Internal Users Incorrectly Showing as “External” in Microsoft 365

Question

We also noticed that most of our colleagues’ emails are now marked as “External”, even though we are all part of the same organization. This issue appeared suddenly, and our administrator has not made any configuration changes in the Microsoft 365 admin center.

Answer 1

Hi @Yang Yueying, 

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

Regarding that the internal user are showing as "External". I’d like to ask a quick questions to better understand your situation and assist you more effectively:  

• Are you and your colleagues in different departments? 
• Does your organization use multiple Microsoft 365 tenants? 
• Could you confirm if you and your colleagues share the same domain? 
• Please check whether your tenant domain and your colleagues’ domain have the same Tenant ID. Go to Tenant Lookup and put in your tenant domain and your colleagues’ domain to check for the Tenant ID
  

If you’ve confirmed that all users share the same domain and Tenant ID but are still listed as “External”. To resolve this, Microsoft’s support team will need to step in. A technical support engineer can perform a remote session to investigate the situation verify the backend configurations, and run any necessary synchronization tools to resolve the problem. If the issue requires further attention, they can escalate it to a specialized team for deeper analysis.   

The Global Admin should create a service request with Microsoft support to get advanced technical assistance and diagnostics. For detailed instructions on how to get support, please refer to Get support - Microsoft 365 admin.   

If you’re unsure who the Global Admin is within your organization, you can find guidance on locating them here: How do I find my Microsoft 365 admin? - Microsoft Support.     

Thank you again for your time and understanding. While my initial response may not resolve the issue immediately, I’d like to gather more details about your situation so I can assist you more effectively.      

I really appreciate your patience, and I’m here to help. Looking forward to your response!               

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