Sharepoint folder sharing to external user: "Something went wrong...."

Question

Hello,

I have been trying to share folder's from a documents folder in a team sharepoint on our organization's sharepoint tenant.

The folder is being shared to external users with "read only" credentials. Downloading blocking is not on. Password is not on. Expiration is not on.

All users receive the following error message after going through all MS sign-on prompts (I even received this message when logging on via my personal microsoft account login that uses the authenticator app--I completed authentication on the authenticator app and got this error!):

PII is mask by MSFT

Answer 1

Dear respected HelpMePlease3328,

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

I’m sorry you’re having a problem but based on your description we can work together to resolve it.

For the situation you encountered, we deeply understand the inconvenience caused and apologize for it.

As per your description, generally, the External users access the shared Folder link a sign in the same invited email address when sharing Folder.

Firstly, may I know if the External user access the shared Folder link via switch to another browser, use in-private mode and then try visiting the link again to see the result.

The best practice is, you may add your External users as a guest user into Microsoft Azure AD and then share a Folder to External users. Or add an External user into SharePoint online group and then shared a Folder to group.

We appreciate your understanding that sometimes the initial suggestions may not resolve the problem very soon. However, we can work together to narrow down and resolve the situation. So, please kindly provide more information below to let us work further.

1. Does the issue happen on all shared folder a specific one to External users?

Appreciate your patience and understanding and thank you for your time and cooperation.

Sincerely,

Waqas Muhammad

Answer 2

Dear respected HelpMePlease3328,

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

 

I’m sorry you’re having a problem but based on your description we can work together to resolve it.

For the situation you encountered, we deeply understand the inconvenience caused and apologize for it.

--> Hello and thank you for offering to help me!

As per your description, generally, the External users access the shared Folder link a sign in the same invited email address when sharing Folder.

Firstly, may I know if the External user access the shared Folder link via switch to another browser, use in-private mode and then try visiting the link again to see the result.

--> I did this personally and same result.

The best practice is, you may add your External users as a guest user into Microsoft Azure AD and then share a Folder to External users. Or add an External user into SharePoint online group and then shared a Folder to group.

--> This is not practical. I need it to work nice and simple like dropbox for teams, etc.

We appreciate your understanding that sometimes the initial suggestions may not resolve the problem very soon. However, we can work together to narrow down and resolve the situation. So, please kindly provide more information below to let us work further.

1. Does the issue happen on all shared folder a specific one to External users?

--> All shared folders.

Appreciate your patience and understanding and thank you for your time and cooperation.

 

Sincerely,

Waqas Muhammad

Answer 3

Hi respected HelpMePlease3328,

Thanks for your valuable feedback and sharing updates with us and I really appreciate your effort and your precious time doing. 

And I appreciate your kind words.

Since, the problem happened to all shared Folder, and it seems the problem related/affect with your Office 365 Tenant level. It might be needed to analyze the root cause using logs. And you may need to check/investigate from the backend side via remote section and collect logs.

In this situation, we sincerely recommend that you Microsoft 365 administrator, can follow the steps in this article and open/create a support ticket to contact online support. The support team there has greater permission than us, they can help you remotely and collect logs. They may also involve more resources to investigate the problem from the back end. This would be the most efficient way to handle this case for you.

Your understanding and patience will be highly appreciated. I hope that you are keeping safe and well!

Sincerely,

Waqas Muhammad