Issues sharing Excel files in 365

Question

Hello,

Wondering if anyone has run in to this kind of issue when trying to grant access to a user to a few excel files.

1. Had a rehire at work but in different department. Same email address same login.
2. Manager shares existing excel spreadsheet with rehire.
3. Rehire receives email notification and click link for spreadsheet.
4. Rehire does not have access so requests access.
5. Manager will receive access request and approve.
6. Rehire does not receive access to spreadsheet.

Manager has tried to remove rehire and add again but still same circle of nothing. Rehire does have access to other department spreadsheets. We have copy/pasted offending spreadsheets to new spreadsheets and that has worked but these spreadsheets are access by many and manager would like a better resolution that trying to recreate just for one person.

Anyone else have this kind of issue?

Thanks for the assistance!

Answer 1

Dear @Jaquez, Ricardo,

Thank you for providing the additional details and for following up with your support team.

Based on what you've described, this does sound more like a SharePoint identity or permissions issue than an Excel-specific problem. The fact that newly copied workbooks work correctly, while certain existing files continue to deny access, suggests there may be something tied to the user's account record or permissions on those existing SharePoint items.

As a troubleshooting step, it may be helpful to create a temporary test user account and grant that account access to one of the affected files. If the test account can access the file successfully, that would help confirm whether the issue is specific to the rehired user's identity rather than the workbook or SharePoint library itself.

That said, I would be cautious about immediately deleting and recreating the user's production account. Since Microsoft has documented cases where rehired users encounter legacy SharePoint user records or user ID mismatch issues, it may be worthwhile to first have the SharePoint or Microsoft 365 administrator investigate those possibilities and run the recommended diagnostic.

If the temporary test account works while the rehired account does not, that would provide valuable evidence that the problem is related to the user's SharePoint identity or permissions mapping. At that point, the administrator can make a more informed decision about whether further remediation of the existing account is needed.

I hope your support team can identify the root cause soon. Please feel free to share any updates from their investigation, as that may help narrow down the issue further.

Answer 2

Dear @Jaquez, Ricardo,

Thank you for posting your question in the Microsoft Q&A forum.

Based on your description, the affected user was previously employed, left the organization, and was later rehired using the same email address. In this scenario, SharePoint may still contain references to the user's previous account identity, causing permissions granted to the new account not to work correctly.

Since the issue only affects certain existing files while newly copied files work correctly, this further suggests a legacy SharePoint permission or user ID mismatch rather than a problem with Excel itself.

To help narrow down the root cause, could you confirm:

• Does the user receive an "Access Denied","You need access", or "legacy user account with the same email" message?
• Are the affected files located in SharePoint, OneDrive, or a Teams-connected document library?
• Was the original account deleted and recreated before the user was rehired?

In the meantime, I recommend that your IT/Admin of your organization:

1. Check whether there is a legacy user account associated with the same email address in the affected SharePoint site.
2. Remove any old user entries from the site's permissions and User Information List.
3. Re-add the user's current account to the site and affected files.
4. Run the Site User ID Mismatch diagnostic tool to detect and repair any identity mismatch between the current account and the existing SharePoint permissions:

• Click here to run the Site User ID Mismatch tests.  
• 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 .

I hope information above can help you resolve the issue. If not, please provide more information as my previous questions so I can support you more effectively.

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