Remove guest users from Excel document

Question

We have a shared Excel document with 35 users and we wish to update the security settings to prevent inadvertent changes. Therefore we are looking to change the protection settings on the document, However we cannot do so as someone is logged in as a guest contributor. We have asked all users to log out but the guest contributor remains. We are assuming a guest contributor has accessed the document from a device they are not logged into on their Microsoft account. Is there anyway to "kick" the guest user out or identify who it is?

Answer 1

Dear Jo Pearce,

Good day! Thank you for posting to Microsoft Community. We are happy to help you.

I went through your question and it seems you want to update security settings to one of your shared Document, but one of the Guest contributors is restricting you from achieving your objective. Don't worry, together we can solve this.

First, may I know where that Excel file is stored? If the file is stored in a OneDrive for Business or SharePoint document library, you can check which group of people and individual people have access to that particular file.

To check who have access to this file, click on the 3 dots ellipses (...) in front of that shared file > Manage Access . You will see a list of Groups and People who have access to this file. For example if there is an external user who has access to this file, you will see them, you can click on the drop down menu on that user > click Stop sharing.

Also, you may check in the groups that have access to this file, if you created a group of External users, and gave that group the contribute permission, you may stop sharing this file to this group.

Else, you may stop Sharing this file entirely and share it again. Then create a SharePoint Group with people whom access is granted and add/remove people through that group.

But this option may not be feasible as it will delete all the links to access this file, and remove all people with direct access except owners.

We appreciate your kind understanding that the initial reply may not help to solve the issue instantly, but together we can work and solve the problem. Therefore, if my understanding is inconsistent with yours, kindly feel free to post back and point it out. We will do our best to help you.

Thanks for your cooperation and patience. We look forward to your reply.

Sincerely,

Edwine | Microsoft Community Moderator

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