Office 365 - Error adding External User

Question

I am having problems adding an external user to an Office 365 group.  I can add other external users, but one particular email address fails to add. I get no meaningful error message explaining why.

In my example, I have tried to add one guest from a non-Microsoft account (gmail email address) and that user can be added, and the user gets the invitation mail. When I add a different guest email (which is an Office 365 account from a different domain) I get an error adding the user, yet the error message does not state WHY the user cannot be added..

Answer 1

Ankita:

Thank you very much for the suggestions. Two points I should make to ensure a clear look at the issue. Some external users have been added to this group without trouble. In this case one specific external email address fails to add.

Option 1 is viable, however, it also returns an error to the external user, and the user is not able to join the group. Again, other external users have been successfully added to this group.

Option 2 is not an option. When I set up numerous groups for my organization, there will be several group owners, none of which will have the ability to add users via domain level tools. Thus moving forward, I need to determine why this does not work for some user emails so that I may further support my company once we have a more full adoption of O365 groups and functionality.

Regards,

Randall

Answer 2

Hello Randall C. Wade,

Based on your description, you cannot add a specific guest to your Office 365 group. In this scenario, please check the below two options to add external users in O365 group.

Option 1: invite people to join your group : 

You can invite people to join your group. If it's a private group, the group owner will receive a request from the invitee to join the group. You can also invite guests to join the group. They'll receive group conversations and calendar events in their inbox. However, guests can't be group owners, view the global address list, view all information on group member contact cards, or view membership of the group.

    Invite people to join your group, you can refer this article: https://support.office.com/en-us/article/add-and-remove-group-members-in-outlook-3b650f4a-5c9b-4f94-a1bb-0cca4b1091de

Option 2: Create mail contacts from EAC and add the mail contact as a member of O365 group:

Mail contacts are mail-enabled directory service objects that contain information about people or organizations that exist outside your Exchange or Exchange Online organization. Each mail contact has an external email address.

A.      Create a mail contact : Use the EAC to create a mail contact

1.       In the EAC, navigate to Recipients > Contacts.

2.       Click New > Mail contact.

3.       Complete the following boxes on the New mail contact page:

·         First name: Use this box to type the contact's first name.

·         Initials: Use this box to type the contact's initials.

·         Last name: Use this box to type the contact's last name.

·         * Display name: Use this box to type a display name for the contact. This is the name that's listed in the contacts list in the EAC and in your organization's address book. By default, this box is populated with the names you enter in the First name, Initials, and Last name boxes. If you didn't use those boxes, you must still type a name in this box because it's required. The name can't exceed 64 characters.

·         * Name: Use this box to type a name for the contact. This is the name that's listed in the directory service. Like the display name, this box is populated by default with the names you enter in the First name, Initials, and Last name boxes. If you didn't use those boxes, you must still type a name in this box because it's required. The name can't exceed 64 characters.

·         * Alias: Use this box to type an alias (64 characters or less) for the contact. This box is required.

·         * External email address: Use this box to type the outside email account of the contact. This box is required. Email sent to this contact is forwarded to this email address.

·         Organizational unit: You can select an organizational unit (OU) other than the default, which is the recipient scope. If the recipient scope is set to the forest, the default value is set to the Users container in the domain that contains the computer on which the EAC is running. If the recipient scope is set to a specific domain, the Users container in that domain is selected by default. If the recipient scope is set to a specific OU, that OU is selected by default.

To select a different OU, click Browse. The dialog box displays all OUs in the forest that are within the specified scope. Select the OU you want, and then click OK.

                   Note: The Organizational unit box is only available in Exchange Server. It isn't available in Exchange Online.

4.       When you're finished, click Save.

B.      Open your O365 group from Outlook Web App : Click on Add members and Enter the specific mail contact's email id and save the changes.

For Create a mail contact, you can refer this article: https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/exchange/recipients-in-exchange-online/manage-mail-contacts#create-a-mail-contact

Regards,

Ankita Vaidya

Answer 3

Thanks for the reply, Marvin.

Attached is the screenshot of the error I get when attempting to add the guest from Outlook web.

Regarding Azure AD, the user does not already exist. I have concern about adding it, as this Office Group will not be 'owned' by an AD administrator, thus adding guests will have to be done from the group, not AD.

Answer 4

Hi Randall,

Based on your description, you cannot add a specific guest to your Office 365 group. In this scenario, please check if you have added the user as a guest in Azure AD. 

If it's already added, please delete the guest and re-add the user as a guest to check if it helps. Also, may I have a screenshot of the whole web page with error message? 

Regards,

Marvin