveApi.ashx/authtoken/loki?d=xxx

Answer 4

Hi Andhhh,

To help you investigate the issue, I will try to recreate the situation on my end and for this, I would like to confirm the following information:

1. To give the access to external users, did you add them in Office 365 group or shared the site by going to team site, clicking Settings>Site Permissions>Invite People? What option did you select when clicked on Invite People, Add member to group or Share site only?
2. Is it happening to communication site or team site?
3. Please check if all the external users are receiving the prompt.
4. What permission does the external user has on the site? Is it read or edit?

Thanks,

Neha

Answer 5

As you probably know, the "modern" pages are really a beta test  - and we're the guinea pigs. There are so many missing key features and bugs, with almost no reciprocal benefit other than some simple style changes,  I recommend you avoid using the modern experience until it's ready for production (if that ever happens).