Sharepoint site for external users. Getting message, every time I go to approve a request, " Sorry, something went wrong. The access request wasn't approved. Please try again later."

Question

We are trying to provide access to a file placed in our Sharepoint site for external users. I am part of the group with full owner access of the site and am receiving the following message, every time I go to approve a request, " Sorry, something went wrong. The access request wasn't approved. Please try again later."

I am part of the group with full owner access. This specific problem occurred after the external user's access has expired. We set a 180 days expiration date for all external users.

Answer 1

Dear Yul_N,

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

As per your description, it seems that you are having issue with access request in SharePoint for external users.

If the understanding above is right, based on the error message you're getting, please check if changing to another browser and different network can help. Please also check if the suggestions shared in below official article can help.

For your reference: Request approval failed when you process a pending request - SharePoint | Microsoft Learn

If the issue persists, considering that you are already "part of the group with full owner access", issue could be related to your account or the tenant background service which need to be checked from the backend. As forum support, we may not have enough permission and resource to directly check the backend environment, more resources need to be involved in to help you further.

In this situation, we sincerely recommend you contact your Microsoft 365 administrator, follow steps in this article to create a support ticket with Online Support. The support team over there has higher permission than us, they can remotely help check the situation on your side, involve more resource to collect logs and help you do troubleshoot. This would be a more efficient way in handling this case for you.

For reference: How do I find my Microsoft 365 admin?

Sorry for the inconvenience again. Your patience and understanding are highly appreciated. Hope you stay safe and healthy.

Sincerely,

Rhoda | Microsoft Community Moderator

Answer 2

Dear Yul_N,

Thanks for posting back and we're glad to hear that it's working now..

If you have other questions next time, welcome to post new threads in this community, we are always here to help you.

Hope you are keeping safe and well!

Sincerely,

Rhoda | Microsoft Community Moderator

Answer 3

Hi Rhoda,

Read thru the link you shared prior to writing on this forum. As of this time, the issue is resolved. Although, not sure which of the last three made it worked.

1. deleted and re-invited the 4 external users.
2. as per the same link you provided, re-defined me as owner
3. re-added my name in the security group that allows me to share onedrive and sharepoint.

but i think its the 3rd item that made it worked. i should have waited longer. tested it less than 5 mins from doing item #3. when we tried again about 25 mins., we were not getting the error message again and external user was able to access.

thank you for the fast response! appreciated it.