Unable to Access Documents shared with me after being rehired at an organization

Question

How do I resolve the issue of being unable to access any documents that are shared with me (my email address directly) after being rehired at an organization? I believe there are issues with permissions/access of my account. I can only open documents sent as attachments to my email and no links that are shared with me.

Answer 1

Hi @Annika Parkash, 

I hope you are doing well. 

Thank you for your time to reach out and share your experience in detailed. Based on your description, the issue usually happens when your user account was deleted from the Microsoft 365 admin center, and then a new account is created by using the user principal name (UPN) that was used by your deleted account. The new account is assigned a new ID value even though the UPN is the same. 

However, the UserInfo list for the SharePoint and OneDrive sites that's associated with the account has only the old ID. This could explain when you try to access a SharePoint site or a OneDrive site by using your new account, the new ID doesn't match the ID that's in the UserInfo list. Therefore, you're denied access to the site. 

To resolve the issue, please reach out to your IT admin and provide them with the following steps to run the Site User Mismatch diagnostic by using a SharePoint administrator account: 

1. Click here to run the Site User ID Mismatch tests.  
2. When prompted, provide the following information:  

• The affected user account, such as ******@company.com.  
• The original site URL, such as https://org-my.sharepoint.com/personal/userX_org_com .

3. The diagnostic will check for an identity mismatch and, if eligible, re-associate the original OneDrive site with the current user account.  
4. Once completed, the newly created duplicate OneDrive site can be safely removed, and the user will continue using their original site.  

Please note that changes may take some time to fully propagate across the service after the diagnostic completes.  

For more information regarding the issue, please visit this document from Microsoft Fix site user ID mismatch in SharePoint or OneDrive - SharePoint | Microsoft Learn  

In case you do not know who is your IT admin, kindly refer to this article: How do I find my Microsoft 365 admin? - Microsoft Support  

Note: We appreciate your understanding regarding the scope of support available through this forum. As moderators, our role is to provide general guidance and assist with common troubleshooting steps. While we do not have access to internal systems or administrative tools required to resolve account-specific or backend-related issues but we’ll continue doing our best to support you within the scope of our responsibilities.     

I hope this information is helpful. Please follow the steps above and let me know if it works for you. If not, we can continue working together to resolve the issue.   

Thank you for your patience and understanding. If you have any questions or need further assistance, please feel free to share them in the comments so I can continue to support you. If you found the response useful, please consider marking it as accepted, as this may help other community members who are looking for similar guidance.   

I look forward to continuing the conversation.

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Answer 2

issues i have gotten when trying to open a link to a shared document:

Sorry, something went wrong

There is a legacy user account in this site with same email. Please ask site owner or administrator to remove the legacy user account from this site.

and another issue, after trying to open a link to a document shared with me directly to my email:

You need access

You don't have access to this item.

Answer 3

The account is most likely affected by a permissions or identity mismatch caused by the original account being removed and then recreated when rehired. This is a known cause of “Access Denied” / “You need permission” / “This link is not available to you” errors in SharePoint Online and OneDrive when opening shared links.

Use these steps with the organization’s Microsoft 365/SharePoint admin:

1. Confirm the exact error on shared links
   • Try opening a few of the links that no longer work.
   • Note whether the message is “Access Denied,” “You need permission,” or “This link is not available to you… that account is not on the list of people this is secured to.”
   • These messages indicate either incorrect permissions or that the account behind the email address has changed.
2. Check for a site user ID mismatch (likely after rehire)
   • When a user account is deleted and later recreated with the same UPN (email), SharePoint/OneDrive can treat it as a different internal user ID. This “site user ID mismatch” causes the new account to lose access to content that was shared with the old account, even if the email address is identical.
   • Ask the admin to review the guidance under “Fix site user ID mismatch in SharePoint or OneDrive” referenced in the article about Access Denied/You need permission errors. There is an automated solution described there to fix the mismatch.
3. Re‑grant permissions to affected content
   • For each site or library where access is failing, the owner or site admin should:
     1. Remove the affected user from the site or from the specific resource’s permissions.
     2. Share the file, folder, or site again with the rehired user’s current account.
   • This is explicitly recommended when a user cannot access a shared link: remove the user from the site and then share the file or folder again.
4. Ensure the correct account is used for shared links
   • If multiple accounts exist (personal Microsoft account vs. work account, or old vs. new work accounts), the browser may be signed in with the wrong one.
   • Sign out of all Microsoft 365 sessions in the browser.
   • Sign back in only with the current work account that IT has confirmed is active.
   • Open the shared links again while signed in with that account.
5. If the issue is with OneDrive personal site access
   • If access to the user’s own OneDrive (not just shared links) is failing, the admin should check for a site user ID mismatch on the OneDrive site as described in the same article. If a new UPN was created and the old one deleted, the admin may need to delete the new UPN and restore the original, or use the automated fix for site user ID mismatch.
6. For guest or external accounts (if applicable)
   • If the organization previously invited the user as a guest (for example, before being hired) and now has an internal account with the same email, the guest object may conflict.
   • The admin should remove the guest account from the Microsoft 365 admin center and ensure the user is removed from the site collection, then grant permissions again to the internal account.

After these steps, newly shared links should work immediately. For older links, owners may need to re‑share to the corrected account so that the permissions are tied to the current user identity.

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References:

• Access Denied or You need permission errors in SharePoint Online and OneDrive
• Permissions needed to upload files in OneDrive for work or school
• Share documents or folders in SharePoint Server
• See files others have shared with you