In many cases, external users have sufficient privileges to files if you share the top-level folder you want them to have access to using a Share to specific people link and their external email address. In some cases, it may be necessary to make external users actual Members of the SharePoint site in order to use some of the additional features that SharePoint offers beyond basic file sharing.
INFO: For more info on External User versus Guest user, see Compare external and guest access
Instructions
- Create a ticket with the Help Desk for End User Technology (EUT)
- Then in M365, a SharePoint site owner can add the external user to the Members group for the SharePoint site.
- When first trying to add an external user to the member's group, then it will send an invite. Once the invite has been sent, then the now Guest user can be added to the site's Member's group (or given other permissions, group membership, etc)
- TIP: it is easier if they have email used for other Microsoft online services
- A guest invitation will get sent by email to the external user
- The external user needs to accept the invitation (NOTE: They may need to check their spam folder)
- After the user accepts the invitation, update the ticket to let EUT know the user has accepted
- Then EUT will Add User to the site's Member group in Entra ID to grant access
- The external Guest user should then be able to access the site url, although they will need to log in with their guest account.
- NOTE: It is best and easiest for the external user to access the UMS SharePoint site with a different browser (example: if they usually use Edge in their organization, than use Chrome to go to the UMS site) to avoid needing to log out and log back in for access or issues with cached credentials and tokens.
Environment
- SharePoint
- Microsoft Account