Sharepoint Access Blocked By External Organisation

JLVW 1

Hello!

My company is looking to decommission an existing in-house file transfer service and replace it with SharePoint/Teams and OneDrive. However, when sharing with some external organisations, the network administrator blocks access to the shared files.

Is there a solution to this which doesn't involve the external network administrator changing their settings?

Thanks for your help!

1 answer

Echo Du_MSFT 17,141 Reputation points

2021-09-03T02:09:47.513+00:00
Hello @JLVW ,

Welcome to Q&A Forum!

According to the description of your problem, you mean that when you share files to external users, SharePoint will prevent the external users from accessing the shared files

Please following steps:

1.Make sure enable External Sharing Settings

Go to the Sharing page of the new SharePoint admin center, and sign in with an account that has admin permissions for your organization.

Under External sharing, specify your sharing level for SharePoint and OneDrive. The default level for both is "Anyone."

2.Check whether the External Organisation domain is added to the Block domains list.

You can delete this External Organisation domain from the Block domains list

Or you can uncheck the Limit external sharing by domain option

3.Scroll to **File and Folder links section, please check the "Anyone with the link" option.**

Thanks,
Echo Du

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JLVW 1 Reputation point

2021-09-03T08:15:55.097+00:00

Hi @Echo Du_MSFT

Thanks for the response!

I probably wasn't very articulate - I am happy with all of the actions which I must undertake in order to share a file with an external organisation and, for the most part, this works seamlessly.

There are a couple of instances where the external organisations' administrator blocks access to the file, and it is this which the original question was in relation to.

I have attached a picture (apologies for poor quality) of the error message which appears when an external organisation cannot access the shared file.

Thanks!

Echo Du_MSFT 17,141 Reputation points

2021-09-03T09:29:00.49+00:00

Hi @JLVW ,

Thanks for you reply.

Please check if the Global Administrator has set up the Control Access policy for SharePoint.

1.Sign in the SharePoint admin center page as the Global Administrator

2.Policies >> Access control >> Network location

3.Please check if you define a trusted network boundary by specifying one or more authorized IP address ranges. You can disable the "Allow access only from specific IP address ranges" option or add IP address in this IP address ranges list.

Note:

External sharing: If files and folders have been shared with guests who authenticate, they will not be able to access the resources outside of the defined IP address range.

More information, please see the "Control access to SharePoint and OneDrive data based on network location".

Thanks,
Echo Du

JLVW 1 Reputation point

2021-09-03T11:57:43.727+00:00

Hi @Echo Du_MSFT ,

Thanks for you response.

Are there any alternative solutions for this?

If I have understood correctly, enabling this feature will restrict external and internal access elsewhere and changes would also need to be made in Exchange and Yammer - these are lengthy steps which my company wouldn't support due to the impact on existing users.

Thanks!

Echo Du_MSFT 17,141 Reputation points

2021-09-06T02:25:54.507+00:00

Hi @JLVW ,

If you don’t want to restrict external users from accessing SharePoint, then you can turn off the "Allow access only from specific IP address ranges" feature.

It’s worth noting that this may take a while to be effective.

Thanks,
Echo Du

Echo Du_MSFT 17,141 Reputation points

2021-09-07T07:35:47.223+00:00

Hi @JLVW ,

Is there anything else I can help with regarding this issue?
You can comment us at any time and we will continue to follow up.

Thanks,
Echo Du

JLVW 1 Reputation point

2021-09-07T08:33:05.733+00:00

Hi @Echo Du_MSFT ,

We switched off anonymous links a few years ago on Microsoft/the security teams advice, this is not something we would switch back on as it goes against all security best practices and would leave PII/research data open to anyone. Thus, increasing the potential for data loss/breach.

Thanks,

Luis

Echo Du_MSFT 17,141 Reputation points

2021-09-08T09:38:19.537+00:00

Hi @JLVW ,

Thanks for your reply.

Please check whether the conditional access policy is configured?

1.Navigation to SharePoint admin center >> Policies >> Access control >> Unmanaged devices >> check if select the "Block access" option.

If yes, please check the "Allow full access from desktop apps, mobile apps, and the web" option.

2.Open the Azure Active Directory portal and navigate to Conditional Access Policies. And, check if the policy exists.

If yes, please delete this policy.

Reference:

Block access to SharePoint for specific users

Thanks,
Echo Du

Echo Du_MSFT 17,141 Reputation points

2021-09-10T07:27:05.51+00:00

Hi @JLVW ,

Would you tell me whether your issue has been resolved or have any update ?
I am looking forward to your reply.
Have a nice day!

Thanks,
Echo Du

JLVW 1 Reputation point

2021-09-15T07:56:28.823+00:00

Hi @Echo Du_MSFT ,

I need to speak to some people in different teams which is slightly stilted. Thanks for your patience whilst I get to the bottom of this though!

Cheers,

Luis

Echo Du_MSFT 17,141 Reputation points

2021-09-16T01:27:18.193+00:00

Hi @JLVW ,

Thanks your reply. I wish you all the best!

Thanks,
Echo Du

Echo Du_MSFT 17,141 Reputation points

2021-09-27T10:41:49.783+00:00

Hi @JLVW ,

Is there any new update on the problem?

Have a nice day! :)

Thanks,
Echo Du

JLVW 1 Reputation point

2021-09-27T10:44:44.413+00:00

Hi @Echo Du_MSFT ,

Thanks for the message.

I heard this morning that the project I am working has taken a different path, so there is no longer a requirement to explore this.

Thanks for your support!

Echo Du_MSFT 17,141 Reputation points

2021-09-30T08:23:56.323+00:00

Hi @JLVW ,

Thanks for you reply. Looking forward to our next cooperation.

Thanks,
Echo Du
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Sharepoint Access Blocked By External Organisation

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