Microsoft has changed how external file sharing works

Microsoft has changed how external users access content shared by University members through SharePoint – which includes Teams files – and OneDrive from October.

• Staff and doctoral candidates with @auckland.ac.nz email addresses need to set external collaborators up with a University Microsoft guest account if they do not already have one
• Most students will be unable to share files outside of the University using Microsoft

The change affects all files shared through Microsoft - regardless of whether they are shared before or after October. This means that external collaborators will find that a link that has worked for them previously now returns an access denied message.

This will not affect staff or students' ability to share files within the University. 

Setting up guest accounts

All staff members can set up guest accounts. Instructions are provided in the IT Service Portal article How to share SharePoint or OneDrive content with an external user.

How can you tell whether someone already has a guest account?

An IT Service Portal knowledge base article has been set up on How to generate a report on file and folder sharing in a SharePoint site and OneDrive.

• If an external collaborator already has a guest account, when you go to share a file with them either via email link, or from within the file, or from SharePoint/Teams/OneDrive, they will be able to open it
• If an external collaborator does not have a guest account:
  • When you try to email them a link to the file, you will get the message ‘Some recipients don’t have access to links in your message’
  • When you try to share a file with them, you will get the message ‘You can only share within your organisation’