Introduction:

Hello techies, today I am going to demonstrate “How to share SharePoint site/site collection with an external user”. The user (external) ID could be a Gmail or other email providers. In this scenario we will be using a Gmail user and SharePoint’s own sharing feature. I have divided these into following steps so that it could be easier to read and might implementing as well. In this blog I’ll demonstrate how we can do this using UI on SharePoint Online.

Prerequisite:

1. Office 365 subscription with SharePoint.
2. External user sharing feature at SharePoint admin center should be activated.

Following are the steps:

Step 1: Get one valid mail ID as external user.

It will be good if we have a microsoft account but we can proceed  with a normal mail id , if we dont have a microsoft account . Later we can create one while accepting the invitation. I am using my own Gmail ID  for demonstration purpose .

Step 2: Activate Sharing feature at SharePoint admin center.

On SharePoint, we have to activate the sharing. To do that, go to the SharePoint admin center or navigate to https://<Your tenant name>-admin.sharepoint.com/. from this page let’s select the site collection we want to share and click on sharing  option in ribbon menu as shown in Pic 1.

Figure 1 : Office 365 – Sharing Option for Classic sites

After we clicked Sharing option, it will open a popup which will ask to select one option. Select one as per the requirement and click save (Scroll down for save button). Please refer to Pic 2.

Figure 2: Office 365 – Sharing dialog

Step 3: Send invitation to guest user.

We have a Gmail ID, and activated external user sharing as well. Now we have to send an invitation to Guest user.  To share the site, click on “Share” button as shown in below figure and then send the invitation to respective user ID as in second below figure.

Figure 3 : Office 365 – Sharing option for Site Collection

Figure 4 : Office 365 – Share dialog box – Sharing Site Collection with Guest

As you can see here, it is showing 1 result. Now, select the permission level and click on share button. It will send an unique invitation to the respective email account. It is important to know that, unless and until the share for external user is activated at SharePoint admin center it will not allow to even invite an external user.

Step 4: Login to guest user mail ID and accept invitation at guest user mail ID.

After sending an invitation, login to the mail account and look for the invitation mail,If you do not find the invitation mail in the inbox then please check it  in spam folder as sometimes it goes to spam folder. Click on the mail and click on the link provided (Pic 5).

Figure 5 : Office 365 – Email received after sharing site

Once, the link is clicked, it will take us to activation page with invitation ID.

URL:

https://<Tenant name>.sharepoint.com/sites/OfficeTeam/_layouts/15/acceptinvite.aspx?invitation=<Invitation ID>

Here, click on Microsoft account if your account is a Microsoft account . It will ask for credential for login. Just provide the Gmail credential and it work just fine.

Figure 6 : Office 365 – login with Guest

If your email account is not a Microsoft account, then click on “Create a Microsoft account” (Pic 7). It will not require too much effort. To make it simple just provide your Gmail user ID and password and create (Pic 8).

Figure 7 : Office 365  – “Create Microsoft account” link

Figure 8 : Office 365 – “Create account” dialog

Once, finished with sign in, you will be able to see your shared content.

Fig 9: Office 365 – SharePoint site collection with guest user

To check the user licensing, go to the Office 365 Admin and check the users. Here as you can see the users with user name with EXT and status as Guest.

Figure 10 : Office 365 – Admin center : Guest users in users list

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