Error adding external user to SharePoint site

Question

I'm adding external users to my SharePoint site. It's working successfully except for one user. Once I add their Gmail address, it adds symbols to their email, "e.g., ******@gmail.com#x#" which creates an error and won't let me officially add them as a user. How can I fix this problem?

Answer 1

Dear Patrick O’Donnell,

Good day!!

Apologies for the inconvenience caused and please don’t worry, let’s work together on your concern and move towards a resolution path.

I understand your concern and IMO, the behavior you are encountering is strange because the problem happens to only specific Gmail user.

In this situation, I would like to confirm whether problematic external user is added as a Guest User in the Azure Active Directory of your Office 365 organization.

Note: If you are not an admin of your Office 365 organization, please connect with the admin of your organization and ask them whether the problematic external user is shown as Guest user in Azure Active Directory.

Step 1. Open the SharePoint Online site where the external user is still having access> Settings> Site Permissions> Advanced Permission Settings.

Step 2. Open the Site Name – Members Group> In the end of the URL, change 5 to 0> Click Enter.

Step 3. In the People and Groups page, select the external user> Actions> Delete this user from the site collection.

Step 4. Remove the external user from the Azure Active Directory> Wait for some time> Re-add the external user to the Azure Active Directory. (If the external user wasn’t added as Guest user, please invite the guest user to the Azure Active Directory) Note: Step 4 can be performed by the admins of your Office 365 organization.

Step 5. Ask the external user to accept the invitation and provide the grant access to the SharePoint Online site for the external users to see whether the same issue happens.

If still the same issue, I believe the problem should be further investigated by related development team via collecting HAR logs because there is no any related service incident reported at the Microsoft Service Health dashboard.

I do feel regret for not resolving the problem and redirecting you to the related development team but the fix to your concern can be find out through the HAR logs and suggest you raise a support ticket from the Office 365 admin center, where the related team will investigate the problem further by collecting the HAR logs.

Reference: Get support - Microsoft 365 admin | Microsoft Learn

Note: To create a support ticket, you need to have admin privileges and if you aren’t admin of your Office 365 organization, please contact the admin of creating a new ticket.

Appreciate your patience and understanding. Have a great day!!

Best Regards,

Sophia