I have a personal account to MS 365 but can't use the app when I work on another org's Sharepoint

Question

I have a personal MS365 account and can access the various apps such as word, etc.

I have been given access to another organization's sharepoint but when I try to work on one document (per their request) on the app version, there's a pop up window that tries to authenticate another account (turns out to be my kid's school account) and there is no option to change to my personal account.

Why is this authentication "sticking" ? I have tried to chat with a MS agent who believes I cannot do what I am trying to do - using my personal account (and app access) to work on a doc that resides on a sharepoint that I do not own but to which I was granted access.

Thanks!

Answer 1

Was Word brought up in the App, or in the same browser? If you share this computer with your kid who uses their school account, it might be best to stick with browser incognito mode, not the app, to avoid cached credential confusion.

But otherwise, yes, it can be due to the tenant access restriction. Think of it like you are accessing a business building, a staff from that business sent you the invitation to go meet them in the building, but due to one or more of the following reasons you cannot access regardless:

1. The business has a whole-organization policy to not allow outside visitors, period. So they won't let you in.
2. The building allows outside visitors, but they must register you as a guest first, so when you show up with your invitation, security at the lobby would check if you are in the guest list, if so, they let you in, if not, they still cannot authenticate you.

In this case, it is best to ask the staff person to use the copy link option. See example below. Do not invite you using the Add a name/email box, but just copy link, then send the link to you separately in email or message. By doing this, it works like the staff person takes the meeting outside of the business building, so you don't have to worry about going through their building's security. I hope this helps explain it.

Answer 2

So, I did what you suggested (incognito on browser), and prior to that I did a force quit on word, etc, then opened word and made sure it was using my account, and this time when I opened the word doc from sharepoint, it did go through the authenticator with my account, sent code to email, then code to phone and after that the wheel turned for a good few seconds, bringing me back the the original authenticator window, as if the authentication did not work at all, ie, providing no clues to what could be the problem. Does this mean it is an issue with how access was configured on the owner of sharepoint?

Answer 3

Hello,

Can you launch your web browser in incognito mode, then try to acess the Sharepoint link again, and see if the authenticator window will now allow you to authenticate your own account.

Without knowing much context, there can be a possibility still, that you may not be able to access it even if you can authenticate successfully, due to the complexity of how business tenants are configured. If their org admin doesn't allow tenant users to collaborate with unmanaged users (personal users), even if they share the link with you, you will still run into access issue. If you do hit that issue, tell the sender to share the file/folder, then use the copy link option instead, and share that link directly with you, instead of sending the share with you by the email option.